MES. After a tedious search, O Menelaus,
At length have I with difficulty found you,
But not till over all the wide extent
Of this barbaric region I had wandered;
Sent by the comrades whom you left behind.
MEN. Have ye been plundered then by the barbarians?
MES. A most miraculous event hath happened,
Yet less astonishing by far in name
Than in reality.
MEN. Speak, for thou bring’st
Important tidings by this breathless haste.
MES. My words are these: in vain have you endured
Unnumbered toils.
MEN. Those thou bewail’st are ills
Of ancient date. But what hast thou to tell me?
MES. Borne to the skies your consort from our sight
Hath vanished, in the heavens is she concealed,
Leaving the cave in which we guarded her,
When she these words had uttered: “O ye sons
Of hapless Phrygia, and of Greece: for me
Beside Scamander’s conscious stream ye died,
Through Juno’s arts, because ye falsely deemed
Helen by Phrygian Paris was possest:
But after having here remained on earth
My stated time, observing the decrees
Of Fate, I to my sire the liquid ether
Return: but Tyndarus’ miserable daughter,
Though guiltless, hath unjustly been accused.”
Daughter of Leda hail! wert thou then here?
While I as if thou to the starry paths
Hadst mounted, through my ignorance proclaimed
Thou from this world on rapid wings wert borne.
But I no longer will allow thee thus
To sport with the afflictions of thy friends;
For in thy cause thy lord and his brave troops
On Ilion’s coast already have endured
Abundant toils.
MEN. These are the very words
She uttered; and by what ye both aver
The truth is ascertained. O happy day
Which gives thee to my arms!
HEL. My dearest lord,
O Menelaus, it is long indeed
Since I have seen you: but joy comes at last.
My friends, transported I receive my lord
Whom I once more with these fond arms enfold,
After the radiant chariot of the sun
Hath oft the world illumined.
MEN. I embrace
Thee too: but having now so much to say
I know not with what subject to begin.
HEL. Joy raises my exulting crest, these tears
Are tears of ecstasy, around your neck
My arms I fling with transport, O my husband,
O sight most wished for!
MEN. I acquit the Fates,
Since Jove’s and Leda’s daughter I possess,
On whom her brothers borne on milk-white steeds
Erst showered abundant blessings, when the torch
Was kindled at our jocund nuptial rite;
Though from my palace her the gods conveyed.
But evil now converted into good
To me thy husband hath at length restored
My long-lost consort: grant, O bounteous Heaven,
That I these gifts of fortune may enjoy.
HEL. May you enjoy them, for my vows concur
With yours; nor, of us two, can one be wretched
Without the other. O my friends, I groan
No longer, I no longer shed the tear
For my past woes: my husband I possess
Whom I from Troy expected to return
Full many, many years.
MEN. I still am thine,
And thee with these fond arms again enfold.
But oft the chariot of the sun revolved
Through his diurnal orbit, ere the frauds
Of Juno I discerned. Yet more from joy
Than from affliction rise the tears I shed.
HEL. What shall I say? what mortal could presume
E’er to have hoped for such a blest event?
An unexpected visitant once more
I clasp you to my bosom.
MEN. And I thee
Who didst appear to sail for Ida’s town,
And Ilion’s wretched turrets. By the gods,
Inform me, I conjure thee, by what means
Thou from my palace hither wert conveyed.
HEL. Alas! you to the source of all my woes
Ascend, and search into most bitter tidings.
MEN. Speak: for whate’er hath been ordained by Heaven
Ought to be published.
HEL. I abhor the topic
On which I now am entering.
MEN. Yet relate
All that thou know’st; for pleasing ’tis to hear
Of labours that are past.
HEL. I never went
To that barbarian youth’s adulterous couch
By the swift oar impelled: but winged love
Those hapless spousals formed.
MEN. What god, what fate
Hath torn thee from thy country?
HEL. O my lord,
The son of Jove hath placed me on the banks
Of Nile.
MEN. With what amazement do I hear
This wondrous tale of thy celestial guide!
HEL. Oft have I wept, and still the tear bedews
These eyes: to Juno, wife of Jove, I owe
My ruin.
MEN. Wherefore wished she to have heaped
Mischiefs on thee?
HEL. Ye sources of whate’er
To me hath been most dreadful, O ye baths
And fountains, where those goddesses adorned
Their rival beauties, from whose influence rose
That judgment!
MEN. Were those curses on thy head
By Juno showered, that judgment to requite?
HEL. To rescue me from Venus.
MEN. What thou mean’st
Inform me.