Rachel Hadas reads
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A section from “Helen” by Euripedes trans. by Rachel Hadas: The Chorus laments Helen’s destiny and the tragedy of war. CHORUS Nightingale high in a tree so green, come and sing me a song of pain, a song for Helen and all the men slaughtered when Greeks destroyed the town, a song for Paris’ rapid flight and the fateful wedding night, a song of sword and spear and shield and heroes sent to the underworld. Widows wailed and cut their hair in silent houses—no men were there. Divine or not divine or something in between: what mortal man after long scrutiny of the mind of god could undertake to see and then come back and somehow make it plain, all he had understood— with what impossible luck leaping the mortal gap? A song for the swan who was Helen’s sire, having come to Leda with his desire. So Helen is the child of Zeus, yet they attack her all through Greece: Unjust! Faithless! Godless! Traitress! But I can see no clarity anywhere among mankind. Only the mind of god, I find, is clear, is free. And why, oh why do heroes try to prove their excellence in war? As if a spear could guard a man from the onslaught of life’s pain. Strife will be with us forever if blood is the criterion, from our cities vanish never, just as it ruined Priam’s town, Helen, discord over you. Once it still could be cured, this malady of hatred, violence, war— no more, no more. Disaster’s bolt has struck; the city walls burn black. And why, we wonder. Why? There is no answer. Only misery.