Mnesilochus: I have become a fool while waiting; but he has not yet [come].
Mnesilochus: What on earth could be the obstacle? It is not possible.
Mnesilochus: Does she not feel shame at Palamedes being cold?
Mnesilochus: But surely I should bring him the play?
Mnesilochus: I know; I will imitate the new Helen.
850
Mnesilochus: I certainly have a woman's costume.
Woman G: Why are you again causing trouble? Why are you making a fuss while having [something]?
Woman G: You will see a bitter Helen soon, unless you do it in an orderly manner.
Woman G: You will have it, until one of the presidents appears.
Mnesilochus: These are the fair-maidened streams of the Nile,
855
Mnesilochus: who instead of a drop of Egyptian Nile water [has] the ground
Mnesilochus: white water stains a black-haired sheep.
Woman G: You are cunning, by Hecate the light-bringer.
Mnesilochus: But for me, my country is not without a name.
Mnesilochus: Sparta, and her father was Tyndareus.
860
Woman G: You have perished, you wretch!
Woman G: Is that her father? Yes, it is Phrynondas.
Mnesilochus: But I was called Helen.
Woman 3: Again a woman is born,
Woman G: Before she pays the penalty for the other woman's adultery?
Mnesilochus: But many souls went through me to the Scamander.
Mnesilochus: I died from the blows.
865
Woman G: You too ought to have wished for that.
Mnesilochus: And I am here; but the wretched husband
Mnesilochus: My Menelaus still has not approached.
Mnesilochus: What then do I still live?
Woman G: by the wickedness of the crows.
Mnesilochus: But just as it beautifies my heart somewhat.
Mnesilochus: Do not deceive me, O Zeus, with the hope that is coming.
870
Euripides: Who holds power in these fortified chambers,
Euripides: whoever receives guests with a sea-salt soup.
Euripides: worn out by winter and shipwrecks?
Mnesilochus: These are the halls of Proteus.
Euripides: of which Proteus?
Woman G: O wretched fellow, he lies, by the two gods,
875
Woman G: For Proteas has been dead for ten years.
Euripides: What country have we sailed into with a boat?
Euripides: Oh wretched, how we have been draped!
Woman G: she persuades something to this ill-bathed one.
Woman G: Fooling with nonsense? This is the Thesmophoria.
880
Euripides: And is Proteus himself inside or outside?
Woman G: It is not possible that you do not sail on, stranger,
Woman 3: Whoever, upon hearing that Proteas has died,
Woman G: Then are you asking whether she is inside or outside?
Euripides: Alas, he is dead. Where was he buried in a grave?
885
Mnesilochus: This is his mark, on which we are sitting.
Woman G: Badly, then, may you perish and be destroyed, indeed,
Woman G: Whoever dares to call the altar a tomb.
Euripides: Why then are you seating these tombstone benches?
Euripides: Will you carry it covered, stranger?
890
Mnesilochus: I am being forced.
Mnesilochus: to mix my bed with the son of Proteus in marriage.
Woman: What! O wretch, you deceive the stranger again!
Woman G: This man has come up here, having acted with cunning, O stranger.
Woman G: as for the women, [they are being judged] for the theft of the gold.
Mnesilochus: Stop shaking my body with your slander.
895
Euripides: Who is this foreign woman who is abusing you?
Mnesilochus: this is Theonoe, the daughter of Proteus.
Woman G: By the two goddesses!
Woman G: if not Kritylla, daughter of Antitheos from Gargettus;
Woman G: But you are cunning.
Mnesilochus: Say whatever you wish.
Mnesilochus: For I shall never marry your sister.
900
Mnesilochus: having betrayed my husband Menelaus who was in Troy.
