APHRODITE 
You will go abroad on the pretext of seeing
Greece, and when you come to Sparta, Helen will
see you. From that time on it will be my look-out
that she falls in love with you and follows you.

 

 PARIS 
That is just the thing that seems downright
incredible to me, that she should be willing to
abandon her husband and sail away with a foreigner
and a stranger.
 APHRODITE 
Be easy on that score; I have two beautiful pages,
Desire and Love; these I shall give you to be your
guides on the journey. Love will enter wholly into
her heart and compel the woman to love you, while
Desire will encompass you and make you what he is
himself, desirable and charming. I myself shall be
there too, and I shall ask the Graces to go with me;
and in this way, by united effort, we shall prevail
upon her.
 PARIS 
How this affair will turn out is uncertain,
Aphrodite; but, anyhow, I am in love with Helen
already; somehow or other I think I see her; I am
sailing direct to Greece, visiting Sparta, coming back
again with the woman—and it irks me not to be
doing all this now!