Helen Essay Thesis Example For Students

Helen Essay Thesis A monologue from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. i. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Dent Sons, 1920. HELEN: At thy knees I fall,O virgin, as a suppliant, and here takeMy miserable seat, both for myself,And him whom, scarce restored to me, I seeNow on the verge of death. Forbear t informThy brother, that to these fond arms my lordAgain is come. O save him, I implore thee;Nor gratify thy brother, by betrayingThe feelings of humanity, to purchaseA wicked and unjust applause: for JoveDetests all violence, he bids us useWhat we possess, but not increase our storesBy rapine. It is better to be poor,Than gain unrighteous wealth. For all mankindEnjoy these common blessings, Air and Earth;Nor ought we our own house with gold to fill,By keeping fraudfully anothers right,Or seizing it by violence. For Hermes,Commissioned by the blest immortal powers,Hath, at my cost, consigned me to thy sire,To keep me for this husband, who is hereAnd claims me back again: but by what meansCan he receive me after he is dead?Or how can the Egyptian king restore meA living consort to my breathless lord?Consider therefore, both the will of HeavenAnd that of thy great father. Would the god,Would the deceased, surrender up or keepAnothers right? I deem they would restore it.Hence to thy foolish brother shouldst not thouPay more respect than to thy virtuous sire.And sure if thou, a prophetess, who utterstTh oracular responses of the gods,Breakst through thy fathers justice, to complyWith an unrighteous brother: it were baseIn thee to understand each mystic truthRevealed by the immortal powers, the thingsThat are, and those that are not; yet oerlookThe rules of justice. But O stoop to saveMe, miserable me, from all those illsIn which I am involved; this great exertionOf thy benignant aid, my fortunes claim.For there is no man who abhors not Helen;Tis rumored through all Greece that I betrayedMy husband, and abode beneath the roofsOf wealthy Phrygia. But to Greece once moreShould I return and to the Spartan realm;When they are told, and see, how to the artsOf these contending goddesses they oweT heir ruin; but that I have to my friendsBeen ever true, they to the rank I heldMidst chaste and virtuous matrons, will restore me:My daughter too, whom no man dares to wed,From me her bridal portion shall receive;And I, no longer doomed to lead the lifeOf an unhappy vagrant, shall enjoyThe treasures that our palaces contain.Had Menelaus died, and been consumedIn the funeral pyre, I should have weptFor him far distant in a foreign realm;But now shall I for ever be bereftOf him who lives, and seem to have escapedFrom every danger. Virgin, act not thus;To thee I kneel a suppliant; O conferOn me this boon, and emulate the justiceOf your great sire. For fair renown attendsThe children, from a virtuous father sprung,Who equal their hereditary worth.