Euripides' HELEN Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

90 pages - You are on Page 84

But Helen's lord cried out: "O! ye who laid
waste the town of Ilium, come pick up yon bull, the dead man's offering,
on your stout shoulders, as is the way in Hellas, and cast him into
the hold;" and as he spoke he drew his sword in readiness. Then they
at his command came and caught up the bull and carried him bodily
on to the deck. And Menelaus stroked the horse on neck and brow, coaxing
it to go aboard. At length, when the ship was fully freighted, Helen
climbed the ladder with graceful step and took her seat midway betwixt
the rowers' benches, and he sat by her side, even Menelaus who was
called dead; and the rest, equally divided on the right and left side
of the ship, sat them down, each beside his man, with swords concealed
beneath their cloaks, and the billows soon were echoing to the rowers'
song, as we heard the boatswain's note. Now when we were put out a
space, not very far nor very near, the helmsman asked, "Shall we,
sir stranger, sail yet further on our course, or will this serve?
For thine it is to command the ship." And he answered: "'Tis far enough
for me," while in his right hand he gripped his sword and stepped
on to the prow; then standing o'er the bull to slay it, never a word
said he of any dead man, but cut its throat and thus made prayer:
"Poseidon, lord of the sea, whose home is in the deep, and ye holy
daughters of Nereus, bring me and my wife safe and sound to Nauplia's
strand from hence! Anon a gush of blood, fair omen for the stranger,
spouted into the tide. One cried, "There is treachery in this voyage;
why should we now sail to Nauplia? Give the order, helmsman, turn
thy rudder."

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