Helen
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Chorus
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I have heard the prophetic maiden, who gave a clear answer within the palace: Menelaos is not yet dead and buried, gone to the land of shadows where darkness takes the place of light;
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but he is still wearing out his life on the ocean swell and has not yet reached the haven of his country, wretched in his wandering life,
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bereft of every friend, approaching every land in his sea-going ship from the land of Troy.
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Helen
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Here I am, once again coming back to the sanctuary of this tomb, after learning the welcome words of Theonoe,
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who knows all things truly; she says my husband is alive and sees the light of day; he is roaming here and there on countless voyages, not without practice in wandering, and he shall come here when he finds an end to his suffering.
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But she left one thing unsaid: if he will escape when he has come? And I refrained from asking that question clearly; I was so glad when she told me he was safe. She said that he was near this land somewhere, cast up, shipwrecked, with a few friends.
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Oh, when will you come? How much I long for your arrival!
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Ah! Who is this? I am not being ambushed by the plots of Proteus’ impious son, am I? Shall I not, like a young racehorse or a worshipper of Bacchus, reach the tomb? There is something wild
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about the looks of this man who is hunting me down.
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Menelaos
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You there! the one trying with fearful effort to reach the base of the tomb and the pillars of burnt sacrifice, stay where you are. Why do you flee? I am amazed and speechless at the sight of your body.
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Helen
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Women, I am being ill-treated. This man is keeping me from the tomb, and he wants to take me and give me to the king, whose wooing I was seeking to avoid.
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Menelaos
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I am no thief, nor a servant of evil men.
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Helen
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And yet the clothes you are wearing are unsightly enough.
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Menelaos
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Put fear aside and stop your rapid flight.
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Helen
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I do so, now that I have reached this spot.
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Menelaos
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Who are you? Whom do I see in you, lady?
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Helen
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But who are you? The same reason prompts us both.
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Menelaos
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I never saw a closer resemblance.
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Helen
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O gods! For the recognizing of friends is a god.
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Menelaos
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Are you a woman from Hellas, or a native of this land?
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Helen
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From Hellas; but I want to learn your story too.
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Menelaos
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You seem to me very much like Helen, lady.
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Helen
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And you seem to me like Menelaos; I don’t know what to say.
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Menelaos
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Well, you have correctly recognized a most unfortunate man.
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Helen
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Oh, at last you have come to the arms of your wife!
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Menelaos
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What do you mean by wife? Do not touch my robe.
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Helen
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The one whom Tyndareus, my father, gave to you.
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Menelaos
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O torch-bearing Hekate, send visions that are favorable!
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Helen
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You see in me no specter of the night, attendant on the queen of phantoms.
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Menelaos
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As one man, I am certainly not the husband of two women.
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Helen
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You are the master of what other wife?
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Menelaos
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The one hidden in the cave, whom I am bringing from Troy.
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Helen
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You have no other wife but me.
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Menelaos
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Can it be that I am in my right mind, but my sight is failing?
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Helen
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Don’t you think that when you look at me you see your wife?
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Menelaos
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Your body resembles hers, but the real truth robs me of this belief.
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Helen
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Look; what more do you need? Who knows better than you?
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Menelaos
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You are like her; I will not deny that at least.
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Helen
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Who then shall teach you, if not your own eyes?
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Menelaos
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It is there that I am ailing, because I have another wife.
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Helen
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I did not go to Troy; that was a phantom.
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Menelaos
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And who fashions living bodies?
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Helen
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The air, out of which you have a wife that the gods labored over.
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Menelaos
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What god’s handiwork? You are saying things beyond hope.
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Helen
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Hera’s, as a substitute, so that Paris would not have me.
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Menelaos
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How then could you be here and in Troy at the same time?
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Helen
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The name may be in many places, though not the body.
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Menelaos
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Let me go! I have come here with enough pain.
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Helen
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Will you leave me, and take that phantom bride away?
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Menelaos
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Yes, and fare well, for your likeness to Helen.
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Helen
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I am ruined! I found you, my husband, but I will not have you.
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Menelaos
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The greatness of my troubles over there convinces me; you do not.
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Helen
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Ah me! Who was ever more miserable than I am?
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Those whom I love best are leaving me, and I shall never reach the Hellenes or my own country.
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Messenger
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(entering hurriedly.) Menelaos, I find you, after taking great trouble to look for you, wandering over the whole of this foreign land; I am sent by the comrades whom you left behind.
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Menelaos
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What is it? Surely you are not being plundered by the foreigners?
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Messenger
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It is a miracle; what I say is of less account than what happened.
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Menelaos
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Tell me; for, judging by this eagerness, you are certainly bringing something new.
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Messenger
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I say that you have suffered countless labors in vain.
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Menelaos
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You are mourning over old sorrows; what is your message?
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Messenger
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Your wife has disappeared, taken up into the folds of the unseen air; she is hidden in heaven, and as she left the hallowed cave where we were keeping her, she said this: Miserable Phrygians, and all the Achaeans! On my account you were dying by the banks of Skamandros,
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through Hera’s contrivance, for you thought that Paris had Helen when he didn’t. But I, since I have stayed my appointed time, and kept the laws of fate, will now depart into the sky, my father; but the unhappy daughter of Tyndareus,
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guilty in no way, has borne an evil name without reason.
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Welcome, daughter of Leda, were you here after all? I was just announcing your departure up to the hidden starry realms, not knowing that you had a winged body. I will not let you mock us like this again,
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for you gave your fill of trouble to your husband and his allies in Ilion.
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Menelaos
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This is the meaning of that; her words have turned out to be true. O longed-for day, that has given you to my arms!
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Helen
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O Menelaos, dearest of men, the time was long, but delight is just now ours.
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With joy I have found my husband, friends, I have embraced my dear one, after long days of blazing light.
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Menelaos
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And I have found you; but I have many questions about t; now I do not know what to begin with first.
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Helen
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I am so happy, the hair rises on my head and my tears run down. I fling my arms around your neck,
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dear husband, to have my delight.
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Menelaos
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O dearest sight! I have no fault to find: I have my wife, the daughter of Zeus and Leda; your brothers on their snow-white steeds
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blessed you, blessed you at an earlier time, while torches blazed, but the god who took you from my home is driving us on to another fortune, better than this. An evil that was good brought you together with me, your husband
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after a long time, but may I still benefit by my good luck.
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Chorus
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May you benefit indeed, and I join in the same prayer; for when there are two, it is not possible for one to be unhappy and the other not.
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Helen
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My dear friends, I no longer sigh or grieve over what is past.
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I have my husband, for whom I have been waiting to come from Troy for many years.
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Menelaos
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You have me, and I have you; although it was hard to live through so many days, I now understand the actions of the goddess. My joy is tearful; it has more
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delight than sorrow.
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Helen
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What can I say? What mortal could ever have hoped for this? I hold you to my heart, little as I ever thought to.
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Menelaos
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And I hold you, whom we thought to have gone to Ida’s city and the unhappy towers of Ilion.
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By the gods, how were you taken from my home?
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Helen
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Ah! ah! You are setting out on a bitter beginning. Ah! ah! You are asking about a bitter tale.
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Menelaos
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Speak; all gifts from the gods should be heard.
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Helen
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I detest the story I am now to introduce.
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Menelaos
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Tell it anyway. It is sweet to hear of troubles.
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Helen
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Not to the bed of the young barbarian, on the wings of oars, on the wings of desire for lawless marriage—
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Menelaos
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What god or fate tore you from your country?
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Helen
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Ah, my husband! The son of Zeus, of Zeus, brought me to the Nile.
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Menelaos
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Amazing! Who sent you there? O dreadful story!
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Helen
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I have wept bitterly, and my eyes are wet with tears; the wife of Zeus ruined me.
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Menelaos
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Hera? Why did she want to bring trouble to the two of us?
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Helen
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Alas for my terrible fate, the baths and springs, where the goddesses brightened the beauty from which the judgment came.
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Menelaos
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Regarding the judgment, Hera made it a cause of these troubles for you?
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Helen
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To take me away from Paris—
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Helen
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To whom Kypris had promised me.
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Helen
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Unhappy, unhappy; and so she brought me to Egypt.
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Menelaos
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Then she gave him a phantom instead, as I hear from you.
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Helen
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Sorrow, sorrow to your house,
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mother, alas.