Helen
[330]
Dear friends, I welcome your advice. Come in, come into the house, to learn within about my struggles.
Chorus
You are calling on one who is wholly willing.
Helen
[335]
Oh, what an unhappy day! What tearful word shall I hear, unhappy as I am?
Chorus
Do not be a prophetess of sorrow, dear friend, anticipating lamentation.
Helen
[340]
What has my poor husband suffered? Does he see the light and the sun's chariot and the paths of the stars? Or does he have a lasting fate
[345]
among the dead beneath the earth?
Chorus
Take a brighter view of the future, whatever will happen.
Helen
For I call on you, I swear to you, Eurotas green with watery reeds,
[350]
if this rumor of my husband's death is true—and what was obscure in those words?—I will stretch a deadly noose about my neck, or drive inward a murderous thrust of slaughter that gushes from the throat,
[355]
a contest of the blade through my flesh, as a sacrifice to the three goddesses and to the son of Priam, who once sat on the hollows of Ida, near the ox-stalls.
Chorus
[360]
May sorrow be turned aside elsewhere, and may your lot be fortunate!