§599πεμφθεὶς ἑταίρων τῶν λελειμμένων ὕπο.
Messenger: Sent by the companions who were left behind.
§600τί δʼ ἔστιν;
Menelaus: What is it?
οὔ που βαρβάρων συλᾶσθʼ ὕπο;
You have not indeed been plundered by barbarians?
§601θαῦμʼ ἔστʼ, ἔλασσον τοὔνομʼ ἢ τὸ πρᾶγμʼ ἔχον.
Messenger: It is a wonder, having the fact greater than the word.
§602λέγʼ· ὡς φέρεις τι τῇδε τῇ σπουδῇ νέον.
Menelaus: Speak; for you bring something new with this haste.
§603λέγω πόνους σε μυρίους τλῆναι μάτην.
Messenger: I say that you have endured countless labors in vain.
§604παλαιὰ θρηνεῖς πήματʼ· ἀγγέλλεις δὲ τί;
Menelaus: You lament old misfortunes; but what do you announce?
§605βέβηκεν ἄλοχος σὴ πρὸς αἰθέρος πτυχὰς §606ἀρθεῖσʼ ἄφαντος· οὐρανῷ δὲ κρύπτεται §607λιποῦσα σεμνὸν ἄντρον οὗ σφʼ ἐσῴζομεν, §608τοσόνδε λέξασʼ· ὦ ταλαίπωροι Φρύγες §609πάντες τʼ Ἀχαιοί, διʼ ἔμʼ ἐπὶ Σκαμανδρίοις §610ἀκταῖσιν Ἥρας μηχαναῖς ἐθνῄσκετε, §611δοκοῦντες Ἑλένην οὐκ ἔχοντʼ ἔχειν Πάριν.
Messenger: Your wife has gone to the folds of the ether, raised up and vanished; and she is hidden in heaven, leaving the sacred cave where we were keeping her safe, having spoken thus much: "O wretched Phrygians and all you Achaians, because of me on Scamander's shores, by the devices of Hera, you died, thinking that Paris had Helen when he did not have her.
§612ἐγὼ δʼ, ἐπειδὴ χρόνον ἔμεινʼ ὅσον με χρῆν, §613τὸ μόρσιμον σῴσασα, πατέρʼ ἐς οὐρανὸν §614ἄπειμι· φήμας δʼ ἡ τάλαινα Τυνδαρὶς §615ἄλλως κακὰς ἤκουσεν οὐδὲν αἰτία. §616ὦ χαῖρε, Λήδας θύγατερ, ἐνθάδʼ ἦσθʼ ἄρα;
But I, since I remained as long a time as it behoved me, having preserved what was fated, to my father in heaven I depart; but the wretched daughter of Tyndareus has heard ill reports in vain, being in no way to blame." Messenger: O hail, daughter of Leda, so you were here?
But I was announcing you as having gone to the recesses of the stars, knowing nothing that you wore a winged body.
οὐκ ἐῶ σε κερτομεῖν §620ἡμᾶς τόδʼ αὖθις, ὡς ἄδην ἐν Ἰλίῳ §621πόνους παρεῖχες σῷ πόσει καὶ συμμάχοις.
Menelaus: I will not allow you to mock us again in this way, since you caused enough labors to your husband and the allies.
Menelaus: This is indeed that very thing; the words of this woman agree as true.
ὦ ποθεινὸς ἡμέρα, §624ἥ σʼ εἰς ἐμὰς ἔδωκεν ὠλένας λαβεῖν.
O longed-for day, which gave you to my arms to hold!
Helen: O dearest of men, Menelaus, the time indeed is long, but the joy is just now here.
I have received my husband gladly, friends, and have stretched my loving arm around him, in the long, light-bearing flame.
Menelaus: And I you; having many words in the midst, I know not which of them I should begin first now.
§632γέγηθα, κρατὶ δʼ ὀρθίους ἐθείρας §633ἀνεπτέρωκα καὶ δάκρυ σταλάσσω, §634περὶ δὲ γυῖα χέρας ἔβαλον, ἡδονάν, §635ὦ πόσις, ὡς λάβω.
Helen: I rejoice, and have made my hair stand up upon my head with excitement, and shed tears, and I cast my arms around your body, that I may receive joy, O husband.
§636ὦ φιλτάτη πρόσοψις, οὐκ ἐμέμφθην· §637ἔχω τὰ τῆς Διός τε λέκτρα Λήδας θʼ, §638ἃν ὑπὸ λαμπάδων κόροι λεύκιπποι §640ξυνομαίμονες ὤλβισαν ὤλβισαν §641τὸ πρόσθεν, ἐκ δόμων δὲ νοσφίσας σʼ ἐμοῦ §642πρὸς ἄλλαν ἐλαύνει §643θεὸς συμφορὰν τᾶσδε κρείσσω.
Menelaus: O dearest sight, I have no complaint; I possess the wife born of Zeus and Leda, whom under the torches the white-horsed youths, her brothers, blessed, blessed in times before, but having separated you from my house the god drives you to another misfortune, greater than this.
Helen: But the evil turned to good, and brought together you and me, your husband, after a long time; still, may I enjoy my fortune.
Menelaus: May you indeed enjoy it; I pray for the same things; for when there are two, one is not wretched while the other is not.
Helen: Friends, friends, no longer do we groan for the past, nor do I feel pain.
I have my husband, whom I waited for many years to come from Troy.
Menelaus: You have me, and I you; and having with difficulty passed countless days, I have perceived the deeds of the goddess.
Helen: And my joyful tears have more of grace than of grief.
§656τί φῶ;
Menelaus: What shall I say?
τίς ἂν τάδʼ ἤλπισεν βροτῶν ποτε;
Who of mortals would ever have hoped for this?
§657ἀδόκητον ἔχω σε πρὸς στέρνοις.
Unhoped-for I hold you to my breast.
Helen: And I you, who were thought to have gone to the Idaean city and the wretched towers of Ilium.
§660πρὸς θεῶν, δόμων πῶς τῶν ἐμῶν ἀπεστάλης;
Menelaus: By the gods, how were you sent away from my house?
Helen: Ah, ah, you step into bitter beginnings; ah, ah, you search out a bitter story.
§663λέγʼ· ὡς ἀκουστὰ πάντα δῶρα δαιμόνων.
Menelaus: Speak; for all gifts of the deities must be heard.
§664ἀπέπτυσα μὲν λόγον, οἷον οἷον ἐσοίσομαι.
Helen: I spit out the word, what kind of a story I am about to bring in.
§665ὅμως δὲ λέξον· ἡδύ τοι μόχθων κλύειν.
Menelaus: Speak nevertheless; for it is sweet to hear of labors.
§666οὐκ ἐπὶ βαρβάρου λέκτρα νεανία §667πετομένας κώπας, §668πετομένου δʼ ἔρωτος ἀδίκων γάμων §669τίς γάρ σε δαίμων ἢ πότμος συλᾷ πάτρας;
Helen: Not to the bed of a barbarian youth, with flying oar, nor with flying love of unjust marriage— Menelaus: For what deity or fate plundered you from your fatherland?
Helen: The son of Zeus, the son of Zeus, O husband, brought me near to the Nile.
§672θαυμαστά·
Menelaus: Wondrous things!
τοῦ πέμψαντος;
Of the sender?
ὦ δεινοὶ λόγοι.
O terrible words.
Helen: I wept and wet my eyelid with tears; the wife of Zeus destroyed me.
§675Ἥρα;
Menelaus: Hera?
τί νῷν χρῄζουσα προσθεῖναι κακόν;
Wanting to add what evil to us two?
Helen: Alas for my terrors, the baths and the springs, where the goddesses purified their forms, whence came the judgment.
§679τὰ δʼ ἐς κρίσιν σοι τῶνδʼ ἔθηχʼ Ἥρα κακῶν —;
Menelaus: And did Hera impose on you these evils for the judgment?
Helen: In order that she might take me away from Paris— Menelaus: How?
αὔδα.
Speak.
Helen: To whom Cypris had promised me— Menelaus: O wretched one.
§682τλάμων, τλάμων· ὧδʼ ἐπέλασʼ Αἰγύπτῳ.
Helen: Wretched, wretched; thus she brought me near to Egypt.
§683εἶτʼ ἀντέδωκʼ εἴδωλον, ὡς σέθεν κλύω.
Menelaus: Then she gave in return the idol, as I hear from you.
Helen: And the sufferings, the sufferings in your house, O mother, alas, for me!
§685bτί φῄς;
Menelaus: What do you say?