1 EURIPIDES' TROJAN WOMEN PREFACE, TRANSLATION, and ...

Menelaus
No. It depends on what that beloved has done.
But I’ll do what you say. She won’t go on the same ship with me.
You give good advice. When we get to Greece
she will die a terrible death for the terrible things she did,
and be a lesson for all women to control their lust.
This is not easy for me. But her destruction
will terrify them in their sexual misdeeds,
even if they are still more shameless than she.
[Exeunt Menelaus with Helen, making it obvious he will not kill her]
Chorus
Zeus, you betrayed your own shrine to the Achaeans,
Even while its altar was smoking with incense and flame of sacrifice,
And holy Pergamon whose smoky myrrh floats to heaven;
The vales of Ida covered with ivy
And washed by streaming snow,
Ida the limit of the world
First to be struck by the sun’s rays
That shining holy haunt of the gods.
No more sacrifices
Nor sacred chants and dances in the dark,
In all night worship for the gods.
Gone the sacred wooden images covered with gold,
And the twelve holy rites for Phrygia’s full moons.
This is now my worry, Zeus:
Do you care at all for these rites, you who are
Seated high above on your heavenly throne?
Any care for me and my city in ruins
Or the raging storm of fire that brought it down?
Oh, you my dear husband,
You are now a ghost,
Wandering unburied
Unwashed by hands that loved you.
A ship will take me over the sea
Swiftly sailing on wings of pine,
To horse-blest Argos
With its stony Cyclopean walls
That rend the sky.
Our children crowd the gates
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