Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/214

186 And thou, truest of my friends to me,

Pylades, kindle yonder parapets.

O land of Danaans, folk of knightly Argos,

Up, gird on harness!—unto rescue run!

For lo, this man defieth all your state,

Yet lives, polluted with a mother's blood.

Apollo appears above in the clouds with Helen.

Menelaus, peace to thine infuriate mood:

I Phœbus, Leto's son, here call on thee.

Peace thou, Orestes, too, whose sword doth guard

Yon maid, that thou mayst hear the words I bear.

Helen, whose death thou hast essayed, to sting

The heart of Menelaus, yet hast missed,

Is here,—whom wrapped in folds of air ye see,—

From death delivered, and not slain of thee.

'Twas I that rescued her, and from thy sword

Snatched her away by Father Zeus' behest;

For, as Zeus' daughter, deathless must she live,

And shall by Kastor and Polydeukes sit

In folds of air, the mariners' saviour she.

Take thee a new bride to thine halls, and wed;

Seeing the high Gods by her beauty's lure

Hellenes and Phrygians into conflict drew,

And brought to pass deaths, so to lighten earth

Oppressed with over-increase of her sons.