- Play by Euripides.
- It is in GB Volume 5.
- Newsletter post: https://www.readgreatbooks.info/p/great-books-ep-84-euripides-helen
Helen
Metadata
People in the play
Helen, Teucer, Chorus - ladies attendant on Helen, Menelaus, Portress - an old woman, Messenger, Theonoe, Theoclymenus, The Dioscuri
Highlights
- Now Cypris held out my beauty—if aught so wretched deserves that name—as a bribe before the eyes of Paris, saying he should marry me; and so she won the day; (View Highlight)
- a phantom endowed with life, that she made in my image out of the breath of heaven; and Paris thought that I was his, although I never was—an idle fancy (View Highlight)
- he brought a war, that he might lighten mother-earth of her myriad hosts of men, (View Highlight)
- He. Was it Helen’s shame that caused her death ? Te. Aye, ‘tis said she tied the noose about her noble neck. (View Highlight) - This is about Leda
- if a man doth turn his eyes to a single phase of fortune, and meets ill-usage at heaven’s hands, ‘tis hard no doubt; but still it can be borne (View Highlight)
- And this is a grief beyond the reality, if a man incurs blame for sins that are not his. (View Highlight)
- Is there a grief in life that thou hast not endured ? Thy mother is dead; the two dear sons of Zeus have perished miserably, and thou art severed from thy country’s sight, while through the towns of men a rumour runs, consigning thee, my honoured mistress, to a barbarian’s bed and ‘mid the ocean waves thy lord ; hath lost his life, and never, never more shalt thou fill with glee thy father’s halls (View Highlight)
- when a husband she loathes is mated with a woman, even life is loathly to her. Best for her to die; but how shall I die a noble death? (View Highlight)
- The dangling noose is an uncomely end; even slaves consider it a disgrace; to stab oneself hath something (View Highlight)
- fair and noble in it; ‘tis a small thing that moment of ridding the flesh of life. (View Highlight)
- I am plunged so deep in misery; for that beauty, which to other women is a boon, to me hath been a very bane. (View Highlight)
- The word of truth hath a very different sound to falsehood. (View Highlight)
- Of the future take a brighter view, whatever shall betide. (View Highlight)
- For when a man of high degree meets with adversity, he feels the strangeness of his fallen state more keenly than a sufferer of long stand- ing. (View Highlight)
- Can there be a man that hath the name of Zeus by the banks of Nile ? The Zeus of heaven is only one, at any rate. (View Highlight)
- Naught in might exceedeth dread necessity (View Highlight)
- Who then shall teach thee, unless it be thine own eyes? (View Highlight)
- The name may be in many a place at once, though not the body. (View Highlight)
- Thy answer shows more wisdom than my question. (View Highlight)
- Calchas never by word or sign showed the host the truth, when he saw his friends dying on behalf of a phantom, nor yet did Helenus; but the city was stormed in vain. Perhaps thou wilt say, ‘twas not heaven’s will that they should do so. Then why do we employ these prophets? Better were it to sacrifice to the gods, and crave a blessing, leaving proph- ecy alone; (View Highlight)
- no man grows rich by divination if he is idle. No! sound judgment and discernment are the best of seers. (View Highlight)
- whoso hath the gods upon his side will have the best seer in his house. (View Highlight)
- to attempt impossibilities is no mark of wisdom. (View Highlight)
- Wealth unjustly gotten, though it bring some power, is to be eschewed. (View Highlight)
- No man ever prospered by unjust practices, but in a righteous cause there is hope of safety. (View Highlight)
- I shall say it is not the custom in Hellas to bury those who die at sea upon the shore. (View Highlight)
- . O fools! all ye who try to win the meed of valour through war and serried ranks of chivalry, seeking thus to still this mortal coil, in senselessness; for if bloody contests are to decide, there will never be any lack of strife in the towns of men; (View Highlight)
- What kind of death doth he declare that Menelaus died ? He. The most piteous of all; amid the watery waves at sea. (View Highlight)
- With thee have I no fault to find; good luck is all I need. (View Highlight)
- Many are the forms the heavenly will assumes; and many a thing God brings to pass con- trary to expectation: that which was looked for is not accomplished, while Heaven finds out a way for what we never hoped; e’en such has been the issue here. Exeunt omnes. (View Highlight)