Ἑλένη
Helen
Euripides · first staged City Dionysia, 412 BC · produced with Andromeda
Helen never went to Troy: the gods sent a phantom in her place, and she has spent the war in Egypt. Menelaus, shipwrecked there, finds her, and they plot their escape.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Ελ.Helen
- Τε.Teucer
- Χο.Chorus
- Με.Menelaus
- Γρ.Old Woman
- Θερ.Servant
- Θεον.Theonoe
- Θεοκ.Theoclymenus
- Αγ.Messenger
- Θε.βSecond Servant
- Κα.Castor
Translations
- E. P. Coleridgeprose · 1891 · aligned by line · with Murray's Greek
- A. S. Wayverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Coleridge, rev. Helen Heroization team (Kosmos Society)prose · aligned by speech · with Diggle's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Eur. Hel. 1–1692
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Helen never went to Troy. Hera sent a phantom in her place, and the real Helen has spent the war in Egypt, where the king, Theoclymenus, now means to marry her. Menelaus, shipwrecked on the coast with the phantom, arrives and meets a woman who says she is his wife; the phantom dissolves and he believes her. Helen tells the king her husband is dead and asks for a ship to hold his funeral at sea. Theoclymenus gives her one, and the two of them sail off in it, killing the Egyptian crew. The king turns on his sister Theonoe, who knew the truth, until the Dioscuri, Helen's brothers, stop him.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1858 plate of a red-figure vase (Lenormant and de Witte, Élite des monuments céramographiques III, pl. LVII B); cut out and retraced.