Stasimon 1
[Episode]
Could you persuade someone in charge of the wagons
Menelaos
and horses to give us a chariot?
1040
Helen
I might; but how will we escape, in our ignorance of the country and the barbarian land?
Menelaos
You are right; a dilemma. Well, what if I were to hide in the house and kill the king with this two-edged sword?
Helen
His sister would never be silent or allow you to intend her own brother’s death.
1045
Menelaos
Nor indeed is there a ship in which we might safely escape; for the sea holds the one we had.
Helen
Listen to me, if even a woman can say something wise.
Are you willing to be called dead in word, though you are not dead?
1050
Menelaos
It is a bad omen; but if I profit by it, I am ready to be called dead in word, though I am not dead.
Helen
And truly I would mourn you, as women do, with hair cut short and laments before this impious man.
Menelaos
What saving remedy does this have for us two? There is a flavor of deception in your scheme.
1055
Helen
I will beg the tyrant of this country for permission to bury you in an empty tomb, as if you had really died at sea.
Menelaos
Soppose he allows it; then how shall we escape with no ship,
when we have buried my body in the empty tomb?
1060
Helen
I will urge him to give me a vessel, from which I shall have the offerings from your tomb let down into the sea’s embrace.
Menelaos
You have spoken well, except for one thing: if he commands you to set up a tomb on the dry land, your pretext comes to nothing.
Helen
But I will say it is not the custom in Hellas to bury those who have died at sea on the dry land.
1065
Menelaos
You are setting this right, too; then I will sail with you, and help let down the funeral offerings, in the same ship.
Helen
You must above all be at hand,
with your sailors who escaped from the wreck.
1070
Menelaos
Be sure that if I have a ship at anchor, they will be posted, man beside man, each with his sword.
Helen
You must direct everything; only let there be winds in our sails to guide us, and a speedy ship.
Menelaos
It will be so; for the deities will bring my troubles to an end. But from whom will you say that you heard I was dead?
1075
Helen
From you; allege that you were the only one to escape death, when you were sailing with the son of Atreus, and that you saw him dead.
Menelaos
It is true that these rags thrown around my body
will bear witness with me as to the shipwreck.
1080
Helen
They have come at the right time, although then they seemed an ill-timed loss. Perhaps that misery may turn to good fortune.
Menelaos
Should I to enter the house with you, or am I to sit quietly here at this tomb?
Helen
Stay here; for if he does something harsh to you, this tomb and your sword would protect you. But I will go into the house, cut off my hair, exchange my white robe for a dark one, and tear my cheek with nails that make the flesh bloody.
1085
For the contest is a great one, and I see two turns of the scale: either I must die if I am detected in my plot, or else come home and save you as well.
1090
