Helen

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.

  1. My nature and my inclination lean towards piety; and I respect myself, and I would not defile
  2. my father’s fame, or gratify my brother at the cost of seeming infamous. There is a great temple of justice in my nature; and having this heritage from Nereus, I will try to keep it, Menelaos.
  3. Since Hera wishes to serve you, I will cast my vote on her side. May Kypris be gracious to me; but she has had nothing to do with me, and I will try to remain a virgin always. As for your reproaches against my father at this tomb,
  4. I have the same words to say. I would be doing wrong if I do not give her back; for that man, if he were alive, would have given her back for you to have, and you to her.
  5. For truly there is retribution for these things, both among the dead and among all men living. The mind
  6. of the dead does not live, yet it has eternal thought as it falls into eternal ether. So as not to give advice at length, I will be silent as to what you have entreated, and I will never aid my brother’s folly with my counsel.
  7. For I am doing him a service, though he does not think it, if I turn him from his godless life to holiness. You yourselves devise some course of action; I will stand out of your way by my silence. Begin with the gods, and beg
  8. Kypris to allow you to return to your country, and Hera that her intention to save you and your husband may remain the same. And you, my own dead father, never, as far as I have strength, shall you be called impious instead of pious. Exit Theonoe.
Chorus Leader
  1. No one born lawless ever prospered, but in a lawful cause there is hope of safety.
Helen
  1. Menelaos, as far as the maiden is concerned, we are safe. For the rest, you must contribute your advice and frame a device to save ourselves.
Menelaos
  1. Then listen; you have been in the house for a long time and are intimate with the king’s servants.
Helen
  1. What do you mean by that? You are offering hope, as if you were really about to do something useful for both of us.
Menelaos
  1. Could you persuade someone in charge of the wagons
  2. and horses to give us a chariot?
Helen
  1. I might; but how will we escape, in our ignorance of the country and the barbarian land?