Stasimon 1
[Episode]
I never saw a closer resemblance.
Helen
O gods! For the recognizing of friends is a god.
560
Menelaos
Are you a woman from Hellas, or a native of this land?
Helen
From Hellas; but I want to learn your story too.
Menelaos
You seem to me very much like Helen, lady.
Helen
And you seem to me like Menelaos; I don’t know what to say.
Menelaos
Well, you have correctly recognized a most unfortunate man.
565
Helen
Oh, at last you have come to the arms of your wife!
Menelaos
What do you mean by wife? Do not touch my robe.
Helen
The one whom Tyndareus, my father, gave to you.
Menelaos
O torch-bearing Hekate, send visions that are favorable!
Helen
You see in me no specter of the night, attendant on the queen of phantoms.
570
Menelaos
As one man, I am certainly not the husband of two women.
Helen
You are the master of what other wife?
Menelaos
The one hidden in the cave, whom I am bringing from Troy.
Helen
You have no other wife but me.
Menelaos
Can it be that I am in my right mind, but my sight is failing?
575
Helen
Don’t you think that when you look at me you see your wife?
Menelaos
Your body resembles hers, but the real truth robs me of this belief.
Helen
Look; what more do you need? Who knows better than you?
Menelaos
You are like her; I will not deny that at least.
Helen
Who then shall teach you, if not your own eyes?
580
Menelaos
It is there that I am ailing, because I have another wife.
Helen
I did not go to Troy; that was a phantom.
Menelaos
And who fashions living bodies?
Helen
The air, out of which you have a wife that the gods labored over.
Menelaos
What god’s handiwork? You are saying things beyond hope.
585
Helen
Hera’s, as a substitute, so that Paris would not have me.
Menelaos
How then could you be here and in Troy at the same time?
Helen
The name may be in many places, though not the body.
