In this sensitive new translation by James Michie and Colin Leach, Euripides' fragile structure of subtlety, in both timing and tone, is beautifully preserved.

Among the legends of ancient Greece, there is perhaps no story more compelling than that of Helen. Her surpassing beauty was said to have launched the Greek fleet of a thousand ships to Troy. No woman was so adored and so hated. She was seen as both prize and scapegoat, the promise of bliss and the assurance of doom.