Euripides' HELEN Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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90 pages - You are on Page 19

Menelaus: Ah! Pelops, easy victor long ago o'er thy rival Oenomaus
in the chariot-race on Pisa's plain, would thou hadst ended thy career
amongst the gods that day thou wert beguiled into making a banquet
for them, or ever thou hadst begotten my father Atreus, to whom were
born by Aerope his wife, Agamemnon and myself Menelaus, an illustrious
pair; and herein I make no idle boast, for 'twas a mighty host, I
trow, that I their leader carried o'er the sea to Troy, using no violence
to make them follow me, but leading all the chivalry of Hellas by
voluntary consent. And some of these must we number 'mid the slain,
and some to their joy have 'scaped the sea, bearing to their homes
again names long reckoned dead. But I, poor wretch, go wandering o'er
grey Ocean's swell a weary space, long as that which saw me sick the
towers of Ilium; and for all my longing to reach my country I am not
counted worthy of this boon by heaven, but to Libya's desert cheerless
roadsteads have I sailed, to each and all of them; and whensoe'er
I draw me near my native land, the storm-wind drives me back again,
and never yet have favouring breezes filled my sails, to let me reach
my fatherland. And now a wretched, shipwrecked mariner, my friends
all lost, am I cast up upon this shore; and my ship is shattered in
a thousand pieces against the rocks; and its keel was wrested from
its cunning fastenings; thereon did I with difficulty escape, most
unexpectedly, and Helen also, for her had I rescued from Troy and
had with me. But the name of this country and its people I know not;
for I blushed to mingle with the crowd to question them, anxious for
very shame to hide my misfortunes which reduce me to these sorry rags.
For when a man of high degree meets with adversity, he feels the strangeness
of his fallen state more keenly than a sufferer of long standing.
Dire want is wasting me; for I have neither food, nor raiment to gird
myself withal; behold the facts before you to judge from-I am clad
in tatters cast up from the ship; while all the robes I once did wear,
glorious attire and ornaments, bath the sea swallowed; and in a cavern's
deep recesses have I hidden my wife, the cause of all my trouble,
and have come hither, after straitly charging the survivors of my
friends to watch her. Alone am I come, seeking for those there left
some help, if haply I may find it after careful search. So when I
saw this palace girt with towering walls and stately gates of some
prosperous lord, I drew nigh; for I have hope to obtain somewhat for
my sailors from this wealthy house, whereas from houses which have
no store, the inmates for all their goodwill could furnish naught.
Ho! there, who keeps the gate and will come forth to bear my tale
of woe into the house? (A Portresscomes out of the palace in answer
to his call.)

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