Euripides' HELEN Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

90 pages - You are on Page 80

Menelaus: O Zeus, who art called the father of all and god of wisdom,
look down on us and change our woe to joy! Lend us thy ready help,
as we seek to drag our fortunes up the rugged hill; if with but thy
finger-tip thou touch us, we shall reach our longed-for goal. Sufficient
are the troubles we ere this have undergone. Full oft have I invoked
you gods to near my joys and sorrows; I do not deserve to be for ever
unhappy, but to advance and prosper. Grant me but this one boon, and
so will ye crown my future with blessing. (Menelaus, Helen and their
train of attendants depart.)

Chorus: (singing, strophe 1)

Hail! thou swift Phoenician ship of Sidon! dear to the rowers, mother
to the foam, leader of fair dolphins' gambols, what time the deep
is hushed and still, and Ocean's azure child, the queen of calm, takes
up her parable and says: "Away! and spread your canvas to the ocean-breeze.
Ho! sailors, ho! come grip your oars of pine, speeding Helen on her
way to the sheltered beach where Perseus dwelt of yore."

(antistrophe 1)

It may be thou wilt find the daughters of Leucippus beside the brimming
river or before the temple of Pallas, when at last with dance and
revelry thou joinest in the merry midnight festival of Hyacinthus,
him whom Phoebus slew in the lists by a quoit hurled o'er the mark;
wherefore did the son of Zeus ordain that Laconia's land should set
apart that day for sacrifice; there too shalt thou find the tender
maid, whom ye left in your house, for as yet no nuptial torch has
shed its light for her.

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