TEU. Who rules this fortress? such a splendid dome
With royal porticos and blazoned roofs
Seems worthy of a Plutus for its lord.
But, O ye gods, what vision! I behold
That hateful woman who hath ruined me,
And all the Greeks. Heaven’s vengeance on thy head!
Such a resemblance bear’st thou to that Helen,
That if I were not in a foreign land,
I with this stone would smite thee; thou shouldst bleed
For being like Jove’s daughter.
HEL. Wretched man,
Whoe’er you are, why do you hate me thus
Because of her misfortunes?
TEU. I have erred
In giving way to such unseemly rage.
All Greece abhors Jove’s daughter. But forgive me,
O woman, for the words which I have uttered.
HEL. Say who you are, and from what land you come?
TEU. One of that miserable race the Greeks.
HEL. No wonder is it then, if you detest
The Spartan Helen. But to me declare,
Who are you, whence, and from what father sprung?
TEU. My name is Teucer, Telamon my sire;
The land which nurtured me is Salamis.
HEL. But wherefore do you wander o’er these meads
Laved by the Nile?
TEU. I from my native land
Am banished.
HEL. You, alas! must needs be wretched.
Who drove you thence?
TEU. My father Telamon.
What friend canst thou hold dearer?
HEL. For what cause
Were you to exile doomed? your situation
Is most calamitous.
TEU. My brother Ajax,
Who died at Troy, was author of my ruin.
HEL. How? by your sword deprived of life?
TEU. He fell,
On his own blade, and perished.
HEL. Was he mad?
Who could act thus whose intellects are sound?
TEU. Know’st thou Achilles, Peleus’ son?
HEL. He erst,
I heard, to Helen as a suitor came.
TEU. He, at his death, his comrades left to strive
Which should obtain his arms.
HEL. But why was this
Hurtful to Ajax?
TEU. When another won
Those arms, he gave up life.
HEL. Do your afflictions
Rise from his fate?
TEU. Because I died not with him.
HEL. O stranger, went you then to Troy’s famed city?
TEU. And having shared in laying waste its bulwarks,
I also perished.
HEL. Have the flames consumed,
And utterly destroyed them?
TEU. Not a trace
Of those proud walls is now to be discerned.
HEL. Through thee, O Helen, do the Phrygians perish.
TEU. The Greeks too: for most grievous are the mischiefs
Which have been wrought.
HEL. What length of time’s elapsed
Since Troy was sacked?
TEU. Seven times the fruitful year
Hath almost turned around her lingering wheel.
HEL. But how much longer did your host remain
Before those bulwarks?
TEU. Many a tedious moon;
There full ten years were spent.
HEL. And have ye taken
That Spartan dame?
TEU. By her dishevelled hair,
Th’ adult’ress, Menelaus dragged away.
HEL. Did you behold that object of distress,
Or speak you from report?
TEU. These eyes as clearly
Witnessed the whole, as I now view thy face.
HEL. Be cautious, lest for her ye should mistake
Some well-formed semblance which the gods have sent.
TEU. Talk if thou wilt on any other subject;
No more of her.
HEL. Believe you this opinion
To be well-grounded?
TEU. With these eyes I saw her,
And she e’en now is present to my soul.
HEL. Have Menelaus and his consort reached
Their home.
TEU. They are not in the Argive land,
Nor on Eurotas’ banks.
HEL. Alas! alas!
The tale you have recounted, is to her
Who hears you, an event most inauspicious.
TEU. He and his consort, both they say are dead.
HEL. Did not the Greeks in one large squadron sail?
TEU. Yes; but a storm dispersed their shattered fleet.
HEL. Where were they, in what seas?
TEU. They at that time
Through the mid waves of the Ægean deep
Were passing.
HEL. Can none tell if Menelaus
Escaped this tempest?
TEU. No man; but through Greece
’Tis rumoured he is dead.
HEL. I am undone.
Is Thestius’ daughter living?
TEU. Mean’st thou Leda?
She with the dead is numbered.
HEL. Did the shame
Of Helen cause her wretched mother’s death?
TEU. Around her neck, ’tis said the noble dame
Entwined the gliding noose.
HEL. But live the sons
Of Tyndarus, or are they too now no more?
TEU. They are, and are not, dead; for two accounts
Are propagated.
HEL. Which is best confirmed?
O wretched me!
TEU. Some say that they are gods
Under the semblance of two radiant stars.
HEL. Well have you spoken. But what else is rumoured?
TEU. That on account of their lost sister’s guilt
They died by their own swords. But of these themes
Enough: I wish not to renew my sorrows.
But O assist me in the great affairs
On which I to these royal mansions came,
Wishing to see the prophetess Theonoe,
And learn, from Heaven’s oracular response,
How I may steer my vessel with success
To Cyprus’ isle, where Phœbus hath foretold
That I shall dwell, and on the walls I rear
Bestow the name of Salamis, yet mindful
Of that dear country I have left behind.
HEL. This will your voyage of itself explain:
But fly from these inhospitable shores,
Ere Proteus’ son, the ruler of this land,
Behold you: fly, for he is absent now
Pursuing with his hounds the savage prey.
He slays each Grecian stranger who becomes
His captive: ask not why, for I am silent;
And what could it avail you to be told?
TEU. O woman, most discreetly hast thou spoken;
Thy kindness may the righteous gods repay!
For though thy person so resemble Helen,
Thou hast a soul unlike that worthless dame.
Perdition seize her; never may she reach
The current of Eurotas: but mayst thou,
Most generous woman, be for ever blest.
[_Exit_ TEUCER.
HEL. Plunged as I am ’midst great and piteous woes,
How shall I frame the plaintive strain, what Muse
With tears, or doleful elegies, invoke?