Helen

The third section of the play begins with the entrance of Theonöe’s, a character who has been mentioned many times but has not been seen on stage until this moment. The Egyptian princess immediately understands the situation and its stakes: that Menelaos is alive and present, as she had already predicted, and that it now lies in her own hands to resolve the matter one way or the other. She can reveal Menelaos’s presence to her brother King Theoklymenos, thus assuring the former’s demise, or she can forgo mentioning his presence to give Menelaos and Helen a chance to escape. Helen seizes the opportunity and casts herself down before Theonöe to plead for mercy in a moving display of humility and resolute self-abasement. She appeals to Theonöe’s virtue and piety, calling on her to do the right thing by honoring the late King Proteus’s intention of keeping Helen safe in Egypt until she could be restored to her husband. Though Helen knows that Theonöe would benefit by turning Menelaos over to her brother, she nonetheless calls the princess to hold fast to her ideals: “Don’t sacrifice your piety to buy a bad man’s gratitude with a shameful deed” (970-71).