Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, this is Let's talk about Miths Baby, and
Speaker 1: I am your host Live here with the annual Live
Speaker 1: takes a couple of days off over the holidays. Slash
Speaker 1: probably just uses the time to work on more things
Speaker 1: that have backed up, and or to keep from completely
Speaker 1: losing her mind over the dark winter sad things. Anyway,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is today I'm here with a re
Speaker 1: airing of past episodes, and given we've just so recently
Speaker 1: finished the absolutely fascinating Euripides play Ifiganaia among the Turians,
Speaker 1: I thought it would be fun to revisit like a
Speaker 1: really similar play of his, which I did not realize
Speaker 1: how similar they were, and also like anyway, it's fascinating,
Speaker 1: but the Helen, if Agani spends a lot of time
Speaker 1: shitting on Helen, and yet Euripides very intentionally wrote the
Speaker 1: Helen as like a very similar play, and it is
Speaker 1: a pretty decent argument I believe to be made that
Speaker 1: they were also put on at the same festival, and
Speaker 1: I think that is so interesting. So back in the
Speaker 1: spring of twenty twenty two, I covered The Helen, and
Speaker 1: fuck if it wasn't absolutely mind blowing. This play is fascinating.
Speaker 1: It explores a very different version of Helen, one that
Speaker 1: did not go to Troy at all and handles her
Speaker 1: own destiny in whatever way she can. Again, it is
Speaker 1: vastly similar to if Agonia among the Torians, from Helen
Speaker 1: being brought by a god to a foreign world far
Speaker 1: from her Greek home, to her waiting out the Trojan
Speaker 1: War there to someone arriving on that same land only
Speaker 1: for a case of very silly and dramatic identity revealed
Speaker 1: to take place, to a daring escape by sea that
Speaker 1: is handled entirely by the wit and cunning of the
Speaker 1: woman rather than the man who kind of just sits
Speaker 1: back and lets everything happen. And yet again, as we
Speaker 1: heard in Nifiganayah, she is so disgusted by Helen, she
Speaker 1: is so ready to blame her for the Trojan War.
Speaker 1: And it's this play that then makes clear that Euripity
Speaker 1: wasn't passing his own judgment through with Thikanaia, but instead
Speaker 1: examining women in the ancient world and like what they
Speaker 1: were allowed to do versus what they were capable of
Speaker 1: doing if given the opportunity, and how the world around
Speaker 1: them could lead them to have misplaced anger and distrust
Speaker 1: like Ugh, Euripides love to explore female characters. In this
Speaker 1: play and the one I'm gonna air on Friday, for
Speaker 1: that matter, are brilliant examples of that.
Speaker 2: So here it is.
Speaker 1: This is all four parts of my episodes on Euripity.
Speaker 1: This is Helen in one long ass episode. Because there
Speaker 1: isn't a better time to listen to an excessively long
Speaker 1: podcast episode than over the holiday season, whether you're celebrating
Speaker 1: anything or not. Here's a bunch of content enjoy. This
Speaker 1: is episode one seventy three, What if Helen was a ghost?
Speaker 1: Though Euripodes is Helen Part one. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've ever truly emphasized the nature of some of the
Speaker 1: plays by Euripides that survive. I've mentioned it in Passing teen,
Speaker 1: probably harped on it a little bit here and there,
Speaker 1: and have definitely referenced it when speaking with scholars on
Speaker 1: Euripity and works. But have I ever just sat you
Speaker 1: all down and fully explained how incredible it is that
Speaker 1: we have as many plays by Euripides that we do.
Speaker 1: Because guess what I'm going to do that right now
Speaker 1: Athenian Tragedy, that is the plays by Escylis Sophocles and Euripides.
Speaker 1: The Athenian tragedians that survive in themselves are obviously some
Speaker 1: of the most incredible and exciting works to come out
Speaker 1: of the ancient world. That so many of their works
Speaker 1: survive is in itself a real feat of nature and
Speaker 1: generally humanity. These three playwrights survive because they were the
Speaker 1: most famous. Escylis was famous in his lifetime and afterwards,
Speaker 1: with people like Sophocles and Euripides looking to his talent
Speaker 1: when developing their own. He was the earliest by decades,
Speaker 1: a generation before them when it comes to the writing
Speaker 1: of tragedy in Athens. Sophocle, as I understand him, was
Speaker 1: also pretty famous in his time, and definitely more so.
Speaker 2: After his death.
Speaker 1: Euripanes was a bit of an oddball surprise surprize, and
Speaker 1: he gained most of his fame down the line. He
Speaker 1: was still notable back then, but he wrote weird stuff
Speaker 1: and that was really memorable to people, and he did
Speaker 1: win quite a few competitions though, and he wrote a
Speaker 1: hell of.
Speaker 2: A lot of plays.
Speaker 1: Now, the three of them, their work has survived for
Speaker 1: the most part because they were taught in schools, namely
Speaker 1: Byzantine schools. They were so appreciated by the people of
Speaker 1: the Byzantine period a good thousand years after the playwrights
Speaker 1: were writing, that their works were preserved for those reasons.
Speaker 1: They were appreciated copied. When the additions were wearing out,
Speaker 1: the Byzantine school masters made sure that they always had,
Speaker 1: say the Urastaya of Vieschylis, or Sophocles's Antigony or Oedipisterranos
Speaker 1: on hand. They were copied enough times that they became
Speaker 1: a real part of the canon of literature, and then
Speaker 1: finally made their way to us twenty five hundred years
Speaker 1: after these plays were written. But there is a whole
Speaker 1: section of the European catalog of plays that were not
Speaker 1: school favorites, but we do have today. They were not
Speaker 1: taught in schools, not appreciated as these like perfect works
Speaker 1: of ancient art and that needed to be learned from, studied, revered.
Speaker 1: They were just seen to be like average, or maybe
Speaker 1: even bad. Certainly that's the case for Eastclisensophocles too. They
Speaker 1: would have written plays that weren't anything special that we
Speaker 1: might consider bad. That's the nature of humanity, particularly when
Speaker 1: one is writing quite so much, but we don't have
Speaker 1: their mediocre work, so we can't compare. We do, however,
Speaker 1: have some of the works of Euripidies that were seen
Speaker 1: to be mediocre in the ancient and early modern world.
Speaker 1: And that's because of one random stroke of luck, one
Speaker 1: random collector who had gathered all of the ninety two
Speaker 1: works of Euripitdies for his personal collection. One random collector
Speaker 1: who had all these plays organized alphabetically, and one big
Speaker 1: scroll that contained all of the eipes plays beginning with
Speaker 1: the letter atha e to Kappa k. That's why we
Speaker 1: have so many that begin with I and H in English,
Speaker 1: because they began with ada or iota in Greek. The Iphaganaiahs,
Speaker 1: the heraclide I, Hippolytus, Hecuba, Heracles, and yes, the Helen.
Speaker 1: The survival of so many random plays rather than those
Speaker 1: that were specifically deemed worthy of teaching in schools is
Speaker 1: important not only because it means we just have so
Speaker 1: many more of Euripides's plays, but because it gives us
Speaker 1: insights into the others, the weird ones, the ones people
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily love at the time or afterwards.
Speaker 2: It lets us look at.
Speaker 1: What it meant to have written ninety two plays in
Speaker 1: one lifetime, and how that means that not all of
Speaker 1: them were brilliant works of art. Some of them were
Speaker 1: something else entirely. And I'm not saying any of them
Speaker 1: are necessarily boring or bad, though I have to admit
Speaker 1: I have not read all eighteen of the surviving plays
Speaker 1: of Euripides, and certainly Helen isn't boring, or I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be sharing these episodes with you. Instead, the Helen is weird, experimental, odd,
Speaker 1: a complete departure from the standard story of Helen and
Speaker 1: Menelaus and the Trojan War. This Helen is a character
Speaker 1: unto herself. This is Euripides turning the Trojan War and
Speaker 1: all of its expectations on its head. It's him examining,
Speaker 1: yes you guessed it, the thoughts, feelings and motivations of women,
Speaker 1: because he's Euripides, and he was interested in the lives
Speaker 1: women led, particularly women as notorious as Helen of Sparta
Speaker 1: Helen of Troy. The alphabet plays of Euripides, as they're called,
Speaker 1: gave us some of the most important insights into the
Speaker 1: playwrights broadly and how their work was received in the
Speaker 1: ancient world. Plus is just seriously, so fucking cool that
Speaker 1: I had to begin an episode with an epic die
Speaker 1: tribe on how and why we have so many of
Speaker 1: Euripides's plays surviving. But today is about Helen, the Helen
Speaker 1: of Euripides, but also Helen of another early writer named Staciicoris,
Speaker 1: He who invented the ghost theory. Ghost theory, you say, intriguing.
Speaker 1: I know, and maybe it's wrong to be using the
Speaker 1: word ghost for this, but it sure caught your attention,
Speaker 1: and for good reason, because not only does it have
Speaker 1: ghosty elements, but there's a supposed real life curse attached to.
Speaker 1: Before we get to Euripides and his Helen, we need
Speaker 1: to talk Staccora Stasiicarus was an Archaic poet who wrote many,
Speaker 1: many poems about the Trojan War. As far as I
Speaker 1: can figure it out, none of his poems survive in
Speaker 1: full or even big chunks. He was written about later
Speaker 1: by many, and for so long that we generally know
Speaker 1: what he wrote and who he was.
Speaker 2: We know he was an.
Speaker 1: Important figure in Archaic poetry, particularly relating to the war.
Speaker 1: See he's said to have written and sung a poem
Speaker 1: about the war that described Helen's leaving Sparta for Troy,
Speaker 1: the usual sailing off with Paris, and he apparently didn't
Speaker 1: make her look too good in this poem, seeing her
Speaker 1: more as that kind of traditional Helen that we know,
Speaker 1: the one who up and leaves her husband and daughter
Speaker 1: for this hot guy from Troy, because why not. Then
Speaker 1: Staccius says he went blind. He says he went blind
Speaker 1: because he insulted Helen, that divine and beautiful Helen. So
Speaker 1: he set to write out another poem to make up
Speaker 1: for the first, and with any luck, use it to
Speaker 1: get his eyesight back, as you do, you know, in
Speaker 1: the ancient world, when you're inadvertently angering important divine people.
Speaker 1: His other poem about Helen is what we're concerned with today.
Speaker 1: Plato quotes from this poem, which is why we have
Speaker 1: the line quote that was not a true tale. You
Speaker 1: did not sail in the well benched ships, nor did
Speaker 1: you come to the towers of Troy. He's speaking to Helen.
Speaker 1: He's trying to take it all back. Staccarus introduces the
Speaker 1: idea that Helen never sailed to Troy at all. Of Course,
Speaker 1: he can't just rewrite the entire Trojan War to make
Speaker 1: one woman happy, make her give him his eyesight back,
Speaker 1: so he comes up with this workaround. Helen never sailed
Speaker 1: to Troy with Paris, never got on those ships and
Speaker 1: sailed away, leaving her husband and daughter behind, But someone
Speaker 1: did instead. Saccrus says that Paris abducted an idolon, and
Speaker 1: idolon isn't a ghost in the modern sense of the word,
Speaker 1: but honestly, it's close enough. And idolon is a concept
Speaker 1: that really isn't seen explicitly beyond this story of Helen.
Speaker 1: In the same way, it's a spirit, a copy even
Speaker 1: of a person. She looks like Helen and sounds like Helen,
Speaker 1: and given the nature of the Trojan War, it's pretty
Speaker 1: clear she was indistinguishable from Helen. But she is not Helen.
Speaker 1: She's not real. She's just kind of there. But we'll
Speaker 1: get back to the logistics of the idolon, because while
Speaker 1: Siscius introduces it to the story of the Trojan War,
Speaker 1: it is this play by Euripides where we get a
Speaker 1: real story revolving around the idea of the entire Trojan
Speaker 1: War being fought over ghost Helen. Oh and what about
Speaker 1: Stasiicrus's eyesight, you ask, yes, Apparently this rewrite of Helen's
Speaker 1: story making her good and pure and never having run
Speaker 1: off with Paris to begin with, was enough to lift
Speaker 1: whatever curse was put on Stacycrius, and he regained his eyesight.
Speaker 1: Because stories from Ansient Greece are fucking awesome. Our story
Speaker 1: Euripides is Helen begins not in Sparta, not in Troy,
Speaker 1: but in Egypt. This, you see, is where the real
Speaker 1: Helen has spent all of the Trojan War while idol
Speaker 1: on Helen has been hold up with Paris.
Speaker 2: And it opens with.
Speaker 1: A monologue by none other than Helen herself. A woman
Speaker 1: opens the play, and she speaks for a while, just
Speaker 1: you know, try to ignore the fact that she would
Speaker 1: have been played by a man. We've got to Her
Speaker 1: monologue begins with a bang quote, so beautiful, so chaste.
Speaker 1: She continues speaking of the Nile River and what it
Speaker 1: brings to the plains of Egypt. Is the Nile River
Speaker 1: so beautiful, so chased? Or is it this Helen, this
Speaker 1: alternate Helen, This Helen who is and will continue to
Speaker 1: be a complete and utter departure from the Helen we
Speaker 1: know from literally every other story and source. This Helen
Speaker 1: is beautiful, but she is also chased. Helen then introduces
Speaker 1: the setting of the play, Egypt and the people there
Speaker 1: with her, the king Theoclymenus, who is the son of
Speaker 1: the now now dead King Proteus, and his sister is
Speaker 1: there too, Theonoe. She's a priestess and a prophetess. But
Speaker 1: Helen doesn't dwell on Egypt, instead switching to the story
Speaker 1: of her own life, her parentage in Sparta. She speaks
Speaker 1: of Tendarius, her human father, but perhaps not her biological father.
Speaker 1: For that she turns the story to Zeus and Lyda quote,
Speaker 1: there is another story. If it's true that Zeus became
Speaker 1: a swan and flew disguised, chased by an eagle, into
Speaker 1: my mother's bed, and tricking Lyda, he achieved his end.
Speaker 1: There's no sugarcoating this Zeus, no pretending that it's all
Speaker 1: well and good, and that he did that to Leda
Speaker 1: because he's a god and he's allowed. Instead, Helen makes
Speaker 1: pretty clear that it's gross and weird and generally bad.
Speaker 1: From here, she tells us and the audience how she
Speaker 1: got to be where she is now. She tells us
Speaker 1: the story of the idolo n continuing to turn the
Speaker 1: story of the Trojan War on its head. And introduce
Speaker 1: this foreign, odd and very controversial idea. It's not the
Speaker 1: real Helen's fault. Actually. She speaks of the Judgment of Paris,
Speaker 1: the story we all know so well. Paris brought into
Speaker 1: judge a beauty contest between Aphrodite Athena and Hera, who
Speaker 1: is the fairest quote. My beauty was what Aphrodite offered
Speaker 1: if curses count as beauty, and she won by promising
Speaker 1: him me thirty lines into this plane. I'm already obsessed
Speaker 1: with this, Helen. What a fucking badass line. But this
Speaker 1: is where it diverges. Helen goes on to say that Harah,
Speaker 1: angry at having lost the contest quote, turned my affair
Speaker 1: with Paris into wind. She gave King Priam's son an
Speaker 1: empty image, not me, but something like me, made of
Speaker 1: air but breathing. And that is the idolong sent by Hera,
Speaker 1: an empty image, not Helen, but something like her, made
Speaker 1: of air but breathing. Helen speaks of the War of
Speaker 1: Zeus and his hopes to lighten the weight on Mother
Speaker 1: Earth by having the Trojans and Greeks kill one another.
Speaker 1: She speaks of all of this taking place in her
Speaker 1: name of the suffering of war, the suffering of the Trojans.
Speaker 2: Specifically, quote so.
Speaker 1: I not I my name was made the prize a
Speaker 1: gift for Greeks, a test for Trojan valor. Hermes, she said, says,
Speaker 1: concealed her in folds of air and brought her to
Speaker 1: the house of.
Speaker 2: Proteus in Egypt, apparently.
Speaker 1: Quote picking the most self disciplined of humans to save
Speaker 1: the purity of my marriage bed for Menelaus. She speaks
Speaker 1: of the curse upon her that for all of the
Speaker 1: rest of the world knows she is the Helen. They
Speaker 1: think she is a woman who abandoned her family, her
Speaker 1: husband for another man, flying off to another world where
Speaker 1: she cheated on her husband. That everyone thinks she is
Speaker 1: who the idolown is. And finally, the most important detail,
Speaker 1: While the king of Egypt, Proteus, was alive, she was protected, He.
Speaker 2: Was kind and good. She was safe.
Speaker 1: She could continue to protect herself against men who wanted her.
Speaker 2: She could continue to be.
Speaker 1: Faithful to Menelaus, which importantly this Helen is very passionate about.
Speaker 1: She loves her husband, but now Proteus is dead, and
Speaker 1: she explains, quote his son is hunting to marry me.
Speaker 1: I'm here to throw myself on Proteus's tomb, and praying
Speaker 1: to save myself from my original husband, whom I honor.
Speaker 1: Even if my name is smirched through Greece, my body
Speaker 1: will never be tainted. Here have I mentioned how much
Speaker 1: I love Helen, how much I love Euripany's ability to
Speaker 1: give women true voices, personalities, passions, desires. With Helen's introduction
Speaker 1: out of the way, we know what's going on. We
Speaker 1: know that she is in Egypt, that her idol On,
Speaker 1: a ghost of her, is in Troy, where the whole
Speaker 1: of the world is still fighting over her, or at
Speaker 1: least they have been. It's come to an end now
Speaker 1: because there's a Greek who's just landed on the shores
Speaker 1: of Egypt, and he's startled to see this woman who
Speaker 1: looks an awful lot like Helen, the creature they've just
Speaker 1: spent ten years fighting over. Two sir brother of Ajax
Speaker 1: and man whose name I hate trying to pronounce in
Speaker 1: English because it's just non natural, has arrived in Egypt
Speaker 1: and he sees Helen, quote, oh gods, what's this. It
Speaker 1: looks like that most hated murderess of me and all
Speaker 1: the Greeks, may the gods curse you? Counterfeit Helen. Counterfeit Helen.
Speaker 2: Oh. The first few.
Speaker 1: Lines of anyone other than Helen really hammer in what's
Speaker 1: going on. Helen might know that she's the real Helen,
Speaker 1: but no one else does. Helen doesn't confirm or deny
Speaker 1: who she is. That she is Helen, but Tuser seems
Speaker 1: to realize that it can't be her. He's just sacked
Speaker 1: Troy over her. This is just a woman who looks
Speaker 1: like her.
Speaker 2: So they speak.
Speaker 1: He explains why he's there so far from his home
Speaker 1: in Salamus. He's been exiled by his father for his
Speaker 1: brother's death in Troy. Ajax, you might remember, fought over
Speaker 1: Achilles's armor after his death, and when he lost, he
Speaker 1: threw himself on his own sword. There's more to it,
Speaker 1: of course, but this isn't about Ajax. We just need
Speaker 1: to know who Tusir is, what he's gone through, and
Speaker 1: why he's there in Egypt speaking with Helen, who he
Speaker 1: doesn't think is Helen. They speak of the war. Helen
Speaker 1: asks every question she's had in her mind for so
Speaker 1: many years. How long were you there?
Speaker 2: What happened?
Speaker 1: How long has it been since Troy was sacked, and
Speaker 1: this is where we learned that it's been seven years
Speaker 1: since Troy was sacked, making it seventeen years since she
Speaker 1: was first removed from Sparta. She continues her questioning, did
Speaker 1: you ever recapture the Spartan woman? She asks, referring to herself,
Speaker 1: She's told yes, quote Menelaias dragged her by the hair.
Speaker 1: She confirms that Tusir actually saw this happen with his
Speaker 1: own eyes, saw Helen herself being dragged away by Menelaus.
Speaker 1: She's trying to feel out the idolow of it all.
Speaker 1: Then she asks if she were real this Helen or
Speaker 1: an apparition from the gods, and he changes the subject.
Speaker 1: Helen pushes back, though she has to know as much
Speaker 1: as she can about her idolon, and more importantly, her husband.
Speaker 1: Is this sighting of Helen trustworthy?
Speaker 2: She asks him.
Speaker 1: She must know how real this idolon was, how much
Speaker 1: it fooled even the man she's been waiting for all
Speaker 1: this time. But Tusor is convinced it was Helen. He
Speaker 1: says that she and Menelaius went off together from Troy,
Speaker 1: but he adds when she asks, he hasn't returned to
Speaker 1: Myceni Or to Sparta, and Menelaius might have even disappeared
Speaker 1: with his wife. Helen is rightfully pretty distraught by this.
Speaker 1: The gods removed her from her home. They sent this
Speaker 1: fake Helen to cause horrible trouble in her place. Most importantly, though,
Speaker 1: she just loves her husband, and she's relying on him
Speaker 1: to finally find her and bring her home to Sparta.
Speaker 1: Now that this king Proteus is dead and his son
Speaker 1: is trying to force her to marry him, her prospects
Speaker 1: aren't looking great without Menelaus, but she realizes Tuser can
Speaker 1: also give her information about the others that she was
Speaker 1: forced to leave behind in Sparta. She asks about her mother,
Speaker 1: how she is dead. He tells her dead for shame
Speaker 1: of Helen's actions. Uf, that's a blow. What of her brothers,
Speaker 1: she continues, The Diascuri, Castor and Polyduques. They're dead too,
Speaker 1: he says, and Helen's.
Speaker 2: Heart breaks just a little bit more.
Speaker 1: The consolation there, though, is that he tells her that
Speaker 1: maybe the gods actually placed them in the sky as stars,
Speaker 1: except he adds there's another story where they also killed
Speaker 1: themselves because of what their sister did. The blows to
Speaker 1: Helen keep coming. The news is bad enough if she
Speaker 1: had actually gone off to Troy with Paris, either by
Speaker 1: her own will or otherwise. But this new story, this
Speaker 1: idea that she never went with him at all, that
Speaker 1: she's just been waiting for this news in Egypt for
Speaker 1: seventeen years, makes the whole mess so much more tragic
Speaker 1: and emotional. So many people died for her idol on
Speaker 1: her ghost put there at the will of the gods.
Speaker 1: Eurybites does love to blame the gods for human tragedy,
Speaker 1: and I am.
Speaker 2: Always here for it.
Speaker 1: Finally, Helen has gotten all of the information that Tuser
Speaker 1: has to offer her, all without revealing the truth of
Speaker 1: who she is, let alone, the truth of the Helen
Speaker 1: that the Greeks and the Trojans witnessed in Troy. When
Speaker 1: He's finished answering her questions, he asks something of her.
Speaker 1: Where is Theonoi, the prophetess, the princess? He wishes to
Speaker 1: see her for news on his own travels. How it
Speaker 1: is that he should reach Cyprus. Helen shuts that right down.
Speaker 1: She tells him he can't stay there in Egypt, can't
Speaker 1: be seen for even a second by the King Theoclymenus.
Speaker 1: He kills all Greeks on sight, she explains, but adds
Speaker 1: that she can't and won't explain why. All that matters
Speaker 1: is he mustn't stay there, He has to leave immediately.
Speaker 1: He's grateful for this information. He takes her advice without question,
Speaker 1: and before he leaves, he adds, quote, your body is
Speaker 1: like Helen's, but your heart is very different, not at
Speaker 1: all alike. May she die and never reach the banks
Speaker 1: of the Eurotas, but to you good luck. Ugh. The
Speaker 1: dramatic irony your epities is really playing with the audience,
Speaker 1: playing with the Greeks, just amping everything up. Who is
Speaker 1: Helen and who is this idolo on? What can she
Speaker 1: be blamed for? And what is the fault of this
Speaker 1: divinely sent ghost? What is real and what is invented?
Speaker 1: With that Tusor is gone and Helen is left to
Speaker 1: feel the full weight of everything she's just learned. Her husband,
Speaker 1: who she loves and misses, is missing, with the ghost
Speaker 1: of herself, who's caused so so much violence and death.
Speaker 1: Her mother and her brothers have died all because of
Speaker 1: the same ghost of Helen, and she's still stuck in Egypt,
Speaker 1: fending off a horrible man who wants to marry her
Speaker 1: against her will. Things are not looking good, but this
Speaker 1: is Eurybides after all. Helen sings, trying to convey her
Speaker 1: emotions to the audience. She begins by calling upon the muses,
Speaker 1: to whom should she direct her song, and then she
Speaker 1: finds her voice. Quote, fly to me on your wings.
Speaker 2: Young daughters of the Earth.
Speaker 1: Sirens, bring to my cries of mourning a libyan, oboe
Speaker 1: or pipes to harmonize with my grief. Tune your tears
Speaker 1: to mine and sing my songs. Match your melody to
Speaker 1: my lament, so that the Queen of Death Persephone, may
Speaker 1: gain a gift from me of a tearful.
Speaker 2: Hymn to the dead. Fuck that's beautiful.
Speaker 1: Here she is sitting with her grief, her immense sadness,
Speaker 1: and she calls upon the divine women she knows can
Speaker 1: feel her pain, can sympathize to the muses, to the sirens,
Speaker 1: those creature women who sing so beautifully that they cause death,
Speaker 1: And to the Goddess of Death, the queen of Death,
Speaker 1: the woman who also lost her own mother in a way,
Speaker 1: and who knows the pain and sadness of loss, What's
Speaker 1: most important, though, is she knows to call to the women.
Speaker 1: She knows the women will understand her. We'll see the
Speaker 1: truth in all that's happened, in all that death and
Speaker 1: tragedy and sadness. From here the chorus picks up her song.
Speaker 1: They are women, of course, and they continue Helen's song
Speaker 1: of women is tragic in other ways. They sing of
Speaker 1: a time when they heard a woman's cries, wailing quote
Speaker 1: a sad song that no liar could play. They sing
Speaker 1: that she was wailing, crying, screaming across mountains and through
Speaker 1: caves because she was being raped by pan. It is
Speaker 1: not unimportant that the first lines of the chorus in
Speaker 1: this play are about a woman being assaulted by a god,
Speaker 1: and that the chorus is specifically likening Helen's wails of
Speaker 1: sadness to that particular sound. It is Euripides and the
Speaker 1: gods are so often the real antagonists of his play.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: They are the ones behind the idolawn, behind Helen being
Speaker 1: removed to Egypt, the ones behind the war that's killed
Speaker 1: so many many, and in being behind so many things.
Speaker 1: They're the cause of her mother's death, her brother's even
Speaker 1: her missing husband, and then we're reminded of the horrors
Speaker 1: they commit against humans, particularly women. It is explicit here
Speaker 1: that this is a violent assault by a god that
Speaker 1: the chorus is recalling, bringing up out of almost nowhere.
Speaker 1: It's a suggestion of what the gods are capable of,
Speaker 1: and perhaps even a hint at what could be in
Speaker 1: store for Helen if she's forced to remain there in Egypt.
Speaker 1: They continue on Helen and the chorus, singing back and
Speaker 1: forth as Helen tells them what she's learned, and they
Speaker 1: in turn sing to her of her grief. This is
Speaker 1: episode one hundred and seventy four, That feeling when your
Speaker 1: ghost Idolom causes the most famous war in ancient history,
Speaker 1: Euripides is Helen. Helen is in mourning. She's just been
Speaker 1: told that not only did the Trojan War go on
Speaker 1: for ten years, all that fighting and death over her,
Speaker 1: except it wasn't over her at all, but some divinely
Speaker 1: fake version of her, that not only did it go
Speaker 1: on for ten years, but it's been another seven since
Speaker 1: it ended, seven years since it ended, and still no
Speaker 1: sign of her husband learning her whereabouts, finding her. And
Speaker 1: to make it all so so much worse, her mother
Speaker 1: and her brother's back home are all dead, all dead
Speaker 1: because of their grief over her, all that death and
Speaker 1: sadness in the name of some ghost version of her,
Speaker 1: while she's just been forced to sit and wait it out.
Speaker 1: And now now she can't even wait it out in
Speaker 1: comfort because the good king Proteus is dead and his
Speaker 1: shitty son, Theoclymenus is in charge, and he wants to
Speaker 1: marry Helen, whether she wants to or not. Things are
Speaker 1: not looking good, and so Helen and the chorus, singing
Speaker 1: of their sadness and their grief over the horrors of
Speaker 1: the gods, one reminds the audience and the chorus who
Speaker 1: is at fault the gods. She sings of Aphrodite accompanying
Speaker 1: Paris as he sailed to Sparta on his quest for
Speaker 1: Helen's beauty. She calls Aphrodite a trickster, a killer. Then
Speaker 1: she moves on to Hara, the godess to blame for
Speaker 1: the ghost of her the idolown. Together, Harah and Aphrodite
Speaker 1: have teamed up to cause her so so much sadness,
Speaker 1: except actually they're each doing it to be better than
Speaker 1: the other. She continues telling her story, speaking of her
Speaker 1: life of bad luck, the odd nature of everything to
Speaker 1: do with her own existence, of her parentage, by Zeus
Speaker 1: being born from an egg, how that makes her not
Speaker 1: quite Greek and not quite anything else. She says, quote,
Speaker 1: my whole life's been strange because of Harah and because
Speaker 1: of beauty. I wish I could go back to being ugly,
Speaker 1: my beauty wiped out away from me like paint. I
Speaker 1: wish the Greeks forgot my misadventures and only kept good
Speaker 1: thoughts of me in mind. And then she goes on
Speaker 1: and on about the gods, how they've caused all of this,
Speaker 1: how they've punished her, given her this bad luck, physically
Speaker 1: moved her from her home in Sparta to this foreign land,
Speaker 1: a land of barbarians, non Greeks. She says, quote, my
Speaker 1: fortunes hung upon a single anchor, my husband, who might
Speaker 1: someday come to save me. But now he's dead and
Speaker 1: I have no hope. She speaks of her mother's death,
Speaker 1: her brother's She sings of her daughter back in Sparta,
Speaker 1: growing old without her mother, there, without her mother to
Speaker 1: find her a match, if anyone would even want her
Speaker 1: after everything that's happened. She speaks of how even if
Speaker 1: she were to find her way home. What the Spartans
Speaker 1: would do to her if she showed up there without
Speaker 1: the protection of Menilaus. She'd never be allowed back. They'd
Speaker 1: bar the gates against her, after all that's happened in
Speaker 1: her name. The way Euripides writes Helen here reminds me
Speaker 1: of his Medeia, a woman whose life is tied to
Speaker 1: her husband's to such a degree that when something like
Speaker 1: this happens Helen believed Menelaius to be dead or Jason
Speaker 1: leaving Medeia, they are ruined. They're unable to make their
Speaker 1: way on their own. Women like them can't just move on,
Speaker 1: can't just find another man in Greece, can't just find
Speaker 1: their own way. Euripides is writing in classical Athens, which
Speaker 1: was very restrictive when it came to women, and that
Speaker 1: comes across but Athenian women aside. These women have everything
Speaker 1: else against them. Helen is believed to be the cause
Speaker 1: of a ten years war that saw the death of
Speaker 1: the most heroic of Greek men. Medeia is foreigner who
Speaker 1: burned every one of her bridges at home in order
Speaker 1: to go off with Jason. Neither women has anything without
Speaker 1: these husbands. Through little fault of their own. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: that applies more to Helen madea definitely killed her brother. Still,
Speaker 1: he's examining these women who are forced to live by
Speaker 1: the whims of others, and what that would be like,
Speaker 1: how it would feel to have your fate decided by others,
Speaker 1: by the will of the gods. Eventually, the chorus steps
Speaker 1: in on Helen's grief filled speech. They try to remind
Speaker 1: her that it's very possible that the news she received
Speaker 1: from Tucor isn't all true. It's very possible that he
Speaker 1: didn't know the fate of menelais that maybe Yu is
Speaker 1: still alive. Helen, though, can't be convinced. She's stuck in
Speaker 1: her sadness the grief at learning that her fate's been
Speaker 1: decided already. They push her remind her that he could
Speaker 1: still be alive. They remind her that not everything is bad,
Speaker 1: that she likes everyone in the Egyptian Palace aside from Theoclymenus,
Speaker 1: that beyond him, she does have friends there. They tell
Speaker 1: her to go inside and speak to Theoclymenus's sister, Theonoe,
Speaker 1: who is not only Helen's friend but also a powerful
Speaker 1: prophetess and a priestess. She will know Menelaias's fate. Go
Speaker 1: ask her, they tell, Helen, Then you will know for sure,
Speaker 1: and you can behave accordingly, weep and grieve, or keep
Speaker 1: your hope. They add that they wish to go inside
Speaker 1: with her to hear the news from Theonoe themselves. Quote
Speaker 1: since women always ought to work together, I love you,
Speaker 1: they continue to speak. Helen is so broken by the
Speaker 1: war that's been fought for her, so overwhelmed by the
Speaker 1: sadness and the guilt of it all being done in
Speaker 1: her name, even if she was nowhere near the action,
Speaker 1: had no say in what happened, and couldn't be blamed
Speaker 1: if anyone knew the truth of the idolong. Still, it
Speaker 1: was all done in her name, and so much blood
Speaker 1: was spilled. She considers ending it all, especially if Menelaus
Speaker 1: is indeed dead. If that's true, she can't see any
Speaker 1: way out. She considers how she could do it, determining
Speaker 1: that hanging herself is undignified, that she's better than that. Instead, quote,
Speaker 1: I'll drive the iron inside my flesh to win the
Speaker 1: game of death. A sacrifice to them, that triple team
Speaker 1: of goddesses I wouldn't normally quote so much about suicidal ideation.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but I couldn't let you all live without
Speaker 1: that line to win the game of death. The whole
Speaker 1: thing is too powerful, an indictment of the gods who
Speaker 1: started all of this. Helen goes on theorizing about Menelaus's death,
Speaker 1: still telling the chorus that if she learns that he
Speaker 1: is definitely dead and gone, she will have to kill
Speaker 1: herself to end it all.
Speaker 2: She speaks of.
Speaker 1: The war, and while I really should move this along,
Speaker 1: I just have to quote more of it to you
Speaker 1: because it's too good. Quote, Oh, Troy, unhappy city, ruined
Speaker 1: through deeds that were not done, how terribly you suffered,
Speaker 1: My gifts from Aphrodite, bore so much blood, so much weeping,
Speaker 1: grief on grief, and pain on pain. And she continues
Speaker 1: later quote the land of Greece cried out and keened
Speaker 1: with wails and lamentation. They beat their faces and ripped
Speaker 1: their tender cheeks with fingernails that scraped till they were
Speaker 1: wet with blood. Euripides is definitely telling us a little
Speaker 1: something about the horrors of war, and that's not unintentional
Speaker 1: or just a side effect of speaking of the Trojan War.
Speaker 1: This was written very shortly after the famed Sicilian expedition,
Speaker 1: which did not go well for Athens. Of course, we
Speaker 1: can't really say for sure whether Euripides is condemning war
Speaker 1: because of how the Sicilian expedition went for Athens, i e.
Speaker 1: That they lost badly, or just because he was anti
Speaker 1: war broadly. Still, it's an interesting added piece in a
Speaker 1: work that already is a commentary on the gods and
Speaker 1: maybe even the way that Greeks have been viewing Helen
Speaker 1: for the last few hundred years. As Ash put in
Speaker 1: their notes on this play, Thank you Ash for notes.
Speaker 1: This is a Helen who is desperate, who is.
Speaker 2: Enslaved by her beauty.
Speaker 1: What I wouldn't give to talk to you Ripanies, to
Speaker 1: ask him questions about why he wrote what he wrote.
Speaker 1: My Kingdom for a time machine that doesn't break everything. Now, remember,
Speaker 1: before all of this began, Helen was meant to go
Speaker 1: inside and speak to theo Clemenus's sister, ask her for
Speaker 1: a prophecy of her future, gain some insight into what's happened,
Speaker 1: what will happen, and maybe just how screwed she is
Speaker 1: or isn't so. Finally, after all her lamentation, all the
Speaker 1: talk of the horror done in her name, in the
Speaker 1: name of her beauty and her body, she goes inside
Speaker 1: to speak with Theonoi, and then Menilaus walks on stage,
Speaker 1: and he's not wearing much. Menilaus walks on stage wearing
Speaker 1: very little rags, really torn to shreds by the shipwreck
Speaker 1: he's just endured.
Speaker 2: The reason.
Speaker 1: He's washed up, all haggard and torn up on the
Speaker 1: shores of Egypt. But he doesn't know where he is,
Speaker 1: has no idea. Actually, he begins with a speech explaining this,
Speaker 1: telling the audience of who he is and what he's injured.
Speaker 2: He references his.
Speaker 1: Father Atreus and his father Pelops, a less than subtle
Speaker 1: nod to the curse that hangs heavy on his family.
Speaker 1: He tells the audience how he's been trying to get home,
Speaker 1: how he's sailed everywhere across the coast of Africa and
Speaker 1: found no welcome, and that every time he's about to
Speaker 1: finally sail home, gets far enough north. Every time the
Speaker 1: right winds catch his sails, they below in the opposite direction,
Speaker 1: and he's pushed away from Greece. Wants more, never reaching home,
Speaker 1: never even getting close, and that's when he was finally shipwrecked.
Speaker 1: Only he and a few others survived the wreck. The
Speaker 1: one survivor is particularly notable.
Speaker 2: Can you get who it is? His wife?
Speaker 1: Medelaius tells the audience that he and Helen, the woman
Speaker 1: who caused that awful war in the first place, survived
Speaker 1: the shipwreck. He goes on to say that he left
Speaker 1: her in a cave nearby so that he could find
Speaker 1: out where they are, whether they're in enemy territory or not.
Speaker 1: He's embarrassed though, to have to explain who he is
Speaker 1: when he's looking so shabby, so tired and dirty, so
Speaker 1: broken down by what he's endured. Finally, he spots someone
Speaker 1: coming out of the palace. He's eager to speak with
Speaker 1: them to find out who lives in this fancy, obviously
Speaker 1: very rich palace that he's stumbled upon. So when an
Speaker 1: old woman exits the palace and addresses him, he's happy
Speaker 1: to speak kind of because well, this woman immediately tells
Speaker 1: him to leave because he'll annoy the man who rules
Speaker 1: the palace, and that even worse, if he's Greek, he's
Speaker 1: sure to die. No Greeks are welcome. They have a kerfuffle,
Speaker 1: it seems, with Medelia's telling her not to threaten him,
Speaker 1: not to use fists or shove him, and her replying
Speaker 1: that it's his fault because he won't leave. He pushes her,
Speaker 1: asking her to go, just go inside and speak to
Speaker 1: the ruler of the house, but she cuts him off.
Speaker 1: It'll be worse if I do. He is clearly not
Speaker 1: listening to her very clear instruction. If you're Greek, you're
Speaker 1: not welcome here. In fact, you're completely fucked. You will
Speaker 1: be killed and well, Menela says, a bit of a dink. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I'm lost, he announces petulantly, before adding that he had
Speaker 1: a very famous army once, to which she replies, quote
Speaker 1: were you important somewhere here? You're not, which he finds
Speaker 1: to be quite unfair, quite disrespectful, but again, imagine it petulant.
Speaker 1: He says that he used to have good luck, to
Speaker 1: which she replies, quote, then why not leave? Your friends
Speaker 1: can watch you cry anyway.
Speaker 2: I love her.
Speaker 1: Menelaus, though ignores the jabs and also ignores her very
Speaker 1: obvious instructions to leave. Instead, he presses for information, asking
Speaker 1: where he is, whose palace, whose kingdom. This is this
Speaker 1: is the house of Proteus, she tells him, the Kingdom
Speaker 1: of Egypt. Menelaius isn't thrilled to hear that he's all
Speaker 1: the way in Egypt. It's not exactly close to home,
Speaker 1: and he's been trying so damn hard to reach Sparta.
Speaker 1: She's a bit snippy though, when he's upset to be
Speaker 1: an Egypt. Quote the sparkling Nile, what's wrong with it?
Speaker 2: To you?
Speaker 1: And I mean, she's not wrong. The Nile is awesome,
Speaker 1: and I think under normal circumstances, Menelaius would agree. It's
Speaker 1: just that he'd really like to be home, which is
Speaker 1: basically what he tells her.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: I wasn't criticizing. I'm just sad again this Menelaus is
Speaker 1: a bit of a dweeb so far, but I think
Speaker 1: will come around to him.
Speaker 2: Still.
Speaker 1: The immediate juxtaposition of his complaints on his own luck
Speaker 1: versus Helen's very valid and very righteous laments about her
Speaker 1: situation is interesting. Obviously, hers is also a matter of luck,
Speaker 1: but she can speak about it in terms of divine intervention,
Speaker 1: the actions of the gods and how they've affected her
Speaker 1: entire life, Her entire fate, how it's affected the whole
Speaker 1: Greek and Trojan worlds, how much needless bloodshed happened, how
Speaker 1: tragic it all is, the lives lost. Meanwhile, he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm sad. Still he's not pulled off his course too long.
Speaker 1: He asks the woman again about her master, about who
Speaker 1: rules the palace the kingdom there in Egypt. She explains
Speaker 1: that this tomb they're standing near is his Proteus. Now
Speaker 1: that he's dead, his son rules the kingdom, and he
Speaker 1: hates Greeks. Finally, Menelaus asks the important question, why does
Speaker 1: he hate Greeks? She answers him. Quote Helen, the child
Speaker 1: of Zeus, is in this house. The old woman standing
Speaker 1: outside Proteus's grave, speaking with a ragged, tired and broken
Speaker 1: Menelaus announces that the reason the king Theoclymenus hates Greeks
Speaker 1: is that Helen is in his house. She what Menelaius
Speaker 1: asks her to repeat herself, Not believing what he's just heard,
Speaker 1: she says it again, Quote the child of Tendarius, the
Speaker 1: girl from Sparta.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: In answering this question, she manages to give Helen her
Speaker 1: two fathers, Zeus and Tendarius. But it's all the same woman.
Speaker 1: This is ancient Greece, and everyone would have just been like, yep,
Speaker 1: that's Helen.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 1: The important part here is the way Menelaus is absolutely
Speaker 1: reeling from this news. Sorry, what my wife here? He's baffled.
Speaker 1: He's just left her in a cave not even hours ago.
Speaker 1: He says, quote, but when my wife was stolen from
Speaker 1: the cave, to which the woman replies, without further explanation,
Speaker 1: that Helen arrived before the Greeks ever arrived in Troy.
Speaker 1: She won't hear anything more from him. She tells him
Speaker 1: that he's come at a bad time. There's trouble, and
Speaker 1: if he's caught there, he will be killed. She's trying
Speaker 1: to help him. She says that she actually likes Greeks,
Speaker 1: but she's afraid of Theoclymenus. And there she finally leaves him,
Speaker 1: leaves him feeling very very confused. Man Elaius is reeling.
Speaker 1: He begins a speech, trying to talk through what he's
Speaker 1: just learned, to understand how it could be that this
Speaker 1: woman believes Helen to be here. What confusion could have
Speaker 1: taken place for this to occur. He theorizes that the
Speaker 1: woman staying there in Egypt must be a different Helen,
Speaker 1: just a woman with the same name, Except, he continues,
Speaker 1: is there another Zeus who could be her father? Another
Speaker 1: Sparta there in Egypt where the souther Helen could be from?
Speaker 2: Somehow?
Speaker 1: He decides that those are possible, But there's only one Tindarius.
Speaker 1: That's the big confusion, which I love. Tindarius is where
Speaker 1: you draw the line.
Speaker 2: But not like Zeus.
Speaker 1: He just can't fathom at all, can't sort it out
Speaker 1: in his mind. He says, quote, is there another country
Speaker 1: that's called.
Speaker 2: Sparta and Troy?
Speaker 1: I guess the world is large and many men must
Speaker 1: have the same names, also cities, also women. What a
Speaker 1: good line? This mental ass is funny. Yeah, sometimes people
Speaker 1: have the same names, uh huh, not the same fathers
Speaker 1: though often. Still, after all this, he won't accept the
Speaker 1: fact that he will not find a warm welcome there
Speaker 1: in Egypt. He decides that no matter what that woman said,
Speaker 1: the king will surely welcome him, give him food and
Speaker 1: something to wear. That it's impossible that he won't be
Speaker 1: given a nice welcome. He's famous, after all, his name
Speaker 1: is well known, and surely this king will realize that
Speaker 1: and be his host. He decides he'll waigh there for
Speaker 1: the king and just decide what he should do when
Speaker 1: he sees him or meets him. If he seems scary,
Speaker 1: then I'll leave, but if not, he'll ask for all
Speaker 1: the things he needs. And then Helen comes back on stage.
Speaker 1: She doesn't see menilais yet. First she has to tell
Speaker 1: the audience what she's just learned from Theonoe the prophetess,
Speaker 1: that Menilaius isn't dead.
Speaker 2: For you, lucky, we have her here to tell us.
Speaker 1: She is thrilled by this news, of course, relieved and
Speaker 1: happy and eager to talk about what she's heard.
Speaker 2: Not only is he alive, but when his trouble is ended,
Speaker 2: he'll reach her there in Egypt.
Speaker 1: She finishes her speech quote, oh my husband, when will
Speaker 1: you come?
Speaker 2: I'd be so glad to see you.
Speaker 1: And then she sees him. There's no way this isn't
Speaker 1: meant to be at least a little comedic, but also
Speaker 1: the dramatic irony. She sees him, and she immediately questions
Speaker 1: who who this man is. There's the dramatic irony. She
Speaker 1: assumes he's working for Theoclymenus. They are to force her
Speaker 1: to marry him. She decides to run from him as
Speaker 1: run as fast as she can to the altar of
Speaker 1: the tomb, hold onto it so that this rough looking man,
Speaker 1: this wild looking man, can't get her. Menelaius, of course
Speaker 1: sees her now and equally does not immediately realize who
Speaker 1: he's looking at, though he has a much better reason,
Speaker 1: given he believes Helen to be in the cave where
Speaker 1: he left her. Helen meanwhile, probably should have recognized her husband,
Speaker 1: but hey, she's been through a lot, and it's been
Speaker 1: seventeen years, and he does look haggard as fuck. Still,
Speaker 1: Menelias sees this woman coming from the palace, running from him,
Speaker 1: racing to the altar nearby. He calls out to her,
Speaker 1: asks her to stop, asks her who she is. He adds, quote,
Speaker 1: your looks gave me a shock. In fact, I'm speechless.
Speaker 1: He is not, in fact speechless. They begin a back
Speaker 1: and forth, neither realizing who they're looking at, but both
Speaker 1: noticing their resemblances to their spouse. Menelaus asks who she is,
Speaker 1: and she replies asking who he is. They won't tell
Speaker 1: each other, but they are both confused speaking to the
Speaker 1: others if they're speaking to themselves. Menelia says that he's
Speaker 1: never seen another woman who looks this much like Helen,
Speaker 1: and Helen says that quote it's a god to recognize
Speaker 1: one's love.
Speaker 2: They continue.
Speaker 1: Menilius asks if she's a Helene a Greek, and she
Speaker 1: tells him that she is, and asks the same, to
Speaker 1: which he replies, quote, I never saw a woman so
Speaker 1: like Helen, And she says, and you are like Menelias.
Speaker 1: I can't speak. This is finally enough, Medelius replies, confirming
Speaker 1: that he is indeed Medialaius. It's all Helen needed to hear.
Speaker 1: She's relieved, thrilled, she calls out to him.
Speaker 2: At last, he's here.
Speaker 1: She asks him to come to her, to come to
Speaker 1: his wife's arms, but it won't be that easy. Helen
Speaker 1: is at least momentarily relieved to a found metelais. She's
Speaker 1: so happy that this dirty, wild looking man standing before her,
Speaker 1: shipwrecked on the shores of Egypt is indeed her husband,
Speaker 1: the husband she's been longing for, thinking of every moment
Speaker 1: of the last seventeen years, the husband she believed to
Speaker 1: be dead, that she's been worried about, hoping to see
Speaker 1: every moment of every day, but he don't come to her.
Speaker 1: In fact, he snaps at her, telling her to get
Speaker 1: her hands off of him, tells her that.
Speaker 2: She is not his wife.
Speaker 1: She tries to explain, remind him of when they were married,
Speaker 1: but it's no use. First, he thinks she's a ghost,
Speaker 1: but she tells him that no, that isn't it. Still
Speaker 1: he can't accept it, can't believe that he has two wives.
Speaker 1: He just left his own wife, Helen in the cave nearby.
Speaker 1: This woman might look like her, but she certainly isn't
Speaker 1: the same Helen that he just left. God's Greek mythology
Speaker 1: is timeless, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Can you just see this.
Speaker 1: Like in modern fiction movies, this not so mistaken identity,
Speaker 1: the romantic tension that comes from knowing that one person
Speaker 1: knows the truth while the other is missing out.
Speaker 2: Knowing that Helen knows.
Speaker 1: That this is the true Helen and that she loves
Speaker 1: her husband so damn much. But here he is rejecting her,
Speaker 1: not accepting that it's her, instead calling back to the
Speaker 1: ghost of her, thinking she's a ghost, when the one
Speaker 1: he thinks is real is the version made of air.
Speaker 1: And that's essentially what Helen tries to point out to him.
Speaker 1: She tries to convince him, telling him that she is
Speaker 1: his wife. Can't he see it? She tells him that
Speaker 1: there is no other, It's only her. Can't he see
Speaker 1: his beloved wife standing right before him? But he can't,
Speaker 1: And it's tough to blame him. He's been fooled these
Speaker 1: last seventeen years and that isn't easy to accept, but
Speaker 1: she keeps trying. She tries to explain to him what happened.
Speaker 1: She tells him that she never went to Troy, that
Speaker 1: she was brought there to Egypt instead. He concedes that
Speaker 1: she does look just like his wife, but that's it,
Speaker 1: just looks. Quote who manufactures living seeing bodies?
Speaker 2: The gods?
Speaker 1: She tells him, the gods did this. She tells him
Speaker 1: that the gods made him a fake wife, a fake woman,
Speaker 1: out of thin air. She tells him it was Harah
Speaker 1: that she did it so that Paris wouldn't get the
Speaker 1: real Helen.
Speaker 2: Then she swapped them, tricked him.
Speaker 1: Menelaia says, quote, how so so you were here and
Speaker 1: in Troy too, and Helen replies, names can be everywhere.
Speaker 2: A body not.
Speaker 1: Another good one, euripides, but poor Helen Menelaus is not
Speaker 1: convinced he can't believe that she can be Helen, that
Speaker 1: there can be two Helen's, or rather that the one
Speaker 1: he's been traveling with for seven years, fighting over for
Speaker 1: another ten isn't actually his. Helen a tough pill to swallow,
Speaker 1: so we can't exactly blame him. Helen has an uphill
Speaker 1: battle here.
Speaker 2: She asks him.
Speaker 1: If he's leaving her for it, for the emptiness, and
Speaker 1: he says yes. He tells her quote my pain at
Speaker 1: Troy persuades me, you do not again, a good line.
Speaker 1: And then then a servant comes rushing up to Menelaus
Speaker 1: tells him he's come looking for him, sent by his
Speaker 1: men back at the cave. The man is frantic, breathing,
Speaker 1: heavily panicked. Even Menelaus asks him if they've been robbed
Speaker 1: by the barbarians. The word barbarian is used a lot here,
Speaker 1: and it's important. I've said it before and I'll say
Speaker 1: it now. The word barbarian in ancient Greek just referred
Speaker 1: to people who were not Greek, who didn't speak Greek.
Speaker 1: It comes from an automatopoeia, the sound of languages that
Speaker 1: weren't Greek, interpreted by Greeks of course, in this context,
Speaker 1: to you, there is an element of the modern word.
Speaker 1: The Egyptians here are hateful of Greeks, or at least
Speaker 1: Seo Clymenus is he is a bad due attempting bad things.
Speaker 1: So it's extra interesting used in this context because it
Speaker 1: kind of means both, but it still has the connotation
Speaker 1: of this is someone who isn't Greek. The servant replies
Speaker 1: to Menelaus, when asked if they've been robbed by the Egyptians,
Speaker 1: he says that the word rob is too small, too
Speaker 1: insignificant to explain what happened. He continues, quote, your wife
Speaker 1: is gone into the folds of the sky. She's taken.
Speaker 1: She's invisible, she's hidden in heaven. She has left the
Speaker 1: holy cave where we were guarding her. She said, poor
Speaker 1: Trojans and Greeks who died for me beside the banks
Speaker 1: of this commander, all through Hara's schemes. Paris, you thought
Speaker 1: had Helen.
Speaker 2: He did not.
Speaker 1: I stayed as long as I was meant to stay,
Speaker 1: and now I'm going back.
Speaker 2: To the sky. My father.
Speaker 1: I've served my destiny, he adds, poor Helen and got
Speaker 1: a bad reputation. She did not deserve and then he
Speaker 1: sees the real Helen. The Helen standing before medelais the
Speaker 1: Helen who's just begged him to believe her, to accept
Speaker 1: that she is actually her, that she is his wife,
Speaker 1: that she's been there in Egypt the whole time, that
Speaker 1: the other Helen was nothing ness was created of air
Speaker 1: by the gods. That the other Helen was the fake,
Speaker 1: the ghost, the idoloon. This is episode one seventy five.
Speaker 1: First he made us feel for Agamemnon, and now Medialaius
Speaker 1: is Sexy, Euripides is Helen. The servant has just told
Speaker 1: Menelaus of Helen's disappearance from the cave where he left
Speaker 1: her protected not long ago. He tells him of the
Speaker 1: words she spoke before she disappeared, how she spoke of
Speaker 1: the horrors of the war, how she was brought there
Speaker 1: by Haarrah's schemes, how Paris never had the real Helen
Speaker 1: to begin with, how she was returning to her father
Speaker 1: in the sky. And when the servant finished speaking these
Speaker 1: words of ghost Helen disappeared Helen. He sees the real
Speaker 1: Helen standing right there in front of Menelaus, and well,
Speaker 1: he says, quote, oh, hello, Lyda's daughter.
Speaker 2: So you're here. I was just telling how you'd gone
Speaker 2: away to Nestle.
Speaker 1: With the stars. I didn't know that you could fly.
Speaker 1: Ven doesn't know what he's saying. He believes that this
Speaker 1: is the same Helen he just saw apparently fly up
Speaker 1: into the sky Meddle, as though now understands now he
Speaker 1: believes this Helen who's been standing before him, begging him
Speaker 1: to believe her, begging him to accept that she is
Speaker 1: his wife, begging him to show that he still loves her,
Speaker 1: and showing him that she still loves him, begging him
Speaker 1: to take her home. He says, quote her words have
Speaker 1: turned out true. This is the day of happiness I
Speaker 1: longed for, when I can finally take my Helen in
Speaker 1: my arms. And while this part is super fucking nice
Speaker 1: and cute, Helen.
Speaker 2: Is so so happy.
Speaker 1: She's so happy to see him, so happy to throw
Speaker 1: her arms around him. She's just so so happy to
Speaker 1: have her husband back, and Menelaius feels the same. He
Speaker 1: tells her that he has so many things to say,
Speaker 1: he doesn't even know.
Speaker 2: Where to start.
Speaker 1: Helen's almost crying with happiness. She can't get over her relief,
Speaker 1: her delight that she has her husband there with her. Finally,
Speaker 1: It's so fucking lovely and emotional and romantic that Menilaus
Speaker 1: even says outright, quote, the past is gone. The God
Speaker 1: once took you away from me, but leads you now
Speaker 1: to a different life, a better future. Like he just
Speaker 1: believes and accepts everything. He believes her. He understands that
Speaker 1: it was all the will of the gods, that the
Speaker 1: woman who spawned the whole war wasn't her, that none
Speaker 1: of this was her fault, that she caused no deaths,
Speaker 1: that it wasn't even her body. He just accepts it
Speaker 1: and is immediately willing to move on to start their
Speaker 1: lives together fresh and new. And not only that, but
Speaker 1: when Helen once again exclaims how happy she is, he replies, quote, yes,
Speaker 1: be happy. I pray the same as you. We two
Speaker 1: are a team. If one is sad, so is the other.
Speaker 1: Which is how we get the title of today's episode.
Speaker 1: Because I thought Eurypandies really stretched it by having a
Speaker 1: sympathize with Agamemnon back in if Agni at Alice, But
Speaker 1: I am actually smitten with Medelais now, and frankly, that
Speaker 1: is absolutely absurd, and I love it. This is romantic
Speaker 1: in a way that so very few other Greek plays are.
Speaker 1: It is about their relationship, their love, their reunion. They
Speaker 1: keep talking, and honestly, Medalais just keeps being more and
Speaker 1: more lovely and eurypandyes, just keeps proving he can write
Speaker 1: pretty fucking healthy romantic relationships between a man and a woman.
Speaker 1: And isn't that refreshing. Menilaius says to Helen, quote, you
Speaker 1: have me and I have you. I have lived through
Speaker 1: so many dawns of suffering, but now I see the light.
Speaker 1: Euripides is writing a couple that are equal, like Menilius
Speaker 1: is just repeatedly emphasizing not only the love and affection
Speaker 1: he has for his wife, but the respect. He is
Speaker 1: calling them a team, implying they are equals in their relationship.
Speaker 1: And well, my mind is exploding from the sheer ancient
Speaker 1: Athens of it all. Huh, with this romantic and beautiful
Speaker 1: reunion somewhat out of the way, or certainly the initial
Speaker 1: thrill dissipating into a comfortable affection in general happiness. Now,
Speaker 1: Menelaus is interested in knowing how exactly things came to
Speaker 1: be as they are, and I mean fair, He's got
Speaker 1: a lot of information to take in, and frankly, I'm
Speaker 1: impressed he came around as quickly as he did, even
Speaker 1: if it definitely wasn't to me. I how did you
Speaker 1: get here? He asks Helen. Helen, though would much rather
Speaker 1: not revisit the past, how she got to where she
Speaker 1: is and everything that happened in between. She tries, though
Speaker 1: not very hard, to keep him from asking her, but
Speaker 1: ultimately she recognizes that it's a story that needs to
Speaker 1: be told. She finally says, quite adorably, quote, curse that
Speaker 1: story which I'm about to tell. Helen begins her story
Speaker 1: to Menelaus, and well, yet again, this is where we
Speaker 1: get some really good lines, because I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've made it clear, but Euripides was a really good writer.
Speaker 1: Quote the ship didn't fly to the bed of that
Speaker 1: foreign young man. My desire didn't fly to adultery. The
Speaker 1: story continues, but it's one we've already heard at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the play, during Helen's own monologue. It was
Speaker 1: Hermes who brought her there, but at the will of Hara,
Speaker 1: all because Paris chose Aphrodite in the contest. The judgment
Speaker 1: of Paris that damned golden apple. He determined that Aphrodite
Speaker 1: was the fairest and Hara wasn't having it. They speak
Speaker 1: of all that's happened of Helen's mother back at home,
Speaker 1: of her death. They speak of Hermione, their daughter alive
Speaker 1: but mourning her mother's choices, or rather the ghost of
Speaker 1: her mother's choices. They talk of her brothers, all so
Speaker 1: dead of grief. Then the servant chimes in. He wants
Speaker 1: to know what he's missing. He sees their happiness, their relief,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't understand. So they explained it to him,
Speaker 1: and we get the brilliant line quote, we suffered for
Speaker 1: no reason for a cloud. Yes, Greeks and Trojans, you
Speaker 1: suffered for a cloud because the gods are fickle as fuck.
Speaker 1: That much Euripides wants to make very very clear. There
Speaker 1: is no reverence for them here. The servant, the messenger
Speaker 1: is happy for the couple. He speaks of his memories
Speaker 1: of them back in Sparta, if their relationship before Menelaus
Speaker 1: asks him to return to the men at the caves
Speaker 1: and tell them the news, and that they should continue
Speaker 1: to wait there, to wait out whatever challenges he still
Speaker 1: has to face there in Egypt, to wait there so
Speaker 1: that they might escape together if they need to, and
Speaker 1: they will need to before the servant messenger goes. Though
Speaker 1: he speaks of prophecy, he's angry at the prophets who
Speaker 1: led them to Troy in the first place and kept
Speaker 1: them there. Calcus back at the very beginning of the
Speaker 1: war and the Trojan helenus the prophet during the war.
Speaker 1: He's not a fan of prophecy. Quote, no one gets
Speaker 1: rich from sitting beside the prophet's fire and doing nothing.
Speaker 1: Forethought and brains can tell the future best. You can't
Speaker 1: blame this guy for being a little bitter. He's just
Speaker 1: lived through the Trojan War Seene, who knows how many
Speaker 1: of his friends and family die all over this woman,
Speaker 1: who he's just learned was a fucking cloud. So the
Speaker 1: easiest and most rational thing to do here is to
Speaker 1: blame the prophets who led them astray. Like Calcus told
Speaker 1: the Greeks, they had to sacrifice if Aganaya at Aulis
Speaker 1: so that they could have a bit of wind. But
Speaker 1: somehow he didn't know that all along the Helen they
Speaker 1: were going after was a divinely created cloud. So much
Speaker 1: for the voice of prophecy, but with the messenger gone,
Speaker 1: Menelaus and Helen are left to continue catching up on
Speaker 1: all they missed, having been away from each.
Speaker 2: Other for seven teen years.
Speaker 1: Helen wants to know about what Menilaus has been through,
Speaker 1: but the wound is still too fresh, so he doesn't want.
Speaker 2: To go into much detail and who can blame him.
Speaker 1: Instead, he tells her simply that the war went on
Speaker 1: for ten years and he's been sailing around the sea,
Speaker 1: unable to reach home for another seven. After that, Helen
Speaker 1: is sympathetic and kind to Menilaus. Honestly, now that they
Speaker 1: know they're not mistaken that the person they're each standing
Speaker 1: in front of is actually their long lost spouse, they're
Speaker 1: both so fucking lovely to each other, like they really
Speaker 1: just missed each other and now it's just nice to
Speaker 1: be together, to talk about what the other has gone through,
Speaker 1: to talk about how happy they are to be finally reunited.
Speaker 1: People have told me how lovely their relationship is in
Speaker 1: this play, but I think I had to read it
Speaker 1: to believe it, because I mean, it's Helen and Menelaus.
Speaker 1: They're not exactly my go to examples of a romantic,
Speaker 1: happy couple who's just loving and devoted but hey have
Speaker 1: more faith in euripities, because if anyone could do it
Speaker 1: and make it believable, it is him. But we're only
Speaker 1: halfway into this play, so things can't stay good forever. Also, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, we're only halfway into the play, and in
Speaker 1: episode three, I promise this won't be six episodes four Max.
Speaker 1: It's too good, is all? Now, though we're nearing the drama,
Speaker 1: the excitement, the thing that will make this a Greek
Speaker 1: tragedy and not just a romantic story of lovers reuniting,
Speaker 1: they begin to speak about leaving Egypt together and for
Speaker 1: all Helen was begging him to realize who she was,
Speaker 1: for all she was dreaming of seeing Menilaius again, hoping
Speaker 1: and praying and worrying over him. Now that he's here,
Speaker 1: she doesn't know how she can possibly get out of
Speaker 1: Egypt with Theoclymenus after her. Instead, she wants Medilaius to
Speaker 1: escape without her, to save himself, because if Theocrimenus were
Speaker 1: to catch them, he would certainly kill mens. They talk
Speaker 1: about this for a long while, a beautiful and quick
Speaker 1: exchange of words as Helen tries to convince Menilaius that
Speaker 1: he should run that her fate is already tied to Theoclymenus,
Speaker 1: but she also tells him how bad it will be
Speaker 1: for her, that her marriage to the man would just
Speaker 1: be rape. She's very explicit, and Menilaus is horrified. He
Speaker 1: can't face the idea that he will leave her there
Speaker 1: after finally reuniting with this Helen, the Helen who's loved
Speaker 1: him all along like he's loved her. So they start
Speaker 1: to plot and plan about how they could get away
Speaker 1: from Theoclymenus and Egypt together. There's just one big problem.
Speaker 1: Theoclymenus's sister, Theonoe is a very powerful prophetess. She will
Speaker 1: have already seen that Menilaus is back, and we'll see
Speaker 1: what they plan before they can even have it fully
Speaker 1: fleshed out. Helen and Menelaius continue to talk about how
Speaker 1: they might be able to escape Egypt together. Maybe they
Speaker 1: could go to Theonowe before she has a chance to
Speaker 1: tell Theocriminis that Menelaius is even in Egypt. Helen wonders
Speaker 1: maybe they can persuade her not to tell him. Menelaus
Speaker 1: asks if they're able to convince her, would they then
Speaker 1: be able to leave with her definitely, Helen says without her, no,
Speaker 1: it would be impossible.
Speaker 2: You should talk to her.
Speaker 1: Then, Menelaius offers, because she's a woman, and Helen replies, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously I'll be the one to talk to her. And
Speaker 1: what if it doesn't work. Helen tells him that if
Speaker 1: it doesn't work, that's it. He'll die and she'll be
Speaker 1: forced to marry Theoclemenus, which is when Menelaius reacts with
Speaker 1: a touch of his usual personality. He's not into the
Speaker 1: idea of having her marry Theoclemenus, and so instead Helen
Speaker 1: swears that she will die if Menelaus dies, die by
Speaker 1: the same sword that kills him, and lie next to him.
Speaker 2: This is a.
Speaker 1: Greek tragedy, after all, we must have higher stakes, more
Speaker 1: drama and excitement, and a touch of a woman killing herself,
Speaker 1: just the.
Speaker 2: Idea of it.
Speaker 1: Though hopefully still keeping to the new Menilaus, he adds
Speaker 1: that he will do the same. If she dies, he
Speaker 1: will die too, because if we have to have the
Speaker 1: threat of suicide, let's at least make it equal. It's
Speaker 1: probably sad and maybe problematic to think this, but I
Speaker 1: think I still find it nice. I mean, the threat
Speaker 1: of suicide is never good, but just the idea that,
Speaker 1: even in this bit, Euripides makes clear that in this play,
Speaker 1: Helen and Menelaus are equals no matter what. It's so
Speaker 1: rare that I'm forced to love it, and speaking of
Speaker 1: their devotion to each other, and Euripides really messing with
Speaker 1: gender roles in the most satisfying and meaningful of ways.
Speaker 1: From here, Menilaus launches into a speech about what they
Speaker 1: plan to do and how it intersects with what he's
Speaker 1: already gone through. Quote, will struggle in a mighty contest.
Speaker 1: The prize is bed with you come, one and all.
Speaker 1: I will not shame the glory one from Troy, Nor
Speaker 1: when I come to Greece, will I be shamed. I
Speaker 1: who robbed Fadus of her son Achilles, and watched when
Speaker 1: Ajax killed himself and Nestor losing his son, Then shall
Speaker 1: I flinch to die for my own wife?
Speaker 2: I will not.
Speaker 1: This equation of Helen's potential death alongside Achilles, Ajax, even
Speaker 1: nesters On, is meaningful. Every other interpretation of the Trojan
Speaker 1: War has her as a villain in one way or another,
Speaker 1: sometimes a sympathetic one, sure, but always ultimately one of
Speaker 1: the reasons for the war, whether she liked it or not.
Speaker 1: She is no Achilles, no Ajax, no Nestor. She is Helen,
Speaker 1: the cause of all their troubles.
Speaker 2: But not here.
Speaker 1: Here Menilaius loves his wife so much that not only
Speaker 1: will he die for her, but he will die for
Speaker 1: her and equate it to the death of the best
Speaker 1: heroes of Greece. And just as the chorus chimes in
Speaker 1: to add their sympathy to hope for an end of
Speaker 1: the curse that hangs over Menelaus's family line, Helen announces
Speaker 1: that she hears Theonowe coming out, that it's too late.
Speaker 1: She must know that Menelaus is there, but that.
Speaker 2: He should hide.
Speaker 1: All the same quote, though you survived to barbarian Troy,
Speaker 1: you'll die upon a barbarous sword right here, I'm done
Speaker 1: for Theonowe joins the others on stage. It's not clear
Speaker 1: whether Menelaeus tries to hide or if they determine its futile.
Speaker 1: Theonoe's presence is very intentional and likely ad juxtaposition to Cassandra.
Speaker 1: She walks on stage and owns it. She is confident
Speaker 1: and certain of herself. She is a prophetess who hasn't
Speaker 1: been affected like Cassandra. She is still on her home soil.
Speaker 1: She holds the power, and it's impressive Euripides is making
Speaker 1: her out to be someone respected, revered. She begins by
Speaker 1: speaking to her attendance of what they will do with
Speaker 1: the tomb, speaking of ritual before she turns to Helen
Speaker 1: and says plainly, quote, So Helen, what about my prophecies?
Speaker 1: Your husband, Menelaius is right here without his ships, without
Speaker 1: your replica.
Speaker 2: She goes on.
Speaker 1: She expresses sadness for Menelaus's polite, how he doesn't know
Speaker 1: whether he'll live or die, whether he'll ever reach home.
Speaker 1: She tells him that the gods will debate about his future.
Speaker 1: That even Hara, who started it all with the idolown,
Speaker 1: now hopes for Menelaus to have a safe journey home
Speaker 1: with Helen. Haarah wants this because she wants the whole
Speaker 1: of Greece to know that her Helen was a fake,
Speaker 1: that the real one was never involved with Paris at all.
Speaker 1: She wants it to spite Aphrodite. Then Theonoe says what
Speaker 1: they're all thinking, quote, it's up to me whether she
Speaker 1: gets her wish either, I tell my brother you are
Speaker 1: here and ruin you, or else I side with Hara
Speaker 1: and save your life by hiding you from him. Helen
Speaker 1: jumps in after this, begging Theonoe not to tell her brother.
Speaker 1: She reminds her of how she got there in the
Speaker 1: first place, that Proteus, Theonoe's beloved and good father, agreed
Speaker 1: to keep Helen safe during the war, explicitly so that
Speaker 1: Menelaius could come back for her. After that he agreed
Speaker 1: to this and that it was.
Speaker 2: The will of the gods.
Speaker 1: Theonoi is a priestess first, Helen reminds her, and she
Speaker 1: should adhere to the agreements of her father before the
Speaker 1: wicked machinations of her brother. She asks Theonowe to help
Speaker 1: her return home, keep her husband alive, help her get
Speaker 1: her life back in Sparta, clear her name, and help
Speaker 1: her daughter, who's now ruined by the believed actions of
Speaker 1: her mother. Help all of us, Helen is begging of Theonoe.
Speaker 1: The chorus turns to Menelaeus, asking what he will say
Speaker 1: to plead for their lives. But he won't kneel, He
Speaker 1: won't beg for his life. He says that if he
Speaker 1: did that now, it would shame Troy, that he wasn't
Speaker 1: a coward then, and it would shame them if he
Speaker 1: became one now. It's kind of nice, this feeling like
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to shame Troy or what's left of it.
Speaker 2: It's honorable.
Speaker 1: Instead, he says, he will just say what is true quote,
Speaker 1: I am a stranger and a guest. I ask for
Speaker 1: my own wife back, as is right and proper. Then
Speaker 1: he turns to the grave of Proteus, where all the
Speaker 1: action of the play has been taking place. He speaks
Speaker 1: directly to the dead king. He tells him everything he
Speaker 1: said to Theonoe, that he just wants his own wife back.
Speaker 1: She wants to go with him, and they have every
Speaker 1: right to be together and to be allowed to leave.
Speaker 1: Then he adds that if they are not permitted to leave,
Speaker 1: he will not only dual Theoclymenus to death, but if
Speaker 1: it comes to it, both he and Helen will die
Speaker 1: there right on top of Proteus's tomb, tainting it with
Speaker 1: their blood. He tears up as he speaks of this.
Speaker 1: It isn't what he wants, but it is what they
Speaker 1: feel is necessary if it comes to it. But then
Speaker 1: he stops himself from crying, reminding himself to be strong. Now,
Speaker 1: he finishes quote, if you want to kill us, do it.
Speaker 1: We'll die as heroes. Better yet, obey me. Then you'll
Speaker 1: be good and I will get my wife and Theonowi
Speaker 1: agrees to help them. She agrees that what they say
Speaker 1: is right. Not only is it the right thing to
Speaker 1: do to let them leave, but it's what her father
Speaker 1: would do, and she will honor him. She adds that
Speaker 1: in doing this, her brother will believe that she is
Speaker 1: doing wrong, but in truth, she is turning him towards piety,
Speaker 1: forcing him to do what is right, and thus it's
Speaker 1: the right thing all around. She won't help them though.
Speaker 1: Beyond this, She makes that clear. She will stand back
Speaker 1: and let them do what they need to do, and
Speaker 1: she will not tell her brother what is happening or
Speaker 1: that Menelaus is even there in Egypt. That is how
Speaker 1: she will help them. She adds that they should pray
Speaker 1: to Aphrodite and then to Harah to help them and
Speaker 1: what they need to do to Aphrodite for their marriage,
Speaker 1: and to Hara, asking her to keep her mind where
Speaker 1: it's been decided already to let them finally go home
Speaker 1: together with Fiona, we confirmed to help them by keeping
Speaker 1: her mouth shut. Helen and Menelaus begin to plan how
Speaker 1: they will escape from Egypt. It won't be easy. They
Speaker 1: don't have a ship and they don't know the land
Speaker 1: well enough to escape that way, even if they were
Speaker 1: able to get a chariot to help them. Instead, Helen
Speaker 1: has an idea, which she begins by saying, quote, listen,
Speaker 1: in case a woman can be smart. I'm choosing to
Speaker 1: take this as irony, because this entire play up to
Speaker 1: this point is proven that women can be smart, very smart,
Speaker 1: particularly Helen and Theodoe for that matter, and even the
Speaker 1: woman at the beginning who told Menelaius to get the
Speaker 1: hell out of there. Euripites know as women can be smart,
Speaker 1: and it's proven here because Helen's idea is this, what
Speaker 1: if they pretended that Menelaus had died? What if he
Speaker 1: died in name but not in truth. Menelaus agrees, though
Speaker 1: reluctantly seems like bad luck, but he wonders what Helen's
Speaker 1: plan is exactly besides pretending that he's dead. Helen, of course, though,
Speaker 1: has thought it through because she's an absolute badass in
Speaker 1: his play. She explains that she will mourn her husband, publicly,
Speaker 1: cut her hair, tear her cheeks, and wail before the king,
Speaker 1: she will play it up. She will convince him that
Speaker 1: her husband has died. But that's not all, of course.
Speaker 1: She will also ask him to allow her to give
Speaker 1: Menelaus a proper burial. She will tell him that Menilaus
Speaker 1: died at sea and that she wishes to give him
Speaker 1: this burial at sea, that this is what she needs
Speaker 1: to do in order to be ready to marry him.
Speaker 1: But very specifically, she will tell Theoclemenus that all burials
Speaker 1: in Greece are done at sea, and thus she must
Speaker 1: do the same for Menilaus, with a ship to be
Speaker 1: given by Theoclymenus. For this reason, it's a good plan,
Speaker 1: and Menilaus loves it. He adds that he will have
Speaker 1: his surviving men ready, swords held high, that they'll be
Speaker 1: prepared to help in whatever way they can and join
Speaker 1: the couple on the ship when they're needed. But he adds,
Speaker 1: who will you say told you about my death? You?
Speaker 1: Helen replies her idea is that Menelaus will pretend to
Speaker 1: be one of his own men, the sole survivor of
Speaker 1: the shipwreck that killed Menilaus and all his other men.
Speaker 1: Of course, he's already dressed like he survived a shipwreck.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened. All he has to do is
Speaker 1: pretend to be someone else, someone with news of the
Speaker 1: famed King of Sparta's death at sea. With this decided,
Speaker 1: Helen announces that she will go inside and begin. She
Speaker 1: will cut her hair and tear her cheeks, while Menelaus
Speaker 1: waits outside, still by the tomb, where he will find
Speaker 1: some protection should Theoclymenus find him before she has a
Speaker 1: chance to return. She theorizes as to how it will go.
Speaker 2: Two endings are possible.
Speaker 1: Either she's caught and they will both die, or she'll
Speaker 1: succeed and they'll both finally return home. She prays to
Speaker 1: Hara and then to Aphrodite to help her with this plan.
Speaker 1: But to Aphrodite she doesn't hold back. She doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to fear the goddess at all. A plan I'm not
Speaker 1: sure is a good one, but I don't blame her.
Speaker 1: She can't hold back. To Aphrodite, she says, quote, you've
Speaker 1: hurt me quite enough before. You gave my name, if
Speaker 1: not my body, two barbarians. But if you want to
Speaker 1: kill me. Let me die in my own country. Why
Speaker 1: are you never sated with wickedness, deceit and tricks and
Speaker 1: lust and charms that spill the blood of families. You'd
Speaker 1: be the sweetest of the gods to humans if you
Speaker 1: were less excessive. That's the truth. What a fucking amazing
Speaker 1: speech directed right at a goddess, a powerful goddess, telling
Speaker 1: her off.
Speaker 2: For all her bullshit. I fucking love the way you
Speaker 2: Berrubines handles the gods. He's not afraid of them.
Speaker 1: He sees through their bullshit and the nonsense. Honestly, sometimes
Speaker 1: he's placed sound a bit like my podcast, Fuck the Gods.
Speaker 1: They've been awful one too many times With these words
Speaker 1: to Aphrodite, Helen enters the palace to prepare herself for
Speaker 1: their plan. Menelaeus and the chorus are left outside, where
Speaker 1: the chorus sings a song of lamentation for the troubles
Speaker 1: the couple is facing. They sing of Helen her sad fate.
Speaker 1: They sing of Troy, the good people destroyed by the Greeks.
Speaker 1: They sing of Paris, a trojan they don't have any
Speaker 1: sympathy for. They sing of what he did, stealing the
Speaker 1: false Helen away and bringing her to a foreign land,
Speaker 1: destroying her marriage, all led by Aphrodite. Then they sing
Speaker 1: of the war, the grief and sadness, the dead Greeks,
Speaker 1: the cliffs and the sea, the false prize that was
Speaker 1: Helen's Idolan. They sing of Middelaus's travels, how he ended
Speaker 1: up getting stuck there in Egypt. They sing, quote what
Speaker 1: mortal can think it all through and explain what is God?
Speaker 2: What is not God? And what is in between?
Speaker 1: Good line. Once more, they sing of Helen's parentage, Houzu's
Speaker 1: forced her mother leda in the form of a swan.
Speaker 2: They sing of.
Speaker 1: Her reputation in Greece, quote treacherous, trustless, immoral, and godless.
Speaker 1: They sing of war broadly, quote they're fools who win
Speaker 1: glory in war by stabbing and thrusting with spears, stupidly
Speaker 1: seeking an end to their labors in death. If the
Speaker 1: contest of blood is the judge, there will never be
Speaker 1: an end to the conflicts between cities, between humans. It's
Speaker 1: clear Eurybites is speaking of all wars now, just the
Speaker 1: idea of them, The way humans always need to fight
Speaker 1: one another to the death, How blood seems to be
Speaker 1: always the answer quote like lightning from Zeus, the fire
Speaker 1: of killing fell down on the walls, and you must
Speaker 1: bear pain upon pain, poor suffering woman, we pity your life.
Speaker 1: And when the chorus finishes their song with this line,
Speaker 1: we finally meet the tyrant king of Egypt, the reason
Speaker 1: for their continued sadness, their continued fear and grief. Theo
Speaker 1: Clymenus walks on stage. This is episode one seventy six,
Speaker 1: The ancient heist You Never Knew You needed, Euripides is helen.
Speaker 1: Theoclymenus joins the chorus on the stage at the entrance
Speaker 1: to his palace where he's placed his father, proteus is tomb,
Speaker 1: so that he can see it whenever he comes or goes.
Speaker 1: And well from the very first lines he speaks, we
Speaker 1: learn what he's about. He's outside the palace with his
Speaker 1: hunting dogs and all his gear. He's got a Greek
Speaker 1: to hunt. He says that he's learned from past mistakes
Speaker 1: where he didn't always punish people with death, and he's
Speaker 1: going to make up for it. He's heard there's a
Speaker 1: Greek in town, and that Greek must die. Then he
Speaker 1: continues his dramatic introduction by noticing that Helen is no
Speaker 1: longer by Proteus's tomb. She's been there for a while,
Speaker 1: so he assumes that means she's been abducted, taken away
Speaker 1: from him, rather where she already doesn't want to be.
Speaker 1: It's complicated, you remember. There's also some real othering going
Speaker 1: on here, though. I wonder if Euripides is making a
Speaker 1: real statement on so called barbarians, i e. Not Greeks,
Speaker 1: or simply inventing some exaggerated character in Theoclymenus. But let's
Speaker 1: be honest, it's probably some commentary that has origins in bigotry.
Speaker 1: He doesn't make Egyptians look good. Theoclymenus is having a time.
Speaker 1: He's there to hunt a human, and he's just found
Speaker 1: out that the human he's keeping captive in order to
Speaker 1: force her into marriage is missing. He's got a lot
Speaker 1: going on. When he notices Menilaus, he notices Menelaius, a Greek,
Speaker 1: the type of person he's there to hunt. But then
Speaker 1: alongside Menelaus, he finally sees Helen, but she's changed. She's
Speaker 1: in mourning, She's changed her clothes and her hair. Meeting
Speaker 1: the actor had a full costume change, a wig, and
Speaker 1: a mask change the whole thing, not something that usually happens.
Speaker 1: It's dramatic in itself. Helen begins to tell Theoclymenus why
Speaker 1: she's in mourning. She's deferential to him too, making a
Speaker 1: real big deal of calling him master. She's trying to
Speaker 1: butter him up, make him really feel for her. She
Speaker 1: explains that it's all over, she might as well give
Speaker 1: up everything now Menilaius is dead. She tells him that
Speaker 1: theona we told her this and that someone who witnessed
Speaker 1: it all, who saw Menilaus die, also told her of
Speaker 1: his fate and quote, may that man go where I
Speaker 1: would wish? The translator here Emily Wilson, by the way,
Speaker 1: has a note about this line. It's dramatic irony at
Speaker 1: its best. Theoclymenus hears this, and he thinks Helen wishes
Speaker 1: that that man who told her of Menilaus's death would
Speaker 1: go to the underworld, would die for what he's told her,
Speaker 1: But she's really hoping he'll simply go to Greece because
Speaker 1: he's Menelaus.
Speaker 2: Did you get that?
Speaker 1: Did I have to over explain it? Here we are
Speaker 1: Helen and Theoclymenus continue to speak of what Helen has learned.
Speaker 1: He asks where that man is, the man who told
Speaker 1: her about Menilaus's death, to which she replies that, well,
Speaker 1: he's right here. Theoclymenus believes it particularly due to that
Speaker 1: man's disgusting clothing. Why he looks like he's been shipwrecked. Yes,
Speaker 1: Theocrimenis is well spotted.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: I like to consider what exactly Menilaus looks like where
Speaker 1: he's obviously been shipwrecked. There was a tweet going around
Speaker 1: a while back that was basically like, he rolls up
Speaker 1: to his long lost wife wearing nothing but a fish net,
Speaker 1: and frankly, I'm here for it, at least with this Menelaus.
Speaker 1: Helen explains to Theoclymenus how it was that Menelaus died,
Speaker 1: quote a dreadful death beneath the salty waves. They speak
Speaker 1: of this wreck of how this man, this Greek Menilaus
Speaker 1: who's pretending not to be Menilaus, survived the wreckage when
Speaker 1: no one else did. They were wrecked in the Libyan sea,
Speaker 1: she explains, And this man who brought her the news
Speaker 1: was simply lucky. Sometimes it's all down to luck. Theoclymenus
Speaker 1: really grills her on the details here, asking how this
Speaker 1: man arrived in Egypt, where the fragments of the ship are.
Speaker 1: He asks about the idolo on what's happened to her
Speaker 1: her They speak of the fall of Troy all for nothing.
Speaker 1: It's lengthy, this discussion between the two, but what it
Speaker 1: serves to show is just how prepared Helen is for
Speaker 1: this line of questioning. She is the mastermind.
Speaker 2: Of the whole plot.
Speaker 1: Medlaius is just kind of there, a body serving a purpose.
Speaker 1: But the woman has all the smarts, all the cunning.
Speaker 1: She's handling the whole damn thing, and it's awesome. Finally
Speaker 1: they get to the question of burial. Did this man,
Speaker 1: this survivor, did he bury Menilaus? Theocrimenus asks her. No.
Speaker 1: She tells him it's horrible. He's not been buried at all.
Speaker 1: And this is why you're in mourning, he asks her.
Speaker 1: He seems to think that now Menelaus is confirmed dead,
Speaker 1: that Helen's entire opinion on everything should change. There's no
Speaker 1: need to mourn your dead husband. She's got the king
Speaker 1: of Egypt right here. But no, Helen presses she is
Speaker 1: in mourning. She loved her husband. This exchange between Helen,
Speaker 1: and Theoclymenus is really something. He's a lot, this guy.
Speaker 1: She tells him that she intends to stay true to
Speaker 1: her husband, to which he replies, quote, why do you
Speaker 1: tease me?
Speaker 2: He's dead? Let him go.
Speaker 1: He seems to actually believe she'll just want to marry
Speaker 1: him now that all that stood in the way was Menelais,
Speaker 1: and not say the fact that he was trying to
Speaker 1: force her and that she didn't actually care for him
Speaker 1: at all. But whatever, I guess it makes Helen's plan
Speaker 1: all the more simple. Fine, she says, begin the wedding plans, then,
Speaker 1: but on one condition, you have to let me bury
Speaker 1: my husband. I'll marry you finally, if you just let
Speaker 1: me bury my husband. Helen tells Theoclymenus, grasping at him
Speaker 1: in supplication. She's really selling it. She wants him to
Speaker 1: trust her, to trust that all she wants to do
Speaker 1: is bury Menilaeus and then it's all over. They'll get
Speaker 1: married and live well something. Ever after, he replies, quote,
Speaker 1: can absent shadows get a burial? Huh? Good line, But
Speaker 1: Helen has an explanation. She tells Theoclymenus about the Greek customs,
Speaker 1: mostly invented ones for this purpose. That it's customary if
Speaker 1: someone dies at sea to bury them in an empty
Speaker 1: cloth symbolic closure. Sure, whatever, Just build a mound of
Speaker 1: earth somewhere, Theoclmenist tells her. But no, she pushes, that's
Speaker 1: not how it works. They must bury him at sea.
Speaker 1: I like to imagine he lets it a big petulant sigh.
Speaker 1: Right here seems within his character. Theoclimenas says, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: what do you need? And here is when Menilaus, who's
Speaker 1: pretending not to be Menilaus, comes into play. Helen directs
Speaker 1: Theoclmenist to him, saying that she doesn't know everything they need.
Speaker 2: It's her first loss.
Speaker 1: But this man, this man from Menilaus's crew, who witnessed
Speaker 1: it all, he will have the answers. And so Menilaus,
Speaker 1: who's pretending not to be Menilaus, explains, basically having the
Speaker 1: chance to get everything he needs to make their escape happen,
Speaker 1: just hand it to him first.
Speaker 2: We must spill.
Speaker 1: Blood, a sacrifice, he says. Theoclmenis agrees. Anything they need,
Speaker 1: any animal preference, no, just something that needs to die.
Speaker 1: Got to keep those gods happy. Right from there, they
Speaker 1: need a beer something that will carry the body if
Speaker 1: there were a body, then bronze weapons, you know, because
Speaker 1: he loved war. Theoclimenus is here for all of it,
Speaker 1: given what Helen is asking for, and they're hidden intentions.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hilarious how easily this guy is like, yeah, sure, totally.
Speaker 1: Let me give you literally any and everything you need
Speaker 1: to escape from me, and even defend yourselves while you do,
Speaker 1: because he says, quote, I'll give him arms worthy of
Speaker 1: Pelops's people. Literally, I'll give you weapons as good as
Speaker 1: ones you would have had at home. Who next up, Well,
Speaker 1: they need a ship. And of course, if you thought
Speaker 1: this was when Theoclymenus would put his foot down and say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know this smells a little fishy fishy get it? No,
Speaker 1: he doesn't question it. Oh, you need a ship?
Speaker 2: Cool? How far out to see? Does it need to
Speaker 2: be able to go?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Oh, Menelaus, who's pretending not to be Menelaus.
Speaker 1: Says, we need to go so far out that you
Speaker 1: won't be able to see the ships wake from the shore. Hmm,
Speaker 1: and why is that? Theoclemenus asks, Well, isn't it obvious? Menilaus,
Speaker 1: who's not Mendallaius says, we don't want any pollution to
Speaker 1: be washed back to the shore.
Speaker 2: Duh.
Speaker 1: In this case, there's no body, so anyway, that's fine.
Speaker 1: Theoclemina says, you'll have a swift Phoenician ship and with
Speaker 1: oars too. He's literally telling them they can have everything
Speaker 1: they need to escape, easy, peasy, no questions asked. I
Speaker 1: am starting to love Theoclymenus for this alone. And it
Speaker 1: gets better with all of this promise to Menelaus, who's
Speaker 1: not menilaiis all in order to bury well medal Laius.
Speaker 1: Theoclemenus finally asks the important question, does all of this
Speaker 1: have to happen with Helen?
Speaker 2: Can't you do it without her?
Speaker 1: No? He's told it is the job of the wife
Speaker 1: to lay her husband to rest. And don't you want
Speaker 1: a pious wife? Oh? Yes, yes, Theoclamina says, I want
Speaker 1: a pious wife. She must take part then in this
Speaker 1: very sketchy act that definitely sounds like the perfect way
Speaker 1: to escape Egypt and get all the way back to
Speaker 1: Sparta without issue. Okay, fine, he doesn't say all that.
Speaker 1: He's not paying attention. He's naive, straight up ridiculous. In
Speaker 1: any event, Theoclimenis simply agrees that he wants a pious wife,
Speaker 1: so yes, obviously Helen must partake in this ritual out
Speaker 1: at sea in a very fast ship.
Speaker 2: And for good.
Speaker 1: Measure, he promises Menelaius, who's pretending not to be Medilaius,
Speaker 1: that he'll be given new clothes and food for his
Speaker 1: journey home, all in thanks for having helped Helen and
Speaker 1: thus helped Theocleminus. And finally, to cap it all off,
Speaker 1: Menilaus now turns to Helen once Theoclymenus has promised all
Speaker 1: of this, and he says, quote, your job, young lady,
Speaker 1: is to let go the husband who isn't here and
Speaker 1: love the one who is good one Menilaius, who's pretending
Speaker 1: not to be Menilaus, You're charming as fuck.
Speaker 2: Not so subtle though.
Speaker 1: From here the chorus sings of none other than Demeter
Speaker 1: and her tragic search for her daughter Persephone, abducted by
Speaker 1: the god of the underworld in secret, leaving her mother
Speaker 1: to grieve and search and grief and search. Honestly, these
Speaker 1: choral odes are unbelievable. Thinking of releasing a short bonus
Speaker 1: episode that's just me reading them to you from a
Speaker 1: copyright free translation, because the first one doesn't show up
Speaker 1: until line eleven ten, which is honestly absurd for a
Speaker 1: Greek tragedy, Just so unique and meaningful. And that one
Speaker 1: and this next one tells such explicitly detailed and beautiful
Speaker 1: stories metaphors for what's happening in the play, but unique
Speaker 1: stories unto themselves.
Speaker 2: Oh they're so good.
Speaker 1: But we must move on from here. Helen returns to
Speaker 1: the chorus to relay what's gone on inside. And remember
Speaker 1: these coral odes are often used to convey the passage
Speaker 1: of time. Let the audience know that the plot is
Speaker 1: moving along and we're about to be told of what
Speaker 1: we've missed. Helen tells the chorus that they've passed another
Speaker 1: couple of hurdles, gotten steps closer now to their escape.
Speaker 1: Theona we the prophetess and the king's sister has helped them.
Speaker 1: She told the Eoclymenus that Menilaus wasn't there, that he
Speaker 1: was dead. Then Helen helped Menilaius, who's not Menelaius. She
Speaker 1: bathed him, and boy did he need it. There's some
Speaker 1: minuendo there. Yes, she gave him fresh clothes, and now
Speaker 1: he has the weapons too. But before she can finish speaking,
Speaker 1: she has to hush her voice and beg the chorus
Speaker 1: not to reveal her secrets. Theoclymenus is approaching. She tells
Speaker 1: the chorus, who are enslaved Greek women themselves, that if
Speaker 1: they help her now and keep quiet, she and Menilaius
Speaker 1: will escape and save the women too. Someday. Yes, she
Speaker 1: uses the word someday. They're definitely an afterthought here, but
Speaker 1: such is the role of the chorus. They're there to
Speaker 1: move the plot along.
Speaker 2: We can't think too much about well, they're real people
Speaker 2: they're portraying.
Speaker 1: Plus, Theoclymenus is back on the stage, and he's there too,
Speaker 1: just briefly attempt to fuck things up. Helen and Menelaiis
Speaker 1: see he's concerned. He is concerned that if she goes
Speaker 1: on the ship to mourn her husband and to pay
Speaker 1: her respects as they've planned that quote, I'm afraid you'll
Speaker 1: get the sudden urge to hurl yourself into the swelling waves,
Speaker 1: struck by affection for your former husband. You mourn too
Speaker 1: much for him though he's not here. Love the idea
Speaker 1: that she could instead mourn for him if he were
Speaker 1: there like that he is dead or supposedly dead, is
Speaker 1: kind of the point of the morning.
Speaker 2: But not to worry.
Speaker 1: Helen's there to reassure him. Helen is incredibly wonderfully good
Speaker 1: at convincing theo criminess of everything he needs to hear
Speaker 1: in order to let them escape. I love her. She
Speaker 1: tells him that she does need to honor him, honor
Speaker 1: Menilaus there on this ship, but that he shouldn't worry
Speaker 1: about her wanting to join him.
Speaker 2: What good would that do?
Speaker 1: But she adds for good measure that she asks the
Speaker 1: god Odds to bless this stranger who's there to help her.
Speaker 1: I you know, her husband Menelaius, who's pretending not to
Speaker 1: be her husband, Menelaias. They'll take any excuse to make
Speaker 1: a subtle jab at the Euclemenus's gullibility and the opportunity
Speaker 1: to do a bit of a wink wink, nudge nudge, like, Hey, audience,
Speaker 1: isn't this fun. It's Medelais all along and we're tricking
Speaker 1: the Euclemenis into making it as easy as humanly possible
Speaker 1: for us to be together and get the fuck out
Speaker 1: of Egypt. She tells the Aclemenus quote, you'll find me
Speaker 1: just the kind of wife I should be when you've
Speaker 1: done this good turn to Menilaus and me yes, everything
Speaker 1: will turn out well.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: One thing that Ash pointed out in her notes at
Speaker 1: this play, Thanks to Ash as always is it something
Speaker 1: that comes across here is the personalities, thoughts, and motivations
Speaker 1: of the characters that you can really tell their real people.
Speaker 1: They're subtle joking nods at the truth of what's happening
Speaker 1: that Theoclemenist remains completely unaware of. You can see the
Speaker 1: thoughts going on in Helen's head, her planning, her happiness
Speaker 1: at having Medilaius back, and the relief of having a
Speaker 1: good plan to get the.
Speaker 2: Fuck out of there.
Speaker 1: The way she keeps Theoclemenists happy, believing that she's staying
Speaker 1: for him, that she'll marry him.
Speaker 2: All the while.
Speaker 1: They do this with incredibly brilliant and even funny dialogue,
Speaker 1: lots of irony, drama, just everything. The dialogue in this
Speaker 1: play is so good, and all of that keeps going
Speaker 1: because they have to finalize the plan here. Theoclmenist confirms
Speaker 1: to Helen and medilais that this man he believes to
Speaker 1: be not Medalaius will have complete control of the ship.
Speaker 1: He's giving them complete control. Helen asks that he confirm,
Speaker 1: double confirm, even that all of the crew of the
Speaker 1: ship knows to obey this man without question. They're really
Speaker 1: covering all their bases here, and Theoclemenus is making it
Speaker 1: seriously easy. He is a very trusting man, which is
Speaker 1: odd given he's been given no indication that Helen has
Speaker 1: any affection for him. But then I guess that's the
Speaker 1: power of Helen's beauty.
Speaker 2: Isn't it.
Speaker 1: He even promises, quote, I'll be as good a husband
Speaker 1: as your first. If we didn't know that he had
Speaker 1: been pursuing Helen against her will, that she'd been forced
Speaker 1: to run and hide from him, I.
Speaker 2: Almost feel for the guy.
Speaker 1: Theoclemenist begins to direct his servants to prepare for the wedding,
Speaker 1: to bring gifts to the palace, to tell all of
Speaker 1: Egypt to begin the celebrations their king is getting married. Quote,
Speaker 1: may our marriage be admired and envied. And then he
Speaker 1: says to Menelaus, who's not Menelaus, quote and stranger when
Speaker 1: you've gone to give these gifts to Helen's former husband
Speaker 1: and deep in ocean. Then take my wife and hurry
Speaker 1: her back home. You are invited to my wedding feast.
Speaker 1: Then you may go back home or stay with pleasure,
Speaker 1: he says, take my wife. Turns that all it took
Speaker 1: was Helen agreed to marry him, and now he suddenly
Speaker 1: doesn't hate all Greeks after all. Menilaus makes a final
Speaker 1: call to the gods for luck, for help.
Speaker 2: In escaping, just to plead to.
Speaker 1: For once have things go all right for them, and
Speaker 1: with that he leaves with Helen. They're off to perform
Speaker 1: the funeral rites from Menelaus. Or rather, they're off to
Speaker 1: make their escape from Egypt with all the Theoclymenus has
Speaker 1: given them. And He's given them a lot. And so
Speaker 1: the chorus sings. The chorus sings of the sea.
Speaker 2: They sing of.
Speaker 1: Narius, the old man of the sea, of ships that
Speaker 1: sail upon it, specifically the Phoenician ship set to take
Speaker 1: Helen and Menelaus away from Egypt home to Sparta. They
Speaker 1: sing of dolphins dancing through the water, of the depths
Speaker 1: of the blue Mediterranean. They sing of Helen returning home
Speaker 1: to Sparta, of all the celebrations that will take place
Speaker 1: of returning to their daughter Hermione. And finally they sing
Speaker 1: of Helen's brothers, the Darscori, the twins Castor and Polyjuices,
Speaker 1: the twins that make their home on Olympus, now with
Speaker 1: the god among the gods as deities themselves. The twins
Speaker 1: have helped Helen before, too, saved her.
Speaker 2: From that menace, that horror show.
Speaker 1: Theseus quote, saviors of Helen, dash over the green sea
Speaker 1: waves and over the blue gray surging of the dark
Speaker 1: salt water. Send fresh gusts to blow for the sailors,
Speaker 1: and take from your sister her shame for barbarian beds,
Speaker 1: the shame that she got through the strife on Mount Ida,
Speaker 1: though she never went to the city of Troy and the.
Speaker 2: Towers of Apollo.
Speaker 1: And then a messenger joins Theocriminis on stage. Helen is gone,
Speaker 1: he tells him. The messenger tries to explain what's happened.
Speaker 1: Helen is gone, been taken away from Egypt by her
Speaker 1: own husband, Menilaus, who was there to bring news of
Speaker 1: his own death.
Speaker 2: They fled by sea.
Speaker 1: And well, Theoclemenus doesn't get it.
Speaker 2: How did they get away? He asks how did they
Speaker 2: get a ship? I mean you gave.
Speaker 1: Them one, the messenger replies, though he does try to
Speaker 1: be tactful, and then the story is told. Messengers are
Speaker 1: always there to tell the stories of actions, action that
Speaker 1: can't take place on the stage, but must be relayed afterward.
Speaker 1: It's a trope of Greek tragedy, and it's lovely. This
Speaker 1: messenger tells of the ship of how the Egyptians, who
Speaker 1: were sent by Theoclemenus to help with the funeral, rites,
Speaker 1: how they prepared the ship for sale, How when it
Speaker 1: was ready they spotted some men on the shore, men
Speaker 1: who looked shipwrecked. How Menilaus called to those men, Oh,
Speaker 1: you poor, your ship must have crashed. You look to
Speaker 1: be Greek. You should join us in our funeral for Menelaus.
Speaker 1: You've surely heard his name. And so those Greek men
Speaker 1: came on board, and the Egyptians remained silent. They'd been
Speaker 1: specifically instructed by Theoclymenus to take their orders from the
Speaker 1: man they didn't know was Menelaus, and they took those orders.
Speaker 1: So they set sail, and when they were far enough
Speaker 1: from land, they stopped for direction by this man who
Speaker 1: was leading them. This is it, he said, and prepared
Speaker 1: to sacrifice the bull that was brought on board, but
Speaker 1: he didn't sacrifice it for Menilaus for his funeral. Instead,
Speaker 1: he sacrificed it and spoke to Poseidon and the daughters
Speaker 1: of Narius, to all the sea gods that he could muster,
Speaker 1: and he asked them to bring him and his wife Helen,
Speaker 1: as he revealed himself to be Menelaus, that they bring
Speaker 1: them home safely to Greece, to the harbor at Nappilia.
Speaker 1: With a final call from Menilaus, the Greeks who'd been
Speaker 1: brought on board turned on Theoclymenus's Egyptian men. A battle
Speaker 1: broke out on the deck of the ship, with Helen
Speaker 1: cheering them on. The messenger explains that he escaped. He
Speaker 1: scaled the side of the ship when the fighting started,
Speaker 1: and he drifted in the water until he was found
Speaker 1: by a fisherman brought back to the shore where he
Speaker 1: could tell Theoclymenus this dreadful, tragic story. They've lost Helen.
Speaker 1: She's already on her way, but home to Greece with
Speaker 1: her husband Menelaus at her side. No, no, no, I've
Speaker 1: been caught by the schemes of women is a quote
Speaker 1: Theoclymenus's first words after this news. After that is the
Speaker 1: chorus steps in to say that they had no idea
Speaker 1: what was going on. He speaks of how he would
Speaker 1: have gone after them, but it's too late. He must
Speaker 1: face that he won't marry Helen, but he adds he
Speaker 1: can punish his sister Theonowe for her role in the deception.
Speaker 1: He goes to find her, but the chorus steps in.
Speaker 1: They seem to physically stop him from hunting down Theonowe
Speaker 1: from hurting her. It seems unique to me that the
Speaker 1: chorus plays such an active role in this plot. Let
Speaker 1: alone attempts to prevent a murder. They even offer to
Speaker 1: die for her, but they don't have to because it's
Speaker 1: deisx fucking Macina time. God's in the machine. The gods
Speaker 1: are here to finish things up. To tie a bow
Speaker 1: on this story of escape, this heist. Helen's brothers, the Diascori,
Speaker 1: Castor and Polydukes Deity's sacred to Sparta. They arrive there
Speaker 1: on the stage. Only Castor speaks, which I think is
Speaker 1: eurip But he's personally doing me a favor because of
Speaker 1: how much I hate trying to say his breather name.
Speaker 1: But both are there, probably hanging over the stage, held
Speaker 1: up by the badassory that was the ancient Greek theater's crane,
Speaker 1: just hovering floating over the stage, being fucking badass Spartan
Speaker 1: gods quote, restrain your rage, don't get too carried away.
Speaker 1: King Theoclymenus Castor introduces himself and his brother explains that
Speaker 1: they are the sons of Leda, brothers to Helen. He
Speaker 1: explains that this marriage was not.
Speaker 2: Meant to be.
Speaker 1: It wasn't in the cards. That Theonoi isn't to blame.
Speaker 1: She didn't wrong you. She only did what was right,
Speaker 1: what your own father Proteus, agreed to when Helen arrived
Speaker 1: on Egyptian shores seventeen years earlier. It was all destiny,
Speaker 1: Castor tells theo Clymenus. Then they speak to Helen wherever
Speaker 1: she is is on the waves of the sea sailing off.
Speaker 1: They tell her that they will be there alongside her
Speaker 1: for her journey, to keep her safe and make sure
Speaker 1: she and Menilayus do return home to Sparta safe and sound.
Speaker 1: They tell her that in the end, she too will
Speaker 1: be a goddess so says Zeus himself, and that even
Speaker 1: Menilayus will be allowed to live in the islands of
Speaker 1: the Blessed, where the heroes go when they die quote.
Speaker 1: The gods do not despise those who are noble, although
Speaker 1: they suffer more than the masses do. Theoclymenus responds he's
Speaker 1: been convinced by these gods. He tells them that he
Speaker 1: will accept that he isn't to marry Helen, that he
Speaker 1: isn't still angry even with his own sister. And then
Speaker 1: for good measure, he once again announces how perfect and
Speaker 1: chaste Helen is, because for all her strength and personality,
Speaker 1: this play is about her chastity, how she held on
Speaker 1: and waited for her husband to return, how she stayed true.
Speaker 1: The last lines of the play are by the chorus quote.
Speaker 1: Spirits take on many forms, and gods create a multitude
Speaker 1: of surprises. Things we expect don't come to pass, and
Speaker 1: gods find ways towards the unexpected. That's how this story went.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening to this reair of one
Speaker 1: of my favorite plays, Like What a Joy. This play
Speaker 1: blew my mind in such a similar way to Iffig
Speaker 1: and I. Among the Torrians, So I was just like, immediately, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna reair if I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: some holidays off, like this is it.
Speaker 2: And on Friday, I'm gonna be bring you a re.
Speaker 1: Air of the series on Euripides is Alkestis, because that
Speaker 1: is the other one that made me go, what in
Speaker 1: the living fuck am I reading? I love you Euripides
Speaker 1: with my whole goddamn heart, and we're just you know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna stick with looking at his most interesting and
Speaker 1: weird women characters. And then on Tuesday, we're gonna listen
Speaker 1: back to the conversations that I had about these two plays,
Speaker 1: just to cap it all off, nice themed, little few
Speaker 1: episodes so that I can maybe take time off, probably
Speaker 1: just work on other stuff.
Speaker 2: It'll be worth it.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about MIT's Baby is written and produced by
Speaker 1: me Live Albert michaelas Smith is the Hermes to My Olympians,
Speaker 1: better known as my assistant producer. Laura Smith is now
Speaker 1: the production assistant and audio engineer. The podcast is part
Speaker 1: of the iHeart podcast Network. Listen on Spotify or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Help me continue bringing you the
Speaker 1: world of Greek mythology. And the ancient medi training by
Speaker 1: becoming a patron, where you will get bonus episodes and more.
Speaker 1: Visit patreon dot com slash MIT's Baby, or click the
Speaker 1: link in this episode of the description I am Live. I
Speaker 1: love this shit, but as we all know that euripities,
Speaker 1: especially