The Greek Plays
Page 87
May she
the young heifer she left in her home,
who has not yet been lit by the blazing of torches for marriage.
strophe 2
I wish we could fly through the air
1480
where the Libyan birds come flocking,
leaving the rainstorms of winter,
led by the pipe
of their eldest, their shepherd,
who cries as he flies
over waterless plains
over lands rich in harvest.
O long-necked cranes,
who share in the race of the clouds,
swoop under the midst of the Pleiades,
1490
under Orion and on through the night
and land in Eurotas
and pass on the message:
Menelaus has captured the city of Troy
and he will be coming back home.
antistrophe 2
Now come, Dioscuri, twin sons of Tyndareus,
rush to us riding on horseback
through the sky
from your home in the heavens
beneath whirling bright stars.
1500
Saviors of Helen
dash over the green sea waves,
and over the blue-gray surging
of the dark salt water,
send fresh fair gusts,
to blow for the sailors,
and take from your sister her shame
for barbarian beds,
the shame that she got
through the strife on Mount Ida,
1510
though she never went to the city of Troy
and the towers of Apollo.
(Enter Messenger.)
MESSENGER: Master, there’s been disaster for your house!*51
I have some shocking news to share with you.
THEOCLYMENUS: What?
MESS.: You’ve been working hard to gain the hand of someone else’s wife. Helen is gone!
THEOCLYMENUS: Did she fly off? Or walk, feet on the ground?
MESSENGER: Her Menelaus took her from our land.
He came here bringing news of his own death.
THEOCLYMENUS: No! This is bad! What ship took them from Egypt?
1520
This makes no sense. Your story can’t be true.
MESSENGER: The ship you gave the stranger. He has gone
with your own sailors. That, in brief, is that.
THEOCLYMENUS: I need to understand! I’d never guess
one man could get the better of so many:
of all those sailors that I sent them off with!
MESSENGER: When Zeus’ daughter left this royal palace,
and set out to the sea, mincing along,
she cried for her dead husband—clever tricks,
since he was at her side! He wasn’t dead.
1530
Arriving at the corral of your dock,
we launched the ship out for her maiden voyage,
with space for fifty seats and fifty oars.
We got to work, first one task then the next.
One set the mast in place, one fixed the oars,
spreading them out. The white sails were unfurled,*52
and rudders lowered down to sea on ropes.
In all the bustle, Menelaus’ Greeks,
who, I suppose, were watching for this moment,
came to the waterfront, dressed in the clothes
1540
of shipwreck victims. Handsome men, but dirty.
When Menelaus saw that they’d arrived,
he called aloud with a pretense of pity:
“Poor men! Your vessel must have smashed to pieces.
What was your ship? I’m guessing you’re Achaeans.
So join the funeral of dead Menelaus,
whom Helen’s burying, though he’s not here.”
They started crying—all pure fabrication!—
and went on board deck carrying the gifts
for Menelaus. We were quite suspicious,
1550
and muttered to each other at the crowd
of passengers. But following your instructions
we held our tongues. You ordered that the stranger
should have command on board. You caused this mess!
We packed most of the cargo in the ship,
easily—it was light. The bull, however,
refused to put his hoof upon the gangway.
He bellowed out and rolled his eyes around,
arching his back and glaring beneath his horns.
We couldn’t touch him. Helen’s husband shouted,
1560
“Soldiers! You sacked the town of Ilium!
So can’t you hoist the weight of this big bull
on your strong backs, seizing him up Greek-style,
and hurl him on the prow as sacrifice
for this dead man?” At that, he drew his sword.
The men obeyed. They came and seized the bull
and lifted it and put it on the ship.
Then Menelaus stroked the horse’s neck
and nose, persuading it to come on board.
Finally everything was on the ship.
1570
Then Helen set her shapely foot and ankle
to climb the ladder. She sat on the quarter deck
with her so-called-dead husband at her side.
The men sat down in pairs, one by another,
along the boat walls, left and right. They kept
swords hidden underneath their clothes. The bo’sun
gave signal and the sea was full of shouting.
When we were not too far from land, and not
too near, the helmsman asked, “Stranger, should we
keep rowing on, or is this far enough?
1580
You are in charge of everything on board.”
He said, “This is enough!” In his right hand
he held his sword, and stepped into the prow
to sacrifice the bull. He did not speak
about the dead, but as he slit the throat,
he prayed: “Poseidon, Dweller of the Deep,
and holy maidens, daughters of Nereus,
let me escape from here to Nauplia,
and save my wife!” The stream of blood gushed out
into the sea, good omens for the stranger.
One person said, “This trip is all a trick!
1590
Let’s row back home. Give orders to the crew
and turn the rudder round.” But Menelaus
stood where he’d killed the bull and called his comrades:
“Heroes of Greece! Why do you hesitate
to kill, to slaughter those barbarians
and hurl them from the ship?” The bo’sun called,
orders to your crew, King, on fighting back:
“Some of you, go, get planks to use as spears.
Smash up the benches! Pull oars from their sockets!
Bloody the skulls of these invading foreigners!”
1600
They all leaped up—one side was only armed
with timbers, and the other side, with swords.
Blood flowed all through the ship, and from the prow
Helen cheered on the fighting. She called out,
“Where’s Trojan glory now? Show these barbarians!”
They battled. Some fell, some got up, some lay
as corpses. Menelaus, in full armor,
checked where his comrades might be suffering,
and reached his arm out there, and thrust his sword
so your men cleared the benches as they jumped
1610
overboard. Then he went up to the helmsman
and told him he should steer the boat to Greece.
They raised the mast and fair winds blew the sails.
They’ve left the country. I survived the slaughter
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sp; and scaled down to the water on the anchor.
I drifted in exhaustion, till a fisherman
lifted me up and brought me back to land,
to tell you this. And nothing is more useful
for mortals, than clear-minded skepticism.
CHORUS: I never would have thought it! Menelaus
1620
was here, and we had no idea, my lord!
THEOCLYMENUS:*53 No, no, no! I’ve been caught by the schemes of the women!
My bride has escaped! No more marriage for me! If the ship
could have been followed and taken, I’d have hastened to catch them.
But now, I will punish my sister, the one who betrayed me,
who saw Menelaus was here in my house, and said nothing.
She’ll never fool anyone else with her lies and her prophecies!
CHORUS: Wait, master! What is your intention? What violent action?
THEOCLYMENUS: I’m going where Justice commands me. Stand out of the way.
CHORUS: I will not let go of your clothes! What you’re planning is evil!
THEO.: Can a slave be the boss of the master?
1630
CHOR.: I can if I’m right!
THEO.: You’re not if you will not allow me—
CHOR.: I will not allow you!
THEO.: That woman betrayed me!
CHOR.: A noble betrayal! She did the right thing.
THEO.: She gave my own bride to another man!
CHOR.: One with more right to her.
THEO.: Who had more right than myself?
CHOR.: He who took her from her father.
THEO.: Chance gave her to me!
CHOR.: And Necessity took her away.
THEO.: You ought not to dictate to me what to do.
CHOR.: Yes, I should, if I’m right!
THEO.: But I am the king! I have power!
CHOR.: To act piously. Not to do wrong.
THEO.: It sounds like you’re eager to die.
CHOR.: So then kill me. I’ll never consent
1640
to your killing your sister. Just kill me instead. It’s heroic
for slaves who are noble to die on behalf of their masters.
(Helen’s twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, appear over the roof of the palace.)
CASTOR:*54 Restrain your rage, don’t get too carried away,
King Theoclymenus. My name is Castor,
and this is Pollux. We’re the sons of Leda,
brothers of Helen who escaped your house.
This marriage was not meant to be for you.
The daughter of the sea nymph, Theonoë,
your sister, did not wrong you. She fulfilled
1650
your father’s just commands and those of the gods.
It was that woman’s destiny to live
with you in your house till the present time.
But now that Troy’s foundations have been sacked,
and now she’s given her name to the gods,
she must be yoked again in her old marriage,
and go back home and live with her same husband.
Don’t hurt your sister with your blackened sword.
Just understand, she acted with good conscience.
We would have saved our sister long ago
if Zeus had made us gods. We were too weak
1660
against Necessity, and against the gods,
who had decided things would go like this.
That’s what I say to you. (to Helen) Now to my sister:
sail with your husband. You will have good winds.
We, your twin brothers, will ride on beside you
over the sea and guide you safe to home.
And when you reach the final goal of life,
you’ll be a goddess and receive libations
along with us, and share in gifts from humans.
1670
This is the will of Zeus. The place where Hermes
first set you down, when he’d flown off with you
from Sparta, so that Paris wouldn’t get you,
I mean the island sheltering Attica,*55
will have the name of Helen in the future,
because it took you in when you were stolen.
The gods decree that wandering Menelaus
will also live in the Islands of the Blest.
The gods do not despise those who are noble,
although they suffer more than the masses do.
1680
THEOCLYMENUS: O sons of Leda and of Zeus, I’ll set
aside my quarreling about your sister.
Let her go home, if that’s the will of the gods,
and I no longer wish to kill my sister.
Let me say this to you: your own dear sister
is the most chaste of women. She’s the best.
I wish you well for Helen’s sake: she is
a truly decent woman—unlike most.
CHORUS: Spirits take on many forms,
and gods create a multitude of surprises.
1690
Things we expect don’t come to pass,
and god finds ways toward the unexpected.
That’s how this story went.
* * *
*1 This line is probably an interpolation, inserted by somebody who wanted to reconcile this play with the Odyssey, in which Proteus lives on Pharos (Odyssey 4.354–57). Proteus in Homer is a shape-shifting sea god, but here, as in Herodotus, he is depicted as a human king.
*2 The marriage of Psamathe to a mortal hero, Aeacus, is attested in Hesiod (Theogony 1003–5); her later marriage to Proteus may be Euripides’ invention (and hints at the fact that other wives are not necessarily as loyal to their first husbands as Helen herself).
*3 There is an interpolated clause here that reads “because he lived his life honoring the gods.”
*4 Or “Beauty.”
*5 The name suggests “divine knowledge.”
*6 Nereus, a sea god and father of Psamathe, was known for his justice and his skill in prophecy.
*7 Athena is not named in the original, but defined as “the Zeus-born virgin.”
*8 The word for “bed” also connotes marriage.
*9 The odd phrasing whereby Menelaus hunts for Helen’s “abduction” rather than “Helen” is in the original.
*10 Literally, “if I do not make the bed for anybody,” a euphemism for sharing another man’s bed.
*11 The god of wealth. But there is also a hint of Pluton (Pluto), an alternative name for Hades, god of the Underworld; the two are often confused.
*12 Teucer was known for his skill in archery.
*13 After Achilles’ death, his mother, Thetis, proposed that his allies should compete to win his armor (which had been forged by the god Hephaestus). Odysseus won. The story was dramatized by Aeschylus.
*14 Helen’s brothers, Castor and Pollux, the sons of Leda and Tyndareus (one of whom, Pollux, is sometimes said to have been the son of Zeus) are the Dioscuri, who were sometimes represented as mortal, sometimes as immortal, and often as taking turns with having immortality—one would be alive while the other was dead, and then they would trade.
*15 The brothers became the constellation Gemini (the Twins).
*16 The idea is that Cypriot Salamis is named for the Salamis in Attica.
*17 The temple of Athena in Sparta was plated with bronze.
*18 These lines, though enjoyably inappropriate in context, are generally believed to be an interpolation.
*19 These lines, which merely repeat what has already been said, are probably an interpolation.
*20 I omit line 379, which is a nonsensical interpolation reading “with violent eye the shape of a lioness.”
*21 Callisto was a human girl who was seduced or raped by Zeus and then transformed into a bear.
*22 This story is only attested here. Apparently the daughter of Merops was changed into a deer by Artemis.
&n
bsp; *23 This line is likely an interpolation.
*24 There is a partial pun in the original, since the word for “arms” sounds a little like “Helen.”
*25 The dialogue now switches to lyric meter, primarily dochmiac. This passage is unique in Greek tragedy in featuring a male singer participating in a lyric duet: in other cases, the female character sings while the male character speaks.
*26 The text of this line is corrupt.
*27 The Greek text of this line is problematic, but its general sense seems clear.
*28 The meter reverts now to regular iambic trimeter, the dialogue rhythm.
*29 The word used for “one who causes”—brabeus—is here used in a unique sense: it usually suggests the umpire of a contest or competition.
*30 Nauplius was a Greek hero whose son, Palamedes, was killed by the Greeks through the machinations of Odysseus (since Palamedes had exposed the feigned madness whereby Odysseus tried to escape going to Troy). In retaliation against the Greeks as they returned from war, Nauplius lit fires on the rocky cliffs of Euboea, to lure their ships to be wrecked.
*31 The location of this watchtower is unknown. There was a Tower of Perseus in Egypt (Herodotus 2.15), but this is likely a different place, since Menelaus is supposed not to have been to Egypt before. The reference makes a link between this play and the Andromeda, which was performed in the same trilogy and which has Perseus as a main character.
*32 The name Theonoë suggests “god-mind” or “god-knowledge.”
*33 Achilles was killed by Paris, by an arrow to the heel. Ajax killed himself after losing the armor of Achilles to Odysseus and being afflicted by madness in which he killed a flock of sheep under the delusion that they were Greeks (the subject of Sophocles’ Ajax). Antilochus, son of Nestor, the oldest hero at Troy, was killed while trying to save his father’s life in battle.
*34 Many editors believe these two lines are an interpolation, since they seem out of character for the selfless Theonoë and do not seem to fit well with the lines before (when she is still undecided) and the lines after (when Helen does not react as if the revelation is definite).
*35 Line 905 in the original is skipped here since it is presumably an interpolation, being irrelevant and unmetrical. It reads: “If riches are not righteous, let them go!”
*36 The “poet of birds” is the famously sweet-voiced nightingale.
*37 Nauplius lighted false flares in order to lure the Greek ships to be wrecked, in revenge for the death of his son Palamedes.
*38 There is dramatic irony here: Theoclymenus is supposed to hear the line as a curse (“May he go to hell!”), but Helen can mean it in a good way (“May he, Menelaus, go to Greece!”).