Eksodos
Second Messenger
(entering hurriedly.) O king, at last have I found thee in the palace; for new. . . troubles are you soon to hear from me.
Messenger
Go to work on the courtship of another
woman; for Helen has left the country.
1515
Theoklymenos
Carried up on wings, or treading on the earth?
Messenger
Menelaos has taken her off as plunder, out of the land; he was the one that came with the news of his own death.
Theoklymenos
O dreadful story! What ship carried her
off from this land? Your story is unbelievable.
1520
Messenger
The very one that you gave to the stranger; and he has gone with your sailors, so that you may know everything in brief.
Theoklymenos
How? I am eager to know; for I never expected that a single hand could excel over
so many sailors, with whom you were sent.
1525
Messenger
When the daughter of Zeus had left this royal house and started for the sea, delicately picking her way, she most cleverly began to mourn her husband, though he was close at hand and not dead.
When we reached the enclosure of your dockyards, we began to launch the Sidonian ship on her first voyage, with her fifty benches and full measure of rowers. Task gave way to task: one set up the mast, another set up the oars
1530
. . . and the rudders were lowered by their cross-bars. And during this labor, men of Hellas who had been fellow-voyagers with Menelaos were watching us, it seems, and they drew near to the beach, clad in the rags of shipwrecked men,
1535
handsome, but rough to look upon. And the son of Atreus, when he saw them approach, spoke to them, craftily introducing the reason for his mourning: Unhappy sailors, how have you arrived? From the wreckage of what Achaean ship?
1540
Are you here to help bury the dead son of Atreus, whose missing body this lady, daughter of Tyndareus, is honoring with an empty grave? They wept in a feigned manner, and went to the ship, carrying aboard the offerings to be thrown into the sea for Menelaos. We were suspicious at this,
1545
and said to each other that there would be a crowd of those additional passengers; but still we remained silent, out of respect for your orders; for by bidding the stranger command the vessel, you threw everything into confusion.
1550
Well, we easily put the other victims on the ship, for they were light;
but the bull did not want to go forward along the plank, but kept bellowing loudly, rolling his eyes around; and, arching his back and peering along his horns, he prevented us from touching him. But Helen’s husband
1555
called out: O you who sacked the town of Ilion, come pick up this bull on young shoulders, as is the way in Hellas, and cast him into the prow . . . the sacrifice to the dead man.
1560
Then they came at his summons, and caught up the bull and carried him on to the deck. And Menelaos stroked the horse on neck and brow, coaxing it to go aboard.
1565
Finally, when the ship was fully loaded,
Helen climbed up the ladder with elegant step, and took her seat in the middle of the rowers’ benches, and he was near by, Menelaos who was called dead. The rest, equally divided on the right and left sides of the ship, sat down, each beside his man, with swords concealed beneath their cloaks,
1570
and the waves were filled with shouting as we heard the voice of the boatswain.
1575
Now when we had put out from land, neither very far nor very near, the helmsman asked, Shall we sail yet further, stranger, or is this far enough?
For the command of this ship is yours. And he answered, Far enough for me. Holding a sword in his right hand, he stepped into the prow; and, standing over the bull to slay it, with no mention of any dead man, he cut its throat and prayed: O Poseidon of the sea,
1580
who lives in the deep, and you holy daughters of Nereus, bring me and my wife safe and sound from here to Nauplia’s shore! Streams of blood, a good omen for the stranger, darted into the waves. And someone said, There is treachery in this voyage;
1585
let us sail back again! You, give an order for the right oar, you, turn your rudder. But the son of Atreus, standing where he slew the bull, cried out to his comrades, Why do you, the pick of Hellas, delay to slaughter and kill the barbarians
1590
and hurl them from the ship into the waves? And the boatswain cried the opposite command to your rowers: Some of you catch up planks at the end, break up the benches, or snatch the oars from the locks, and make the heads of these foreign enemies bloody!.
1595
They all leapt upright, some with oars in their hands, others with swords; and the ship ran with blood. Helen cheered them on from the stern: Where is the fame you won in Troy? Show it against the barbarians! In their eagerness, some would
1600
