Helen (985-1059)

run down the grave; we will lie, two corpses side by side upon this polished slab, a deathless grief to you, and a reproach to your father. Your brother will never marry this woman, nor will any other; but I will carry her off,

if not to my house, at any rate to death.

Why do I say this? If I turned to women’s ways with tears, rather than being active, I would be pitied more. Kill me, if it seems good to you; you will not kill those who are without fame; but it is better to yield to what I say,

so that you may act with justice, and I recover my wife.

You must judge these arguments, maiden. Decide in such a way as to please all.

My nature and my inclination lean towards piety; and I respect myself, and I would not defile

my father’s fame, or gratify my brother at the cost of seeming infamous. There is a great temple of justice in my nature; and having this heritage from Nereus, I will try to keep it, Menelaos.

Since Hera wishes to serve you, I will cast my vote on her side. May Kypris be gracious to me; but she has had nothing to do with me, and I will try to remain a virgin always. As for your reproaches against my father at this tomb,

I have the same words to say. I would be doing wrong if I do not give her back; for that man, if he were alive, would have given her back for you to have, and you to her.

For truly there is retribution for these things, both among the dead and among all men living. The mind

of the dead does not live, yet it has eternal thought as it falls into eternal ether. So as not to give advice at length, I will be silent as to what you have entreated, and I will never aid my brother’s folly with my counsel.

For I am doing him a service, though he does not think it, if I turn him from his godless life to holiness. You yourselves devise some course of action; I will stand out of your way by my silence. Begin with the gods, and beg

Kypris to allow you to return to your country, and Hera that her intention to save you and your husband may remain the same. And you, my own dead father, never, as far as I have strength, shall you be called impious instead of pious. Exit Theonoe.

No one born lawless ever prospered, but in a lawful cause there is hope of safety.

Menelaos, as far as the maiden is concerned, we are safe. For the rest, you must contribute your advice and frame a device to save ourselves.

Then listen; you have been in the house for a long time and are intimate with the king’s servants.

What do you mean by that? You are offering hope, as if you were really about to do something useful for both of us.

Could you persuade someone in charge of the wagons

and horses to give us a chariot?

I might; but how will we escape, in our ignorance of the country and the barbarian land?

You are right; a dilemma. Well, what if I were to hide in the house and kill the king with this two-edged sword?

His sister would never be silent or allow you to intend her own brother’s death.

Nor indeed is there a ship in which we might safely escape; for the sea holds the one we had.

Listen to me, if even a woman can say something wise.

Are you willing to be called dead in word, though you are not dead?

It is a bad omen; but if I profit by it, I am ready to be called dead in word, though I am not dead.

And truly I would mourn you, as women do, with hair cut short and laments before this impious man.

What saving remedy does this have for us two? There is a flavor of deception in your scheme.

I will beg the tyrant of this country for permission to bury you in an empty tomb, as if you had really died at sea.

Soppose he allows it; then how shall we escape with no ship,