Chorus: Beside the deep-blue water I chanced to be hanging purple
robes along the tendrils green and on the sprouting reeds, to dry
them in the sun-god's golden blaze, when lo! I heard a sound of woe,
a mournful wail, the voice of one crying aloud in her anguish; yea,
such a cry of woe as Naiad nymph might send ringing o'er the hills,
while to her cry the depths of rocky grots re-echo her screams at
the violence of Pan.
Helen: Woe! woe! ye maids of Hellas, booty of barbarian sailors! one
hath come, an Achaean mariner, bringing fresh tears to me, the news
of Ilium's overthrow, how that it is left to the mercy of the foeman's
flame, and all for me the murderess, or for my name with sorrow fraught.
While for anguish at my deed of shame, hath Leda sought her death
by hanging; and on the deep, to weary wandering doomed my lord hath
met his end; and Castor and his brother, twin glory of their native
land, are vanished from men's sight, leaving the plains that shook
to their galloping steeds, and the course beside reed-fringed Eurotas,
where those youthful athletes strove.
Studies
