Helen

for what, pray, is more grievous than to live in constant fear lest some bystander kill you, dreading no less your own guards than those who plot against you? Theseus, then, despising all these and considering such men to be not rulers, but pests, of their states, demonstrated that it is easy to exercise the supreme power and at the same time to enjoy as good relations as those who live as citizens on terms of perfect equality.

In the first place, the scattered settlements and villages of which the state was composed he united, and made Athens into a city-state[*](A reference to the sunoikismo/s attributed to Theseus, i.e., the uniting of the scattered villages in Attica into a polis or city-state. Cf. Thuc. 2.15.) so great that from then even to the present day it is the greatest state of Hellas: and after this, when he had established a common fatherland and had set free the minds of his fellow-citizens, he instituted for them on equal terms that rivalry of theirs for distinction based on merit, confident that he would stand out as their superior in any case, whether they practised that privilege or neglected it, and he also knew that honors bestowed by high-minded men are sweeter than those that are awarded by slaves[*](With this passage (Isoc. 10.34-35) Isoc. 4.38-89, with note, should be compared.). And he was so far from doing anything contrary to the will of the citizens

that he made the people masters of the government, and they on their part thought it best that he should rule alone, believing that his sole rule was more to be trusted and more equitable than their democracy. For he did not, as the other rulers did habitually, impose the labors upon the citizens and himself alone enjoy the pleasures; but the dangers he made his own, and the benefits he bestowed upon the people in common.

In consequence, Theseus passed his life beloved of his people and not the object of their plots, not preserving his sovereignty by means of alien military force, but protected, as by a bodyguard, by the goodwill of the citizens[*](Cf. Isoc. 2.21.), by virtue of his authority ruling as a king, but by his benefactions as a popular leader; for so equitably and so well did he administer the city that even to this day traces of his clemency may be seen remaining in our institutions.

As for Helen, daughter of Zeus, who established her power over such excellence and sobriety, should she not be praised and honored, and regarded as far superior to all the women who have ever lived? For surely we shall never have a more trustworthy witness or more competent judge of Helen's good attributes than the opinion of Theseus. But lest I seem through poverty of ideas to be dwelling unduly upon the same theme and by misusing the glory of one man to be praising Helen, I wish now to review the subsequent events also.

After the descent of Theseus to Hades, when Helen returned to Lacedaemon, and was now of marriageable age, all the kings and potentates of that time formed of her the same opinion; for although it was possible for them in their own cities to wed women of the first rank, they disdained wedlock at home and went to Sparta to woo Helen.

And before it had yet been decided who was to be her husband and all her suitors still had an equal chance, it was so evident to all that Helen would be the object of armed contention that they met together and exchanged solemn pledges of assistance if anyone should attempt to take her away from him who had been adjudged worthy of winning her; for each thought he was providing this alliance for himself.

In this their private hope all, it is true, save one man, were disappointed, yet in the general opinion which all had formed concerning her no one was mistaken. For not much later when strife arose among the goddesses for the prize of beauty, and Alexander[*](i.e., Paris.), son of Priam, was appointed judge and when Hera offered him sovereignty over all Asia, Athena victory in war,

and Aphrodite Helen as his wife, finding himself unable to make a distinction regarding the charms of their persons, but overwhelmed by the sight of the goddesses, Alexander, compelled to make a choice of their proffered gifts, chose living with Helen before all else. In so doing he did not look to its pleasures—although even this is thought by the wise to be preferable to many things, but nevertheless it was not this he strove for—