Part 61 (1/2)

MNESILOCHUS. ”I was given the name of Helen.”

SEVENTH WOMAN. What! you are again becoming a woman, before we have punished you for having pretended it a first time!

MNESILOCHUS. ”A thousand warriors have died on my account on the banks of the Scamander.”

SEVENTH WOMAN. Why have you not done the same?

MNESILOCHUS. ”And here I am upon these sh.o.r.es; Menelaus, my unhappy husband, does not yet come. Ah! how life weighs upon me! Oh! ye cruel crows, who have not devoured my body! But what sweet hope is this that sets my heart a-throb? Oh, Zeus! grant it may not prove a lying one!”

EURIPIDES (_as Menelaus_). ”To what master does this splendid palace belong? Will he welcome strangers who have been tried on the billows of the sea by storm and s.h.i.+pwreck?”[627]

MNESILOCHUS. ”This is the palace of Proteus.”[628]

EURIPIDES. ”Of what Proteus?”

SEVENTH WOMAN. Oh! the thrice cursed rascal! how he lies! By the G.o.ddesses, 'tis ten years since Proteas[629] died.

EURIPIDES. ”What is this sh.o.r.e whither the wind has driven our boat?”

MNESILOCHUS. ”It's Egypt.”

EURIPIDES. ”Alas! how far we are from our own country!”

SEVENTH WOMAN. But don't believe that cursed fool. This is Demeter's Temple.

EURIPIDES. ”Is Proteus in these parts?”

SEVENTH WOMAN. Ah, now, stranger, it must be sea-sickness that makes you so distraught! You have been told that Proteas is dead, and yet you ask if he is in these parts.

EURIPIDES. ”He is no more! Oh! woe! where lie his ashes?”

MNESILOCHUS. 'Tis on his tomb you see me sitting.

SEVENTH WOMAN. You call an altar a tomb! Beware of the rope!

EURIPIDES. ”And why remain sitting on this tomb, wrapped in this long veil, oh, stranger lady?”[630]

MNESILOCHUS. ”They want to force me to marry a son of Proteus.”

SEVENTH WOMAN. Ah! wretch, why tell such shameful lies? Stranger, this is a rascal who has slipped in amongst us women to rob us of our trinkets.

MNESILOCHUS (_to Seventh Woman_) ”Shout! load me with your insults, for little care I.”

EURIPIDES. ”Who is the old woman who reviles you, stranger lady?”

MNESILOCHUS. ”'Tis Theonoe, the daughter of Proteus.”

SEVENTH WOMAN. I! Why, my name's Critylla, the daughter of Ant.i.theus,[631] of the deme of Gargettus;[632] as for you, you are a rogue.

MNESILOCHUS. ”Your entreaties are vain. Never shall I wed your brother; never shall I betray the faith I owe my husband Menelaus, who is fighting before Troy.”