Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/361
The prize of Fair with Helen's shadowy[1] hand.
The issue rests with me—to tell my brother,
As Kypris would, thy presence, ruining thee,
Or, standing Hera's ally, save thy life,
Hiding it from my brother, who bids that I 890
Declare it, when thou comest to our shore.
[A pause.]
Go, some one, tell my brother that this man
Is here, that I of peril clear may stand.
Helen.
O maiden, suppliant at thy knee I fall,
And, in the posture of the unhappy, bow 895
Both for myself and this man, whom at last,
Scarce found, I am in peril to see slain!
Ah, tell not to thy brother that my lord,
My best-beloved, hath come unto mine arms;
But save us, I implore thee! To thy brother 900
Never betray thy reverence for the right,
Buying his gratitude by sin and wrong.
For God abhorreth violence, bidding all
Not by the spoiler's rapine get them gain.
Away with wealth—the wealth amassed by wrong![2] 905
For common to all mortals is heaven's air,
And earth, whereof men ought to store their homes,
Not keep nor wrest by violence others' goods.
- ↑ Reading ἀνονήτοις for ὠνητοῖς, "with Helen's hand for bribe." The real discredit to Aphroditê lay, not in her bribing the judge, wherein she was no worse than Hera and Pallas, but in the fact that payment was made with a counterfeit instead of the reality.
- ↑ A line generally regarded as an interpolation.