Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/343

Enter Messenger.

Menelaus, at last I find thee, searching long,
Through all this land barbaric wandering.
Being sent of those thy comrades left behind.

How?—by barbarian robbers are ye spoiled? 600

Less strange the tale I bear is than the truth.

Speak!—by this eagerness, thou bring'st strange news.

I say thou barest toils untold for nought.

Herein thou mourn'st old woes: what news dost bring?

Gone is thy wife—into the folds of air 605
Wafted and vanished! Hid in heaven's depths
She hath left the sacred cave wherein we watched her,
With this cry, "Ah unhappy Phrygian folk,
And all Achaians, who by Hera's wiles
Upon Skamander's banks still died for me, 610
Deeming that Paris had, who had not, Helen!
I, having tarried all the time foredoomed,
My destiny fulfilled, to heaven return,