“Helen the taker!”
There is an etymological allusion in the original here, concerning which see the [Notes] to the Prometheus Bound, v. 85. The first syllable of Helen’s name in Greek means to take, from ἁιρέω 2 aor (ἑ)ιλον. “No one who understands the deep philosophy of Æschylus and his oriental turn of thought will suspect the play upon the name of Helen to be a frigid exercise of wit,” says Sew., who has transmuted the pun into English in no bad fashion thus—
“Helen, since as suited well
Hell of nations, heroes’ hell,
Hell of cities, from the tissued
Harem-chamber veils she issued.”
“. . . giant Zephyr.”
I see no reason why so many translators, from Stan. downward, should have been so fond to render γίγαντος “earth-born” here, as if there were any proof that any such genealogical idea was hovering before the mind of the poet when he used the word. I entirely agree with Con. that the notion of strength may have been all that was intended (as, indeed, we find in Homer the Zephyr always the strongest wind), and, therefore, I retain the original word. Sym. Anglicising, after his fashion, says, not inaptly—