Euripides, Helen, Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator), 1107

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Dich, unter dichtbelaubter Umschattung des Baums,

In liedervoller Grotte bang klagend, will ich rufen,¹

Gesangeskundiger, dich, melodischer Vogel,
1060

Komm, Nachtigall, schwimmend in Thränen!

Komm, wirbl' aus falber Kehle die seufzenden Lieder hervor,

In meine Trauer stimmend,

Und besinge mir Helena's,

Der ilischen Frauen Leid,
1065

Schweres Jammergeschick, das einst

Argos' Lanzen bereitet,

Die das Feld erfüllt, erfüllt, als im fremden Schiff²

Er durch Unglücksmeer dem Stamm Ilions die Braut

Zufuhrte von Sparta, die
1070

Er geraubt, Alexandros, der Unheilssohn,

Durch Kypris' Huld geleitet.

Erste Gegenstrophe.

Helen. Euripides. Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator). . .

Current edition Experimental

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1845; OCR review) (OCR draft) (German) (Euripides. Deutsch in den Versmaßen der Urschrift. Volume 2, Heidelberg: C. F. Winter, 1845. Harvard OCR compared with an independent BSB copy. Native Donner verse citations, Murray reference cards, explicitly located notes and page facsimiles. Unresolved OCR, verse divisions, unlocated notes and printed errata are documented in the source review.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Ἑλένη Perseus (Euripides. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. III. Murray, Gilbert, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. (Reprinted 1920-1978)) — 1107-1164 focus

Χορός

σὲ τὰν ἐναύλοις ὑπὸ δενδροκόμοις

μουσεῖα καὶ θάκους ἐνί-

ζουσαν ἀναβοάσω,

σὲ τὰν ἀοιδοτάταν ὄρνιθα μελῳδὸν
1110

ἀηδόνα δακρυόεσσαν,

ἔλθʼ ὦ διὰ ξουθᾶν

γενύων ἐλελιζομένα

θρήνων ἐμοὶ ξυνεργός,

Ἑλένας μελέας πόνους

τὸν Ἰλιάδων τʼ ἀει-
1115

δούσᾳ δακρυόεντα πότμον

Ἀχαιῶν ὑπὸ λόγχαις·

ὅτʼ ἔδραμε ῥόθια πεδία βαρβάρῳ πλάτᾳ

ὅτʼ ἔμολεν ἔμολε, μέλεα Πριαμίδαις ἄγων

Λακεδαίμονος ἄπο λέχεα

σέθεν, ὦ Ἑλένα, Πάρις αἰνόγαμος
1120

πομπαῖσιν Ἀφροδίτας.

1122

Χορός

πολλοὶ δʼ Ἀχαιῶν δορὶ καὶ πετρίναις

ῥιπαῖσιν ἐκπνεύσαντες Ἅι-

δαν μέλεον ἔχουσιν,

ταλαινᾶν ἀλόχων κείραντες ἔθειραν·
1125

ἄνυμφα δὲ μέλαθρα κεῖται·

πολλοὺς δὲ πυρσεύσας

φλογερὸν σέλας ἀμφιρύταν

Εὔβοιαν εἷλʼ Ἀχαιῶν

μονόκωπος ἀνήρ, πέτραις

Καφηρίσιν ἐμβαλὼν

Αἰγαίαις τʼ ἐνάλοις δόλιον
1130

ἀκταῖς ἀστέρα λάμψας.

ἀλίμενα δʼ ὄρεα Μάλεα χειμάτων πνοᾷ,

ὅτʼ ἔσυτο πατρίδος ἀποπρό, βαρβάρου στολᾶς

γέρας, οὐ γέρας ἀλλʼ ἔριν,

Δαναῶν Μενέλας ἐπὶ ναυσὶν ἄγων,
1135

εἴδωλον ἱερὸν Ἥρας.

1137

Χορός

ὅ τι θεὸς ἢ μὴ θεὸς ἢ τὸ μέσον,

τίς φησʼ ἐρευνήσας βροτῶν

μακρότατον πέρας εὑρεῖν

ὃς τὰ θεῶν ἐσορᾷ
1140

δεῦρο καὶ αὖθις ἐκεῖσε

καὶ πάλιν ἀντιλόγοις

πηδῶντʼ ἀνελπίστοις τύχαις;

σὺ Διὸς ἔφυς, ὦ Ἑλένα, θυγάτηρ·

πτανὸς γὰρ ἐν κόλποις σε Λή-
1145

δας ἐτέκνωσε πατήρ.

κᾆτʼ ἰαχήθης καθʼ Ἑλλανίαν

προδότις ἄπιστος ἄδικος ἄθεος· οὐδʼ ἔχω

τί τὸ σαφὲς ἔτι ποτʼ ἐν βροτοῖς·

τὸ τῶν θεῶν δʼ ἔπος ἀλαθὲς ηὗρον.
1150

1151

Χορός

ἄφρονες ὅσοι τὰς ἀρετὰς πολέμῳ

λόγχαισί τʼ ἀλκαίου δορὸς

κτᾶσθε, πόνους ἀμαθῶς θνα-

τῶν καταπαυόμενοι·

εἰ γὰρ ἅμιλλα κρινεῖ νιν
1155

αἵματος, οὔποτʼ ἔρις

λείψει κατʼ ἀνθρώπων πόλεις·

ᾇ Πριαμίδος γᾶς ἔλαχον θαλάμους,

ἐξὸν διορθῶσαι λόγοις

σὰν ἔριν, ὦ Ἑλένα.
1160

νῦν δʼ οἳ μὲν Ἅιδᾳ μέλονται κάτω,

τείχεα δὲ φλογμὸς ὥστε Διός ἐπέσυτο φλόξ,

ἐπὶ δὲ πάθεα πάθεσι φέρεις

ἀθλίοις συμφοραῖς αἰλίνοις.

1165

Translations (2)

Helen Perseus (Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906. (Modernized by Perseus.)) — 1107-1160 focus

Chorus

Let me call on you, beneath leafy haunts, sitting in your place of song, you, the most sweetly singing bird,

tearful nightingale, oh, come, trilling through your tawny throat, to aid me in my lament, as I sing the piteous woes of Helen and
1110

the tearful fate of Trojan women under the Achaeans’ spears; when he sped over the surging plains with foreign oar, when he came, came bringing to Priam’s race from Lacedaemon
1115

you, Helen, his unhappy bride— Paris , fatally wedded, under the guidance of Aphrodite.
1120

1122

Chorus

Many of the Achaeans have breathed out their last amid the spears and hurling stones and have gone to unhappy Hades; their wives have cut off their hair in sorrow,

and their homes are left without a bride; an Achaean man, who had only a single ship, lit a blazing beacon on sea-girt Euboia , and destroyed many of them, casting them onto the rocks of Kaphareus
1125

and the sea-shores of the Aegean , by the treacherous flame he kindled. The mountains of Malea provided no harbor, in the gusts of the storm, when Menelaos sped far away from his country, bearing on his ships a prize of the barbarian expedition, no prize but strife
1130

with the Danaans, Hera’s holy phantom.
1135

1137

Chorus

What is god, or what is not god, or what is in between— what mortal says he has found it by searching the farthest limit,

when he sees divine affairs leaping here and there again and back, in contradictory and unexpected chances? You, Helen, are the daughter of Zeus;
1140

for a winged father begot you in Leda ’s womb; and then you were proclaimed throughout Hellas , betrayer, faithless, lawless, godless. I do not know whatever certainty is among mortals,
1145

but the word of the gods I have found true.
1150

1151

Chorus

You are fools, who try to win a reputation for virtue through war and marshalled lines of spears, senselessly putting an end to mortal troubles;

for if a bloody quarrel is to decide it, strife will never leave off in the towns of men; by it they won as their lot bed-chambers of Priam’s earth, when they could have set right by discussion
1155

the strife over you, O Helen. And now they are below in Hades’ keeping, and fire has darted onto the walls like the bolt of Zeus, and you are bringing woe on woe . . . .
1160

Helen (OCR draft) Experimental (Helen. Robert Potter's English verse translation, first published in 1781–1783; text from the 1808 Oxford printing.)

No corresponding passage available

Notes on the current edition

Helen

1. [OCR note; compare the printed page.] Wörtlicher: In liedervollen Wohnungen sizend.

2. [OCR note; compare the printed page.] L. ὃς ἐμολεν. ὃς bez. auf πόνος; aber die Uebersezung wählte eine andere Wendung.

Euripides Helen 1107

Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator)

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