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		<title>Euripides -- Helen [Ἑλένη], l. 256ff (412 BC) [tr. Vellacott (1954)]</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2025 18:21:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dave</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[HELEN: From the moment my mother bore me I was pointed at for a freak. It’s not usual in Hellas or anywhere else for a woman to produce her young enclosed in a white shell &#8212; which is the way Leda is said to have borne me, with Zeus for my father! [ἙΛΈΝΗ: ἆρ᾽ ἡ [&#8230;]]]></description>
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="hangingindent">HELEN: From the moment my mother bore me I was pointed at for a freak. It’s not usual in Hellas or anywhere else for a woman to produce her young enclosed in a white shell &#8212; which is the way Leda is said to have borne me, with Zeus for my father!</p>
<p></p>
<p class="hangingindent">[ἙΛΈΝΗ: ἆρ᾽ ἡ τεκοῦσά μ᾽ ἔτεκεν ἀνθρώποις τέρας;<br />
γυνὴ γὰρ οὔθ᾽ Ἑλληνὶς οὔτε βάρβαρος<br />
τεῦχος νεοσσῶν λευκὸν ἐκλοχεύεται,<br />
ἐν ᾧ με Λήδαν φασὶν ἐκ Διὸς τεκεῖν.]</p>
<p></p>
<br><b>Euripides</b> (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist<br><i>Helen [Ἑλένη]</i>, l. 256ff (412 BC) [tr. Vellacott (1954)] 
									<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(<a href="https://archive.org/details/bacchaeotherplay00euri/page/132/mode/2up?q=%22from+the+moment+my%22" target="_blank">Source</a>)
										<br><br><span class="cite">
						

The egg-laying passage here is bracketed or elided by some translators, indicating it is possibly spurious or not in all manuscript traditions. <br><br>

<a href="https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/leda-and-the-swan-cesare-da-sesto-after-da-vinci-c-1515.png"><img src="https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/leda-and-the-swan-cesare-da-sesto-after-da-vinci-c-1515-225x300.png" alt="Leda and the Swan -  Cesare da Sesto after da Vinci, c 1515" width="225" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-78323" /></a>Leda was Helen's mother, with Zeus, the father, having seduced/raped her while disguised as a swan.  Leda then lay a clutch of eggs (one with Helen, one containing the twins Castor and Pollux, another Clytemnestra).  The ravishment of Leda is a common theme in art; showing the resulting eggs is much more rare (<a href="https://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Leda-and-the-Swan.html">da Vinci</a> being an exception). <br><br>

(<a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0099%3Acard%3D253#:~:text=%E1%BC%86%CF%81%E1%BE%BD%20%E1%BC%A1%20%CF%84%CE%B5%CE%BA%CE%BF%E1%BF%A6%CF%83%CE%AC%20%CE%BC%E1%BE%BD%20%E1%BC%94%CF%84%CE%B5%CE%BA%CE%B5%CE%BD%20%E1%BC%80%CE%BD%CE%B8%CF%81%CF%8E%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%B9%CF%82%20%CF%84%CE%AD%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%82%3B%0A%CE%B3%CF%85%CE%BD%E1%BD%B4%20%CE%B3%E1%BD%B0%CF%81%20%CE%BF%E1%BD%94%CE%B8%E1%BE%BD%20%E1%BC%99%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B7%CE%BD%E1%BD%B6%CF%82%20%CE%BF%E1%BD%94%CF%84%CE%B5%20%CE%B2%CE%AC%CF%81%CE%B2%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82%0A%CF%84%CE%B5%E1%BF%A6%CF%87%CE%BF%CF%82%20%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%BF%CF%83%CF%83%E1%BF%B6%CE%BD%20%CE%BB%CE%B5%CF%85%CE%BA%E1%BD%B8%CE%BD%20%E1%BC%90%CE%BA%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%87%CE%B5%CF%8D%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B9%2C%0A%E1%BC%90%CE%BD%20%E1%BE%A7%20%CE%BC%CE%B5%20%CE%9B%CE%AE%CE%B4%CE%B1%CE%BD%20%CF%86%CE%B1%CF%83%E1%BD%B6%CE%BD%20%E1%BC%90%CE%BA%20%CE%94%CE%B9%E1%BD%B8%CF%82%20%CF%84%CE%B5%CE%BA%CE%B5%E1%BF%96%CE%BD.">Source (Greek)</a>). Other translations: <br><br>

<blockquote>Was not my birth a prodigy to men?<br>
For never Grecian or Barbaric dame<br>
From the white shell her young ones gave to light,<br>
As Leda brought me forth, fame says, to Jove.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn6lrk&seq=308&q1=%22prodigy+to+men%22">Potter</a> (1783), l. 286ff] </blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Did not my mother, as a prodigy<br>
Which wondering mortals gaze at, bring me forth?<br>
For neither Greician nor barbaric dame<br>
Till then produced an egg, in which her children<br>
Enveloped lay, as they report, from Jove<br>
Leda engendered.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019113177&seq=128&q1=%22as+a+prodigy%22">Wodhull</a> (1809)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Did not my mother bring me forth as a prodigy to men? For neither Greek nor barbarian woman has given birth to a white vessel of younglings, in which they say Leda begot me by Jove.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=rul.39030018953945&seq=217&q1=%22mother+bring+me%22">Buckley</a> (1850)] </blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Did my mother bear me as a wonder to mankind? [For no other woman, Hellene or barbarian, gives birth to a white vessel of chicks, in which they say Leda bore me to Zeus.]<br>
[tr. <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0100%3Acard%3D253#:~:text=Did%20my%20mother%20bear%20me%20as%20a%20wonder%20to%20mankind%3F%20%5BFor%20no%20other%20woman%2C%20Hellene%20or%20barbarian%2C%20gives%20birth%20to%20a%20white%20vessel%20of%20chicks%2C%20in%20which%20they%20say%20Leda%20bore%20me%20to%20Zeus.%5D">Coleridge</a> (1891)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Bore not my mother a portent unto men?<br>
For never Hellene nor barbarian dame<br>
Brought forth white vial of a fledgling brood,<br>
Wherein to Zeus men say that Leda bare me.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012280742&seq=513&q1=%22portent+unto+men%22">Way</a> (Loeb) (1912)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote><span class="tab"><span class="tab"><span class="tab"><span class="tab"><span class="tab"><span class="tab"><span class="tab"><span class="tab">My very birth<br>
A portent -- for it is not known in nature<br>
That any woman, Greek or barbarous,<br>
Should bear her children as they say that I<br>
Was born to Zeus by Leda, cased about <br>
In a white hollow shell.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4036627&seq=20&q1=%22my+very+birth%22">Sheppard</a> (1925)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote>And did my mother bear me as some kind of monster?<br>
For certainly no Greek or foreign woman yet<br>
travailed with the white circle of an egg for birds,<br>
as Leda bore me, so they say, from Zeus.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015014494374&seq=31&q1=%22kind+of+monster%22">Warner</a> (1951)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote><span class="tab"><span class="tab"><span class="tab">Was I born a monster among mankind?<br>
[No woman, neither in Greece nor yet in Barbary,<br>
is hatched from the white envelope that contains young birds,<br>
yet thus Leda bore me to Zeus, or so they say.]<br>
[tr. <a href="https://archive.org/details/euripidesii00euri/page/200/mode/2up?q=%22was+i+born%22">Lattimore</a> (1956)] </blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Was I born to be some kind of freak,<br>
<span class="tab">carrion for men's scavenging eyes?<br>
I am a freak ... a monster,<br>
<span class="tab">and I lead a monstrous life.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Essential_Euripides/bIGmPOH2RpIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22was%20i%20born%22">Meagher</a> (1986)] </blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Did my mother bring me into the world for people to stare at as a freak? My life has certainly been grotesque.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Heracles_and_Other_Plays/3ccaxnT-SFEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22did%20my%20mother%20bring%22">Davie</a> (2002)] </blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Did not my mother bear me to be a monster to the world? For no woman, Hellene or barbarian, gives birth to babes in eggs inclosed, as they say Leda bare me to Zeus.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://archive.org/details/euripidesninetee0000euri/page/368/mode/2up?q=%22did+not+my+mother+bear%22">Athenian Society</a> (2006)] </blockquote><br>

<blockquote>I've been handicapped -- to judge by the way people stare --<br>
Since birth; and all my life I've lived under the shadow<br>
Of my deformity.<br>
[tr. <a href="http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/helen.htm#:~:text=I%27ve%20been%20handicapped%20%2D%20to%20judge%20by%20the%20way%20people%20stare%20%2D%0ASince%20birth%3B%20and%20all%20my%20life%20I%27ve%20lived%20under%20the%20shadow%0AOf%20my%20deformity.">A. Wilson</a> (2007)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote>My mother has brought me to this world to be nothing more than a monstrous freak! No woman -- neither Greek nor barbarian -- has given birth to the egg of a white bird, yet, they say, that this is what my mother has done. Leda, they say, delivered me inside the shell of a bird’s egg. Zeus is my father.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://bacchicstage.wpcomstaging.com/euripides/helen/#:~:text=My%20mother%20has%20brought%20me%20to%20this%20world%20to%20be%20nothing%20more%20than%20a%20monstrous%20freak!%20No%20woman%20%E2%80%93neither%20Greek%20nor%20barbarian%2D%20has%20given%20birth%20to%20the%20egg%20of%20a%20white%20bird%2C%20yet%2C%20they%20say%2C%20that%20this%20is%20what%20my%20mother%20has%20done.%20Leda%2C%20they%20say%2C%20delivered%20me%20inside%20the%20shell%20of%20a%20bird%E2%80%99s%20egg.%20Zeus%20is%20my%20father.">Theodoridis</a> (2011)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Did my mother bear me as a freak among mankind?<br>
No woman -- no Greek, no barbarian -- gives birth to<br>
her baby in an eggshell cask, <br>
they say Leda bore me to Zeus.<br>
[tr. <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/~jbailly/courses/CLAS24TrojanWar/1.%20Helen%20Script.pdf#page=12">Ambrose</a> et al. (2018)]</blockquote><br>

<blockquote>Did my mother bear me as a wonder to mankind? [For no other woman, Hellene or barbarian, gives birth to a white vessel of chicks, in which they say Leda bore me to Zeus.]<br>
[tr. <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/euripides-helen/#:~:text=Did%20my%20mother%20bear%20me%20as%20a%20wonder%20to%20mankind%3F%20%5BFor%20no%20other%20woman%2C%20Hellene%20or%20barbarian%2C%20gives%20birth%20to%20a%20white%20vessel%20of%20chicks%2C%20in%20which%20they%20say%20Leda%20bore%20me%20to%20Zeus.%5D">Coleridge / Helen Heroization Team</a>]</blockquote><br>						</span>
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