Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/351

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HELEN.
323

bear a name dishonoured, at least my body here may not incur disgrace.

Teu. Who is lord and master of this fenced palace? The house is one I may compare to the halls of Plutus, with its royal bulwarks and towering buildings. Ha! great gods! what sight is here? I see the counterfeit of that fell murderous dame, who ruined me and all the Achæans. May Heaven show its loathing for thee, so much dost thou resemble Helen! Were I not standing on a foreign soil, with this well-aimed shaft had I worked thy death, thy reward for resembling the daughter of Zeus.

Hel. Oh! why, poor man, whoe'er thou art, dost thou turn from me, loathing me for those troubles Helen caused?

Teu. I was wrong; I yielded to my anger more than I ought; my[1] reason was, the hate all Hellas bears to that daughter of Zeus. Pardon me, lady, for the words I uttered.

Hel. Who art thou? whence comest thou to visit this land?

Teu. One of those hapless Achæans am I, lady.

Hel.[2] No wonder then that thou dost hate Helen. But say, who art thou? Whence comest? By what name am I to call thee?

Teu. My name is Teucer; my sire was Telamon, and Salamis is the land that nurtured me.

Hel. Then why art thou visiting these meadows by the Nile?

Teu. A wanderer I, an exile from my native land.

Hel. Thine must be a piteous lot; who from thy country drives thee out?

Teu.[3] My father Telamon. Couldst find a nearer and a dearer?

  1. This line is bracketed by Nauck as suspicious.
  2. Badham regards the next three lines as spurious.
  3. Nauck considers this and the next line interpolated.