Euripides The Trojan Women 840

Menelaus

Hail! you radiant flare of the sun, by whose fair light I now shall capture her that was my wife, Helen; for I am that Menelaus, who has toiled so hard, I and Achaea ’s army. I came to Troy , not so much as men suppose

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for, the sake of a woman, but to punish the man who from my house stole my wife, traitor to my hospitality. But he, by the gods’ will, has paid the penalty, ruined, and his country too, by the spear of Hellas . And I have come to bear that wretched woman away—wife I have no mind

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to call her, though she once was mine—for now she is one among the other Trojan women who share these tents as captives. For they, the very men who who toiled to take her with the spear, have granted to me to slay her,

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or, if I will, to spare and carry back with me to Argos . Now my purpose is not to put her to death in Troy , but to carry her to Hellas in my sea-borne ship, and then surrender her to death, a recompense to all whose friends were slain in Ilium .

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Ho! my servants, enter the tent, and drag her out to me by her hair foul with murder; and when a favoring breeze shall blow, to Hellas will we convey her.

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Hecuba

O you that do support the earth and rest thereupon,

whoever you are, a riddle past our knowledge! Zeus, owhether you are natural necessity, or man’s intellect, to you I pray; for, though you tread over a noiseless path, all your dealings with mankind are guided by justice.

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Menelaus

What is this? Strange the prayer you offer to the gods!

Hecuba

I thank you, Menelaus, if you will slay that wife of yours. Yet shun the sight of her, lest she strike you with longing. For she ensnares the eyes of men, overthrows their towns, and burns their houses, so potent are her witcheries! Well I know her; so do you and those her victims too.

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Helen

Menelaus! this prelude well may fill me with alarm; for I am taken with violence by your servants’ hands and brought before these tents. Still, though I am sure you hate me, yet I want to inquire

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what you and Hellas have decided about my life.

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Menelaus

To judge your case required no great exactness; the army with one consent, that army whom you wronged, handed you over to me to die.

Helen

May I answer this decision, proving that my death, if I am to die, will be unjust?

Menelaus

I came not to argue, but to slay you.

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Hecuba

Hear her, Menelaus; let her not die for want of that, and let me answer her again, for you know nothing of her villainies in Troy ; and the whole case, if summed up,

will insure her death against all chance of an escape.

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Menelaus

This gift needs leisure; still, if she wishes to speak, she may. Yet I will grant her this because of your words, that she may hear them, and not for her own sake.

Helen

Perhaps you will not answer me, from counting me a foe,

whether my words seem good or ill. Yet I will put my charges and yours over against each other, and then reply to the accusations I suppose you will advance against me. First, then, that woman was the author of these troubles

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by giving birth to Paris ; next, old Priam ruined Troy and me, because he did not slay his child Alexander, baleful semblance of a fire-brand, ¹ long ago. Hear what followed. This man was to judge the claims of three rival goddesses;

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so Pallas offered him command of all the Phrygians, and the destruction of Hellas ; Hera promised he should spread his dominion over Asia , and the utmost bounds of Europe , if he would decide for her; but Cypris spoke in rapture of my loveliness,

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and promised him this gift, if she should have the preference over those two for beauty. Now mark the inference I deduce from this; Cypris won the day over the goddesses, and thus far has my marriage proved of benefit to Hellas , that you are not subject to barbarian rule, neither vanquished in the strife, nor yet by tyrants crushed.

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What Hellas gained, was ruin to me, sold for my beauty, and now I am reproached for that which should have set a crown upon my head. But you will say I am silent on the real matter at hand, how it was I started forth and left your house by stealth.

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With no small goddess at his side he came, my evil genius, call him Alexander or Paris , as you will; and you, villain, left him behind in your house, and sailed away from Sparta to the land of Crete .

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Enough of this! For all that followed I must question myself, not you; what thought led me to follow the stranger from your house, traitress to my country and my home? Punish the goddess, show yourself more mighty even than Zeus, who, though he lords it over the other gods,

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is her slave; therefore I may well be pardoned. Still, from this you might draw a specious argument against me; when Paris died, and earth concealed his corpse, I should have left his house and sought the Argive fleet, since my marriage was no longer in the hands of gods.

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That was what I was eager to do; and the warders on the towers and watchmen on the walls can bear me witness, for often they found me seeking to let myself down stealthily by cords from the battlements but there was that new husband, Deiphobus, that carried me off

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by force to be his wife against the will of Troy . How then, my lord, could I be justly put to death . . . by you, with any show of right, seeing that he wedded me against my will, and those my other natural gifts have served a bitter slavery, instead of leading on to triumph? If it is your will indeed

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to master gods, that very wish displays your folly.

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Chorus Leader

O my royal mistress, defend your children’s and your country’s cause, bringing to nothing her persuasive arguments, for she pleads well in spite of all her villainy; this is monstrous!

Hecuba

First I will take up the cause of those goddesses,

and prove how she perverts the truth. For I can never believe that Hera or the maiden Pallas would have been guilty of such folly, the one to sell her Argos to barbarians, or that Pallas ever would make her Athens subject to the Phrygians,

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coming as they did in mere wanton sport to Ida to contest the palm of beauty. For why should goddess Hera set her heart so much on such a prize? Was it to win a nobler lord than Zeus? or was Athena hunting down among the gods a husband,

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she who in her dislike of marriage won from her father the gift of remaining unwed? Do not seek to impute folly to the goddesses, in the attempt to adorn your own sin; never will you persuade the wise. Next you have said—what well may make men jeer—that Cypris came with my son to the house of Menelaus.

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Could she not have stayed quietly in heaven and brought you and Amyclae as well to Ilium ?

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No! my son was exceedingly handsome, and when you saw him your mind straight became your Aphrodite; for every folly that men commit, they lay upon this goddess,

and rightly does her name ² begin the word for senselessness; so when you caught sight of him in gorgeous foreign clothes, ablaze with gold, your senses utterly forsook you. Yes, for in Argos you had moved in simple state, but, once free of Sparta ,

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it was your hope to deluge by your lavish outlay Phrygia ’s town, that flowed with gold; nor was the palace of Menelaus rich enough for your luxury to riot in.

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Enough of this! My son carried you off by force, so you say; what Spartan saw this? what cry for help

did you ever raise, though Castor was still alive, a vigorous youth, and his brother also, not yet among the stars? Then when you had come to Troy , and the Argives were on your track, and the mortal combat had begun, whenever tidings came to you of

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Menelaus’ prowess, you would praise him, to grieve my son, because he had so powerful a rival in his love; but if the Trojans prospered, Menelaus was nothing to you. Your eye was fixed on Fortune, and by such practice you were careful to follow in her steps, careless of virtue’s cause.

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And then you assert that you tried to let yourself down from the towers by stealth with twisted cords, as if unwilling to stay? Where were you ever found fastening the noose about your neck, or whetting the knife, as a noble wife would have done in regret for her former husband?

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And yet often I advised you saying, Get away, daughter; my sons will take other brides, and I will belp you to steal away, and convey you to the Achaean fleet; oh, end the strife between us and Hellas ! But this was bitter to you.

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For you were wantoning in Alexander’s house, wishing to have obeisance done you by barbarians. Yes, it was a proud time for you; and now after all this you have adorned yourself, and come forth and have dared to appear under the same sky as your husband, revolting wretch!

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Better if you had come in tattered raiment, cowering humbly in terror, with hair cut short, and if your feeling for your past sins were one of shame rather than effrontery. Menelaus, hear the conclusion of my argument;

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crown Hellas by slaying her as she deserves, and establish this law for all other women: death to every one who betrays her husband.

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Chorus Leader

Avenge yourself, Menelaus, on your wife, as is worthy of your home and ancestors,

clear yourself from the reproach of effeminacy at the lips of Hellas , and let your foes see your spirit.

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Menelaus

Your thoughts coincide with mine, that she, without constraint, left my palace, and sought a stranger’s bed, and now Cypris is introduced for mere bluster. Away to those who shall stone you,

and by your speedy death requite the weary toils of the Achaeans, so that you may learn not to bring shame on me!

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Helen

Oh, by your knees, I implore you, do not impute that heaven-sent affliction to me, or slay me; forgive me!

Hecuba

Do not betray your allies, whose death this woman caused;

on their behalf, and for my children’s sake, I entreat you.

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Menelaus

Peace, revered lady; to her I pay no heed. I bid my servants take her away, aboard the ship, in which she is to sail.

Hecuba

Oh never let her set foot within the same ship as you.

Menelaus

Why is that? is she heavier than before?

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Hecuba

The one who loves once, must love always.

Menelaus

Why, that depends how those we love are minded. But your wish shall be granted; she shall not set foot upon the same ship with me; for your advice is surely sound;

and when she comes to Argos she shall die a shameful death as is her due, and impress the need of chastity on all women. No easy task; yet shall her fate strike their foolish hearts with terror, even though they are more lost to shame than she. Exit Menelaus, dragging Helen with him.

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