Second choral interlude.—The chorus first tells of the former fall of Troy under Hercules and Telamon; and then refers to the high honors that had come to the city through the translation of Ganymede to be the cupbearer of Jove, and through the special grace of Venus. But these have not availed to save the city from its present destruction.
Second choral interlude.—The chorus discusses the various places to which it may be its misfortune to be carried into captivity. It professes a willingness to go anywhere but to the homes of Helen, Agamemnon, and Ulysses.
Third episode.—Menelaüs appears, announcing that the Greeks have alotted to him Helen, his former wife, the cause of all this strife, to do with as he will. He declares his intention to take her to Greece, and there destroy her as a warning to faithless wives.
Hecuba applauds this decision, and thinks that at last heaven has sent justice to the earth:
Dark thy ways
And silent are thy steps to mortal man;
Yet thou with justice all things dost ordain.
Helen, dragged forth from the tent at the command of Menelaüs, pleads her cause. She lays the blame for all upon Hecuba and Priam:
She first, then, to these ills
Gave birth, when she gave Paris birth; and next