stole my wife, traitor to my hospitality. But he, by heaven's will,

hath paid the penalty, ruined, and his country too, by the spear of
Hellas. And I am come to bear that Spartan woman hence-wife I have

no mind to call her, though she once was mine; for now she is but
one among the other Trojan dames who share these tents as captives.

For they-the very men who toiled to take her with the spear-have
granted her to me to slay, or, if I will, to spare and carry back with

me to Argos. Now my purpose is not to put her to death in Troy, but to
carry her to Hellas in my seaborne ship, and then surrender her to

death, a recompense to all whose friends were slain in Ilium. Ho! my
trusty men, enter the tent, and drag her out to me by her hair with

many a murder foul; and when a favouring breeze shall blow, to
Hellas will we convey her.

HECUBA
O thou that dost support the earth and restest thereupon,

whosoe'er thou art, a riddle past our ken! be thou Zeus, or natural
necessity, or man's intellect, to thee I pray; for, though thou

treadest o'er a noiseless path, all thy dealings with mankind are by
justice guided.

MENELAUS
How now? Strange the prayer thou offerest unto heaven!

HECUBA
I thank thee, Menelaus, if thou wilt slay that wife of thine.

Yet shun the sight of her, lest she smite thee with regret. For she
ensnares the eyes of men, o'erthrows their towns, and burns their

houses, so potent are her witcheries! Well I know her; so dost thou
and those her victims too.

Enter HELEN.
HELEN

Menelaus! this prelude well may fill me with alarm; for I am haled
with violence by thy servants' hands and brought before these tents.

Still, though I am well-nigh sure thou hatest me, yet would I fain
inquire what thou and Hellas have decided about my life.

MENELAUS
To judge thy case required no great exactness; the host with one

consent-that host whom thou didst wrong-handed thee over to me to die.
HELEN

May I answer this decision, proving that my death, if to die I am,
will be unjust?

MENELAUS
I came not to argue, but to slay thee.

HECUBA
Hear her, Menelaus; let her not die for want of that, and let me

answer her again, for thou knowest naught of her villainies in Troy;
and the whole case, if thus summed up, will insure her death against

all chance of an escape.
MENELAUS

This boon needs leisure; still, if she wishes to speak, the
leave is given. Yet will I grant her this because of thy words, that

she may hear them, and not for her own sake.
HELEN

Perhaps thou wilt not answer me, from counting me a foe, whether
my words seem good or ill. Yet will I put my charges and thine over

against each other, and then reply to the accusations I suppose thou
wilt advance against me. First, then, she was the author of these

troubles by giving birth to Paris; next, old Priam ruined Troy and me,
because he did not slay his babe Alexander, baleful semblance of a

fire-brand, long ago. Hear what followed. This Paris was to judge
the claims of three rival goddesses; so Pallas offered him command

of all the Phrygians, and the destruction of Hellas; Hera promised
he should spread his dominion over Asia, and the utmost bounds of

Europe, if he would decide for her; but Cypris spoke in rapture of
my loveliness, and promised him this boon, if she should have the

preference o'er those twain for beauty; now mark the inference I
deduce from this; Cypris won the day o'er them, and thus far hath my

marriage proved of benefit to Hellas, that ye are not subject to
barbarian rule, neither vanquished in the strife, nor yet by tyrants

crushed. What Hellas gained, was ruin to me, a victim for my beauty
sold, and now am I reproached for that which should have set a crown

upon my head. But thou wilt say I am silent on the real matter at
issue, how it was I started forth and left thy house by stealth.

With no mean goddess at his side he came, my evil genius, call him
Alexander or Paris, as thou wilt; and him didst thou, thriceguilty

wretch, leave behind thee in thy house, and sail away from Sparta to
the land of Crete. Enough of this! For all that followed I must

question my own heart, not thee; what frantic thought led me to follow
the stranger from thy house, traitress to my country and my home?

Punish the goddess, show thyself more mighty e'en than Zeus, who,
though he lords it o'er the other gods, is yet her slave; wherefore

I may well be pardoned. Still, from hence thou mightest draw a
specious argument against me; when Paris died, and Earth concealed his

corpse, I should have left his house and sought the Argive fleet,
since my marriage was no longer in the hands of gods. That was what

I fain had done; yea, and the warders on the towers and watchmen on
the walls can bear me witness, for oft they found me seeking to let

myself down stealthily by cords from the battlements; but there was
that new husband, Deiphobus, that carried me off by force to be his

wife against the will of Troy. How then, my lord, could I be justly
put to death by thee, with any show of right, seeing that he wedded me

against my will, and those my other natural gifts have served a bitter
slavery, instead of leading on to triumph? If 'tis thy will indeed

to master gods, that very wish displays thy folly.
CHORUS

O my royal mistress, defend thy children's and thy country.'s
cause, bringing to naught her persuasivearguments, for she pleads

well in spite of all her villainy; 'tis monstrous this!
HECUBA

First will I take up the cause of those goddesses, and prove how
she perverts the truth. For I can ne'er believe that Hera or the

maiden Pallas would have been guilty of such folly, as to sell, the
one, her Argos to barbarians, or that Pallas e'er would make her

Athens subject to the Phrygians, coming as they did in mere wanton
sport to Ida to contest the palm of beauty. For why should goddess

Hera set her heart so much on such a prize? Was it to win a nobler
lord than Zeus? or was Athena bent on finding 'mongst the gods a

husband, she who in her dislike of marriage won from her sire the boon
of remaining unwed? Seek not to impute folly to the goddesses, in

the attempt to gloze o'er thy own sin; never wilt thou persuade the
wise. Next thou hast said-what well may make men jeer-that Cypris came

with my son to the house of Menelaus. Could she not have stayed
quietly in heaven and brought thee and Amyclae to boot to Ilium?

Nay! my son was passing fair, and when thou sawest him thy fancy
straight became thy Cypris; for every sensual act that men commit,

they lay upon this goddess, and rightly does her name of Aphrodite
begin the word for "senselessness"; so when thou didst catch sight

of him in gorgeous foreign garb, ablaze with gold, thy senses
utterly forsook thee. Yea, for in Argos thou hadst moved in simple

state, but, once free of Sparta, 'twas thy fond hope to deluge by
thy lavishoutlay Phrygia's town, that flowed with gold; nor was the

palace of Menelaus rich enough for thy luxury to riot in. Ha! my son
carried thee off by force, so thou savest; what Spartan saw this? what

cry for help didst thou ever raise, though Castor was still alive, a
vigorous youth, and his brother also, not yet amid the stars? Then

when thou wert come to Troy, and the Argives were on thy track, and
the mortalcombat was begun, whenevertidings came to thee of

Menelaus' prowess, him wouldst thou praise, to grieve my son,
because he had so powerful a rival in his love; but if so the

Trojans prospered, Menelaus was nothing to thee. Thy eye was fixed
on Fortune, and by such practice wert thou careful to follow in her

steps, careless of virtue's cause. And then, in spite of all, thou
dost assert that thou didst try to let thyself down from the towers by

stealth with twisted cords, as if loth to stay? Pray then, wert thou