Euripides Helen 1495

Second Messenger

(entering hurriedly.) O king, at last have I found thee in the palace; for new. . . troubles are you soon to hear from me.

Theoklymenos

What is it?

Messenger

Go to work on the courtship of another

woman; for Helen has left the country.

1515

Theoklymenos

Carried up on wings, or treading on the earth?

Messenger

Menelaos has taken her off as plunder, out of the land; he was the one that came with the news of his own death.

Theoklymenos

O dreadful story! What ship carried her

off from this land? Your story is unbelievable.

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Messenger

The very one that you gave to the stranger; and he has gone with your sailors, so that you may know everything in brief.

Theoklymenos

How? I am eager to know; for I never expected that a single hand could excel over

so many sailors, with whom you were sent.

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Messenger

When the daughter of Zeus had left this royal house and started for the sea, delicately picking her way, she most cleverly began to mourn her husband, though he was close at hand and not dead.

When we reached the enclosure of your dockyards, we began to launch the Sidonian ship on her first voyage, with her fifty benches and full measure of rowers. Task gave way to task: one set up the mast, another set up the oars

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. . . and the rudders were lowered by their cross-bars. And during this labor, men of Hellas who had been fellow-voyagers with Menelaos were watching us, it seems, and they drew near to the beach, clad in the rags of shipwrecked men,

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handsome, but rough to look upon. And the son of Atreus, when he saw them approach, spoke to them, craftily introducing the reason for his mourning: Unhappy sailors, how have you arrived? From the wreckage of what Achaean ship?

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Are you here to help bury the dead son of Atreus, whose missing body this lady, daughter of Tyndareus, is honoring with an empty grave? They wept in a feigned manner, and went to the ship, carrying aboard the offerings to be thrown into the sea for Menelaos. We were suspicious at this,

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and said to each other that there would be a crowd of those additional passengers; but still we remained silent, out of respect for your orders; for by bidding the stranger command the vessel, you threw everything into confusion.

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1554

Well, we easily put the other victims on the ship, for they were light;

but the bull did not want to go forward along the plank, but kept bellowing loudly, rolling his eyes around; and, arching his back and peering along his horns, he prevented us from touching him. But Helen’s husband

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called out: O you who sacked the town of Ilion , come pick up this bull on young shoulders, as is the way in Hellas , and cast him into the prow . . . the sacrifice to the dead man.

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Then they came at his summons, and caught up the bull and carried him on to the deck. And Menelaos stroked the horse on neck and brow, coaxing it to go aboard.

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Finally, when the ship was fully loaded,

Helen climbed up the ladder with elegant step, and took her seat in the middle of the rowers’ benches, and he was near by, Menelaos who was called dead. The rest, equally divided on the right and left sides of the ship, sat down, each beside his man, with swords concealed beneath their cloaks,

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and the waves were filled with shouting as we heard the voice of the boatswain.

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Now when we had put out from land, neither very far nor very near, the helmsman asked, Shall we sail yet further, stranger, or is this far enough?

For the command of this ship is yours. And he answered, Far enough for me. Holding a sword in his right hand, he stepped into the prow; and, standing over the bull to slay it, with no mention of any dead man, he cut its throat and prayed: O Poseidon of the sea,

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who lives in the deep, and you holy daughters of Nereus, bring me and my wife safe and sound from here to Nauplia ’s shore! Streams of blood, a good omen for the stranger, darted into the waves. And someone said, There is treachery in this voyage;

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let us sail back again! You, give an order for the right oar, you, turn your rudder. But the son of Atreus, standing where he slew the bull, cried out to his comrades, Why do you, the pick of Hellas , delay to slaughter and kill the barbarians

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and hurl them from the ship into the waves? And the boatswain cried the opposite command to your rowers: Some of you catch up planks at the end, break up the benches, or snatch the oars from the locks, and make the heads of these foreign enemies bloody!.

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They all leapt upright, some with oars in their hands, others with swords; and the ship ran with blood. Helen cheered them on from the stern: Where is the fame you won in Troy ? Show it against the barbarians! In their eagerness, some would

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fall, some stood upright, you would have seen others lying dead. But Menelaos, in full armor, wherever he spied that his comrades were suffering, would go there, sword in hand; and so we dived

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from the ship, and he cleared the benches of your rowers. Then going to the helmsman he told him to sail a straight course to Hellas . So they set up the mast, and favoring breezes blew.

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They are gone from here. But I escaped death and let myself down by the anchor into the sea;

and just as I was worn out, some fisherman took me up, and put me out on land, to bring you this report. Nothing is more useful to mankind than a prudent distrust.

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Chorus Leader

I never would have believed that Menelaos could have eluded both us

and you, O king, the way he did on his arrival.

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