The Male Characters of Euripides
By E M Blaiklock MA
Cannot Helen do something by persuasive prayer? She will try, but failing, what then? Death for him, and for her a wedding! At this Menelaus cries treachery. He exacts a selfish oath from Helen that she will die with him at the worst.
Indeed, caught in the old circle of thought which had held his exasperated mind in thrall through the long years by the Scamander, he is tempted to savour the situation ghoulishly.
More likely the heroics appeal to him and he finds something oddly attractive in the thought of taking Helen with him at the last, beyond all rivals' reach, beyond all jealousy. At any rate he describes the scene three times, dramatically:
And I, of thee bereft, will end my life.
(1. 840)
On the tomb's crest thy life I'll spill then mine.
(1. 842)
And luridly at last:
I am resolved to slay her, then to thrust
Into mine own heart this two-edged sword,
On this tomb's crest, that streams of our life-blood
May drench the grave: so shall we, side by side, Two corpses lie upon this carven tomb.
(I. 982-986. Way)
Way's translation takes a little of the ugliness out of iv aluatos poai ádov aaoraŞwo, (translation needed please) that runnels of blood may trickle
down the tomb!' Everything must be done in the blaze of Troy's glory:
I cannot brook to cast me at thy knee
Nor drown mine eyes with tears; else should I shame
Troy utterly in turning craven thus.
(Helen 947-949. Way)
It is a repetition to Theonoe, who has made a spectacular entry, of a phrase which had become an obsession with him. I will not shame the Trojan glory,' had been his words to Helen
(L. 845). Is this cruelty on Euripides'
part? We can never know,
because it is impossible to recapture the Athenian atmosphere of that day. There was little glory left in war for those whose dead were in the river-beds of Sicily and the quarries of Syracuse. If one city in all Hellas were likely soon to go the way of Troy, that city was Athens. glory, go the way of Troy, that city was Athens. ‘The Trojan Glory’ on the lips of Spartan King would ring Hollow in an Attic Theatre.
I am sorry about the truncated blog post today. But we will continue from page 92 tomorrow. Thank you for reading.