Euripides' HELEN Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

90 pages - You are on Page 81

(strophe 2)

Oh! for wings to cleave the air in the track of Libyan cranes, whose
serried ranks leave far behind the wintry storm at the shrill summons
of some veteran leader, who raises his exultant cry as he wings his
way o'er plains that know no rain and yet bear fruitful increase.
Ye feathered birds with necks outstretched, comrades of the racing
clouds, on on! till ye reach the Pleiads in their central station
and Orion, lord of the night; and as ye settle on Eurotas' banks proclaim
the glad tidings that Menelaus hath sacked the city of Dardanus, and
will soon be home.

(antistrophe 2)

Ye sons of Tyndareus at length appear, speeding in your chariot through
the sky, denizens of heaven's courts beneath the radiant whirling
stars, guide this lady Helen safely o'er the azure main, across the
foam-flecked billows of the deep-blue sea, sending the mariners a
favouring gale from Zeus; and from your sister snatch the ill-repute
of wedding with a barbarian, even the punishment bequeathed to her
from that strife on Ida's mount, albeit she never went to the land
of Ilium, to the battlements of Phoebus. (The Second Messenger enters
in haste, as Theoclymenus comes out of the palace.)

Second Messenger: O king, at last have I found thee in the palace;
for new tidings of woe art thou soon to hear from me.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Helen

Euripides Home Page ||| Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons
Aeschylus ||| Sophocles

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/euripides/helen.asp?pg=81