Sophocles, Ajax (e-text)

ATHENA
      I stopped him. I threw down into his eyes
      an overwhelming sense of murderous joy
      and turned his rage against the sheep and cattle
      and those protecting them—the common herd
      which so far has not been divided up.*
      He launched his attack against those animals                      70
      and kept on chopping down and slaughtering
      the ones with horns by slicing through their spines,
      until they made a circle all around him.
      At one point he thought he was butchering
      both sons of Atreus—he had them in his hands.*
      Then he went at some other general
      and then another. As he charged around
      in his sick frenzy, I kept encouraging him,
      kept pushing him into those fatal nets.                                             [60]
      And then, when he took a rest from killing,                         80
      he tied up the sheep and cattle still alive
      and led them home, as if he had captured
      human prisoners and not just animals.
      Now he keeps them tied up in his hut
      and tortures them. I’ll let you see his madness—
      in plain view here—so you can witness it
      and then report to all the Argives. Be brave.
      Do not back off or look upon this man
      as any threat to you. I will avert his eyes,
      so he will never see your face.                                                          [70]

[Calling to Ajax inside the hut]

                                                             You in there—             90
      the one who’s tying up his prisoner’s arms—
      I’m calling you! I’m shouting now for Ajax!
      Come on out here! Outside the hut! In front!

ODYSSEUS
Athena! What are you doing? Don’t call him!
Don’t bring him out here!

ATHENA
Just be patient.
Don’t run the risk of being called a coward.

ODYSSEUS
For the gods’ sake, don’t do it! Leave him be!
Let him stay inside!

ATHENA
What’s the matter with you?
He was just a man before this, wasn’t he?

ODYSSEUS
Yes, and in the past unfriendly to me, 100
and especially now.

ATHENA
But the sweetest laughter
comes from mocking enemies. Is that not true?

ODYSSEUS
Still, I’d prefer he stayed inside his hut. [80]

ATHENA
You hesitate to see before your eyes
someone in a raving fit?

ODYSSEUS
                                                   Yes, I do—
      if he were fully sane I’d not avoid him
      or hesitate . . .

ATHENA
But he won’t see you now,
not even if you stand beside him.

ODYSSEUS
How will that occur, if he still can see
with his own eyes?

ATHENA
His eyes see very well, 110
but I will make them dark.

ODYSSEUS
Well, it is true
a god’s work can make all things possible.

ATHENA
Stand here, then, and stay quiet.

ODYSSEUS
I’d better stay,
although I’d have preferred to keep my distance.

ATHENA
You in there, Ajax! I’m calling you again!
Why show your ally so much disrespect?* [90]

[AJAX enters from the hut. He is carrying a bloody whip with which he has been lashing the cattle]

AJAX
      Welcome Athena! Welcome child of Zeus!
      You have given me so much assistance!
      In gratitude for those I’ve captured
      I’ll offer you a crown, presents of pure gold.                        120

ATHENA
      That’s nobly spoken. But tell me this—
      did that sword of yours slake itself on blood
      when you attacked the Argive army?

AJAX
Yes.
That I can boast about. I don’t deny it.

ATHENA
You went after the two sons of Atreus
with that weapon in your fist?

AJAX
Indeed I did.
They’ll not dishonour Ajax any more.

ATHENA
So, as I understand you, those men are dead.

AJAX
Yes, dead. Let them rob me of my weapons now! [100]

ATHENA
      I see. Well, what about Laertes’ son?                                               130
      As far as you’re concerned, where does he stand?
      Did he escape you?

AJAX
That damned slimy fox!
You ask me where he is?

ATHENA
Yes, I’m asking.
I mean that enemy of yours Odysseus.

AJAX
My favourite prisoner, lady, sits inside.
I don’t want him to die just yet.

ATHENA
                                                           But when?
      What further actions do you have to do?
      Or what advantage will you gain by that?

AJAX
Not before he’s tied up to a pillar,
the main one holding up the roof in there. 140

ATHENA
What harm will you inflict on the poor man?

AJAX
I’ll whip his back blood red. Then I’ll kill him. [110]

ATHENA
Don’t abuse the poor man so viciously.

AJAX
      You can follow your desires, Athena,
      in all other things. That I will concede.
      But this is the penalty he’s going to pay—
      not something else.

ATHENA
                                         All right, since it pleases you,
      give that arm of yours some exercise. Don’t stop.
      Do what you’ve planned.

AJAX
                                   Then I’ll get back to work.
      And I’ll leave you with this request from me—                    150
      always stand beside me as my ally
      the way you did today.

[AJAX goes back into the hut]

ATHENA
                                                          Do you see,
      Odysseus, how powerful the gods can be?
      Could you find anyone more sensible
      than Ajax, a man with more ability
      to carry out in every situation
      the most appropriate action?                                                            [120]

ODYSSEUS
                                             No one I know.
      All the same, although he despises me,
      I pity his misfortune under that yoke
      of catastrophic madness. It makes me think                         160
      not just of his fate but my own as well.
      I see that in our lives we are no more
      than phantoms, insubstantial shadows.

ATHENA
      Well then, now you’ve seen his arrogance,
      make sure you never speak against the gods,
      or give yourself ideas of your own grandeur,
      if your strength of hand or heaped-up riches                                    [130]
      should outweigh some other man’s. A single day
      pulls down any human’s scale of fortune
      or raises it once more. But the gods love                             170
      men who possess good sense and self-control
      and despise the ones who are unjust.

[ATHENA and ODYSSEUS leave. Enter the CHORUS, sailors from Salamis and followers of Ajax]

CHORUS LEADER
      Son of Telamon, who holds the throne
      on wave-washed Salamis beside the sea,
      I rejoice with you when things go well,
      but when a blow from Zeus or angry words
      from slanderous Danaans are aimed at you,
      then I hold back in fear and shake with terror,
      like the fluttering eye on a feathered dove.                                                                                                [140]
      I’m like that now. In the night that’s passing,                       180
      there were noisy rumours thrown against us,
      against our honour, saying that you went off
      into that meadow where our horses range
      and massacred Danaan animals,
      together with the spoils their spears had captured,
      prizes which had not yet been allotted.
      With that bright sword of yours you butchered them.
      Such slanderous reports Odysseus shapes
      and whispers into every soldier’s ear.                                               [150]
      Many men believe him. For he now speaks                          190
      persuasively about you, and everyone
      who listens is filled with spite and pleased
      that you have come to grief, even more
      than is the man who told them. Throw a spear
      at some great soul, and you will never miss,
      but if someone said things like that of me,
      he’d never be believed. Envy creeps up
      against the man of wealth and power.
      And yet without the great, we lesser men
      are fragile ramparts in our own defence.                               200
      It’s best for small men to ally themselves                                         [160]
      with greatness, and for the powerful
      to be supported by the lesser men.
      But teaching foolish people such good sense
      ahead of time is just not possible.
      So men like this are now denouncing you,
      and we do not possess sufficient power
      to deflect these charges, not without you,
      not without our king. With you out of their sight,
      they keep on chattering like flocks of birds.                         210
      But if you unexpectedly appeared,
      they would be terrified, as if they faced                                            [170]
      a mighty eagle, and soon would cower there,
      and hold their tongues in silence.

CHORUS
      Was it that goddess Artemis,
      bull-tending child of Zeus,
      who drove you on,
      drove you at the common herd?
      O mighty Rumour, mother of my shame!
      Was it perhaps in retribution for a victory                            220
      where she received no tribute,
      splendid weapons she was cheated of?
      Or did some hunter kill a stag
      and set no gifts aside for her?
      Or has Enyalios, bronze-plated god of war,
      with reason to complain about an armed alliance,
      taken his revenge for such an insult                                                 [180]
      by a devious stratagem at night?

      For with your own mind, O son of Telamon,
      you’d never go so far along the path to ruin                         230
      as to attack the flocks.* But nothing can prevent
      a sickness which the gods implant.
      I pray that Zeus, that Phoebus Apollo
      will stave off this catastrophe,
      this disastrous rumour of the Argives.
      And if great kings are slandering you now
      with stories full of lies, or if it is that man
      born from the worthless line of Sisyphus,
      do not, my lord, take on the grievous weight                                   [190]
      of a dishonoured reputation by remaining here,                               240
      hiding your presence in this hut beside the sea.*

      Up now, get up from where you sit,
      wherever you’ve been settled for so long
      in your pause from battle. You are fuelling
      a fire of disaster blazing up to heaven.
      Your enemies’ insolence keeps charging on
      quite fearlessly, whipped up by favouring winds
      through forest thickets, while every soldier
      wags his tongue and laughs and jeers.
      They bring us grief and reinforce our sorrow.                       250           [200]

[Enter TECMESSA]

TECMESSA
      You men, shipmates of Ajax, sons of the race
      of earth-born Erechtheus, all of us
      who love the distant house of Telamon
      are in despair. For now our master Ajax,
      our great and terrifying and forceful king,
      lies suffering from tempestuous disease.*

CHORUS LEADER
      What heavy grief has come during the night
      to change the troubles we had yesterday?
      Daughter of the Phrygian Teleutas,                                                  [210]
      speak to us—though bold Ajax won you                              260
      fighting with his spear, he still maintains
      a strong affection for you, so you may know
      and offer us an answer.

TECMESSA
                                               How can I tell
      a story much too terrifying for words?
      You will hear of suffering as harsh as death.
      Last night madness seized our glorious Ajax,
      and now he has been totally disgraced.
      You can see everything inside his hut,
      the blood-soaked butchered victims who were killed
      as sacrifices at his very hands.                                              270           [220]

CHORUS
      The news you tell us of our fiery king
      we cannot bear, and yet there’s no escape.
      It’s what the powerful Danaans say,
      what their great story-telling spreads around.
      O, how I fear what’s coming next. This man
      is going to die—and in full public view—
      with a black sword in those mad hands of his                                  [230]
      he massacred the herd and herdsmen, too,
      the ones who ride to guard our animals.

TECMESSA
      Alas! From those fields he came to me                                 280
      right after that, leading his captive beasts.
      On the floor in there he slit some of their throats,
      struck others in the ribs, tore them apart.
      He grabbed two rams—the legs on both were white—
      cut off the head on one and sliced its tongue,
      right at the tip, then threw the parts away,
      and lashed the other upright on the pillar.                                        [240]
      He seized a thick strap from a horse’s harness
      and flogged it with a whistling double lash.
      He was cursing with an awful violence,                               290
      not human words—ones a god had taught him.

CHORUS LEADER
      The time has come for us to hide our heads
    and steal away on foot—or take our seats,
      each man at his swift oar, and let our ship
      sail out on her seaworthy way. Those threats                                                                                             [250]
      our two commanders, sons of Atreus,
      keep hurling at us are so serious,
      I am afraid of savage death by stoning,
      sharing the suffering of the man in there,
      struck down with him now in the grip of fate,                      300
      his own inexorable doom.

TECMESSA
                                                              No, no.
      He is no longer like that. He’s grown calm.
      Like a sharp south wind that rushes past
      without a lightning flash, he’s easing off.
      Now he’s sane again, but in new agonies.
      To look at self-inflicted suffering                                                     [260]
      when no one else played any part in it
      brings on great anguish.

CHORUS LEADER
                                   If he’s no longer mad,
      I’m confident that things may be all right.
      For when disaster has already passed                                   310
      it doesn’t have as much significance.

TECMESSA
      But if you had the choice of causing grief
      to your own friends while feeling good yourself
      or of grieving too, a suffering man
      among a common sorrow, which would you choose?

CHORUS LEADER
The double grieving, lady, is far worse.

TECMESSA
So at this moment we, although not sick,
are facing disaster.

CHORUS LEADER
What does that mean?
I don’t understand what you are saying. [270]

TECMESSA
      That man in there, when he was still so ill,                          320
      enjoyed himself while savage fantasies
      held him in their grip, but we were sane,
      and, since he was one of us, we suffered.
      But now there is a pause in his disease,
      he can recuperate and understand
      the full extremity of bitter grief,
      yet everything for us remains the same—
      our anguish is no milder than before.
      This is surely not a single sorrow,
      but a double grief?

CHORUS LEADER
                                                I think that’s true.          330
      I fear a blow sent from a god has struck him.
      How else could this take place, if his spirit
      is no more hopeful now that he’s been cured                                   [280]
      than when he was sick?

TECMESSA
That’s how things stand.
You must see that.

CHORUS LEADER
                                             How did his illness start?
      How did this trouble first swoop down on him?
      Since we share your grief, tell us what happened.

TECMESSA
      You are all involved in this, and so you’ll hear
      the entire story. At some point in the night,
      when the evening torches had stopped burning,                   340
      Ajax took up his two-edged sword, resolved
      to set off on a senseless expedition.
      I challenged him and said, “What are you doing?
      Ajax, why are you going out like this?
      There’s been no summons, no messenger,
      nor any trumpet call. All the army                                                    [290]
      is now sleeping.” His reply to me was brief,
      that old refrain, “Woman, the finest thing
      that females do is hold their tongues.” So I,
      taking my cue from that, did not respond,                            350
      and he charged out alone. I cannot say
      what went on out there, but he came back
      and took his chained-up prisoners inside,
      all linked together—bulls and herding dogs
      and captured sheep. He cut the heads off some.
      He twisted back the skulls of other beasts
      and cut their throats or chopped their spines.
      Others, whom he kept tied up, he tortured,
      as if they were human beings, even though                                      [300]
    it was only beasts he was attacking.                                     360
      At last, he charged out through the doorway
      and forced out some words of conversation
      with a shadow. Sometimes he’d talk about
      the sons of Atreus, at other times
      about Odysseus, with manic laughter
      at how by going out he had avenged
      all their arrogance in full. After that,
      he rushed back in the hut again and there
      he gradually regained his sense somehow,
      though not without an effort. Once he saw                          370
      his room filled up with that deluded slaughter,
      he struck his head and howled. Then he collapsed,
      a ruined man among so many ruins,
      carcasses of butchered sheep. He sat there,
      fists gripping his hair with nails clenched tight.                                [310]
      For a long time he remained quite silent.
      Then he made some dreadful threats against me
      if I would not tell him every detail
      of what had taken place. He questioned me—
      What on earth had he become involved with?                      380
      My friends, I was afraid. So I told him
      everything that had gone on, all the things
      I knew were true. He at once began to groan,
      doleful sounds I’d never heard from him before.
      He’s always claimed that wailing cries like that
      were only fit for gloomy men and cowards.                                      [320]
      He used to grieve, but never wail aloud—
      just a deep moan, like from a lowing bull.
      But now, overwhelmed by his misfortune,
      he takes no food, no drink, sprawled in silence                    390
      where he fell down among dead animals
      his own sword killed. It seems clear enough
      he will do something bad. The words he speaks
      and his laments show that intent somehow.
      My friends, you should come in and help him,
      if that’s possible. That’s why I came out here.
      For words from friends can cure a man like him.                                                                                       [330]

CHORUS LEADER
      Tecmessa, daughter of Teleutas,
      what you’ve described to us about the man
      being driven mad with sorrow—that’s dreadful.                  400

AJAX [crying out from inside the hut]
Aaaiiii . . . Alas for me!

TECMESSA
It looks as if his fit could soon be worse.
Did you not hear that loud cry from Ajax?

AJAX
Aaaiiii! . . . Alas!

CHORUS LEADER
      I think the man is sick or still suffering
      the effects of that disease he had before—
      they’re all around him where he sits.

AJAX
My child! My son!

TECMESSA
                                    How miserable I feel!                                         [340]
      Eurysaces, he’s calling you. But why?
      What does he have in mind? Where are you?                       410
      I’m overwhelmed.

AJAX
                                                        I call on Teucer!
      Where is Teucer? Will that fighting raid he’s on
      keep going forever, with me dying here?*

CHORUS LEADER
      I think the man may have his wits again.
      Open the door. Perhaps when he sees me
      he’ll quickly feel a sense of self-respect.

TECMESSA [opening the door of the hut]
There. It’s open. Now you can take a look
at what he’s done and see the state he’s in.

[AJAX is revealed sitting among the dead animals]

AJAX
      Ah, my cherished sailors, of all my friends
      the only ones who still observe true loyalty.                         420           [350]
      You see how great a wave has just rolled over me,
      a crashing surge lashed on by murderous winds.

CHORUS LEADER [to Tecmessa]
It looks as if what you told us is true—
his condition clearly shows his madness.

AJAX
      Ah, you race of master mariners,
      who crossed the sea and with your oars sped out
      across the salty ocean, I see in you,
      and in you alone, the one support                                                    [360]
      in my despair. Come, help me kill myself.

CHORUS LEADER
      No more of that! Speak words of hope.                  430
      Don’t seek to cure one bad thing with another
      or make this mad disaster any worse.

AJAX
      Do you see how this bold and valiant heart,
      this warrior so fearless in those wars
      against his enemies, has turned his hands,
      these awesome hands, against tame animals?
      Ah, the mockery! How I have been abused!

TECMESSA
I beg you, my lord Ajax, don’t say that.

AJAX
Just go away. Why not turn your feet around
and wander off somewhere? Aaaaiiii . . . . 440 [370]

CHORUS LEADER
By the gods, concede. Use your common sense.

AJAX
      It’s my bad luck I let slip from my grasp
      those criminals deserving punishment.
      Instead I went at bulls with twisted horns,
      fine herds of goats, and made their dark blood flow.

CHORUS LEADER
      Why lament those deeds which have been done
      and cannot be recalled? Such final acts
      will never be anything but what they are.

AJAX
      O you who keeps prying into everything,
      you nasty instrument for every crime,                                  450           [380]
      Odysseus, the filthiest degenerate
      in all the army, you must be laughing now,
      taking great delight in this.

CHORUS LEADER
Divine will
determines if each man laughs and cries.

AJAX
But still
I’d like to face him, though I’m injured. Ahhhh . . . .

CHORUS LEADER
Don’t make boasts like that. Do you not see
the catastrophe you face?

AJAX
                                                  O Zeus,
      you ancestral father of my father,
      if only I could die after I had killed
      that wheedling scoundrel enemy of mine                             460           [390]
      and those twin-reigning kings.*

TECMESSA
                            When you make that prayer,
      pray also that I die as well. With you gone,
      why should I continue living?

AJAX
      O darkness, now my daylight,
      O gloom of Erebus, for me
      the brightest light there is,
      take me, take me now
      to live with you.* Take me,
      a man no longer worthy to seek help
      from families of gods or men,                                   470           [400]
      those creatures of a day.
      For Zeus’ daughter, brave Athena,
      abuses and destroys me.
      Where can one escape?
      Where could I go and rest?
      If my past fame has been cut down,
      along with these dead beasts beside me,
      then, my friends, if I now seek
      a madman’s triumphs, all the army,
      with repeated blows from their own swords                         480
      will cut me down as well.

TECMESSA
      How hard it is for me to hear this man,                                            [410]
      this worthy man, say things he’d never say
      before this happened!

AJAX
      O you paths of the resounding sea!
      You tidal caves and coastal pastures,
      for a long time now, for far too long,
      you have detained me here in Troy.
      But that you will no longer do, no,
      not while I am breathing still.                                               490
      Let men of sense be sure of that.
      O you streams of the Scamander,
      my neighbour, so friendly to the Argives,                                         [420]
      you no longer will be seeing Ajax,
      a man whose equal as a warrior—
      and I can make this boast—
      Troy never saw arriving here from Greece.
      But now I lie among this heap, dishonoured.*

CHORUS LEADER
      I don’t have the strength to stop your words
      or to let you go on saying such things—                  500
      you’ve fallen into such calamity.

AJAX
      Alas! Who would ever think my name                                             [430]
      would suit my troubles so poetically?*
      For I could well cry out two or three times
      “Alas for Ajax!”—that shows the magnitude
      of the disaster I am going through.
      I am the man whose father’s excellence
      won supreme respect from all the army.
      He took the fairest prize and carried home
      every glory from the land of Ida.*                                        510
      I am his son, who journeyed after him
      to this same land of Troy. I’m just as strong,
      with the work of my own hands I have attained
      achievements just as great, but, as you see,
      these Argive insults have quite ruined me.                                       [440]
      And yet I think I can affirm this much—
      had Achilles lived and been about to judge
      the man who should receive his weapons,
      the prize for being the finest man in war,
      no soldier would have put his hand on them                        520
      before I did. But now the sons of Atreus
      have dealt them to a fellow whose spirit
      will stoop to anything, and pushed aside
      all those triumphant victories of Ajax.
      If with my distorted mind and eyes,
      I had not abandoned what I planned,
      they would not have had what’s mine by right
      put to the vote against another man.*
      But then that goddess with the glaring eyes,                                    [450]
      implacable Athena, Zeus’ daughter,                                     530
      threw me over at the very instant
      I was steadying my hand against them.
      She hurled in me a frenzied sickness,
      so blood from grazing beasts would stain my hands,
      and those men now can laugh at their escape,
      something I did not want. But when a god
      commits an injury, the unworthy man
      escapes someone more powerful. And now,
      what do I do, when I am obviously
      hated by the gods, when the Greek army                             540
      despises me, and everyone in Troy
      and on the plain holds me an enemy?
      Should I give up my station in the fleet,                                                                                                     [460]
      leaving the sons of Atreus alone,
      and sail for home across the Aegean Sea?
      How could I face my father, Telamon,
      when I arrive back there? How could he bear
      to see me showing up with nothing,
      without the prize for highest excellence
      with which he won his own great crown of fame?                550
      That’s not a thing I could endure to do.
      Well, then, should I charge out there on my own
      against the Trojan wall, a lone attack,
      fight single combats, do something valiant,
      and then at last be killed? But that would please
      the sons of Atreus. It must not happen.                                           [470]
      I must seek out some act which will reveal
      to my old father how, at least by nature,
      his own son has not become a coward.
      It is dishonourable for any man                                            560
      to crave a lengthy life, once he discovers
      the troubles he is in will never change.
      What joy is there for him when every day
      just follows on another, pulling him away
      or pushing him toward death? I would not pay
      for any sort of mortal man who’s warmed
      by futile hopes. A man of noble birth
      lives on with honour, or he dies in glory.
      Now you’ve heard everything I have to say.                                     [480]

CHORUS LEADER
      No one will ever claim that you, Ajax,                                 570
      have said a word that’s illegitimate,
      for what you say is born in your own heart.
      But you should stop. Get rid of thoughts like these.
      Let friends overrule what you’re suggesting.

TECMESSA
      O my lord Ajax, for human beings
      the worst of evils is what they endure
      when they’re compelled to. Consider me.
      I was the daughter of a free-born father,
      a wealthy man, if anyone in Phrygia
      could be accounted rich. Now I’m a slave,                           580
      a circumstance the gods somehow made happen—
      yes, the gods and especially your strong limbs.                                 [490]
      And thus, since I have come into your bed,
      I want the best for you. So I beg you,
      by Zeus who guards our home, by that bed
      where you had sex with me, do not leave me
      to the savage insults of your enemies.
      Do not abandon me to some strange hand.
      For if you die and leave me all alone,
      that day you may be sure the Argive men                             590
      will take me by force, as well as your own son.
      We will then both lead the lives of slaves.
      One of our lords will speak these biting words,                                                                                         [500]
      shooting insults at me, “Look here at this,
      a bed mate of Ajax, the strongest man
      in all our army. What menial chores she does!
      How she’s changed from such an enviable state!”
      Men will talk that way, and then my fate
      will wear me down. Those shameful words will stain
      you and your family. Respect your father,                                        600
      whom you will leave a miserable old man.
      Respect you mother, too, who shares his years.
      She keeps begging the gods that you’re alive,
      that you’ll return back home. And, my lord,
      have pity for your son. For if you die,                                                                                                        [510]
      consider how, whenever that day comes,
      both he and I will face desolation.
      He will lack the nurturing a young lad needs
      if you leave and he becomes an orphan,
      in the care of people who are not friends                             610
      or from his family. And I have nothing
      I can look to except you. It was you
      who killed my homeland for me with your spear.
      My mother and my father were destroyed
      by a different fate which led them down
      to make their home in Hades after death.*
      What country could I have except with you?
      What wealth? My safety, all security,
      that rests with you. So remember me as well.                                   [520]
      A genuine man should cherish memory,                               620
      if he gets pleasure still from anything.
      Kindness always engenders gratitude.
      A man who gives up his good memories
      will no longer be a noble, worthy man.

CHORUS LEADER
Ajax, I wish that pity touched your heart,
as it does mine. Then you’d approve her words.

AJAX
      So far as I’m concerned, she’ll win approval
      only if she keeps being obedient
      and carries out my orders properly.

TECMESSA
Yes, beloved Ajax, I will obey 630
in everything.

AJAX
Then bring me my son, [530]
so I may see him.

TECMESSA
I sent him away,
out of my care. I was so terrified.

AJAX
Afraid because I was in trouble?
What do you mean?

TECMESSA
                                     Yes, that’s it. I feared
      that the unlucky boy might bother you
      and then somehow get killed.

AJAX
Yes, such a thing
the god who watches me would think fitting.

TECMESSA
At least I took a suitable precaution
to stop that happening.

AJAX
I approve of that. 640
The steps you took were quite correct.

TECMESSA
And so,
as things are now, how can I best serve you?

AJAX
Let me talk to him, see him face to face.

TECMESSA
Yes. He’s close by, with servants watching him.

AJAX
Why then this delay? Why is he not here? [540]

TECMESSA [calling to the side]
      My son, your father is calling for you.
      Whichever of you servants has his hand,
      bring the boy out here.

AJAX
Is he coming, the one you called?
Or did he not hear?

TECMESSA
The servant’s on his way.
He’s bringing Eurysaces with him. 650

[Enter the SERVANT leading EURYSACES]

AJAX
      Lift him up. Hand the boy to me up here.
      He’ll have no fear of fresh-spilt blood, no,
      not if he’s a true-bred son of mine
      who shares his father’s nature. It is time
      he was broken in to that harsh code
      his father follows and his nature shaped
      to something like my own. O my boy,                                              [550]
      may you have better fortunes than your father,
      although remain like him in other ways,
      for then you’ll never be dishonoured.                                   660
      Now I envy you, and with good reason—
    for you have no idea of any troubles.
      The sweetest life comes when one senses nothing—
      to lack all feeling is a painless evil—
      until you learn what joy and sorrow mean.
      Once you reach that stage, you must reveal
      the kind of man you are, your ancestry,
      to those who were your father’s enemies.
      Meanwhile, you should feed on gentle breezes,
      fostering your young life so as to bring                                 670
      your mother joy. I know that no Achaean                                        [560]
      will go at you with insults and contempt,
      even when I’m gone. For I am leaving Teucer
      here with you as guardian of your gates.
      He will not falter in his care for you,
      although he now is busy far away,
      chasing his enemies. But my warriors,
      my people of the sea, I charge you now
      with the same joyful duty I give Teucer.
      Report to him what I have ordered here—                           680
      he is to take this boy back to my home,
      show him to Telamon and Eriboea,
      my mother, so he may always comfort them                                    [570]
      in their old age, until the time they reach
      the yawning caverns of the gods below.
      And none of those who judge our competitions
      nor the man who ruined me will offer
      my weapons as a prize for the Achaeans.
      No, my son, for my sake you will have to take
      that broad shield from which you get your name.*               690
      Hold it up high. Shift it by its well-stitched grip,
      my impenetrable seven-layered shield.
      My other weapons you will bury with me.
      Come, take the boy, and quickly. Close the hut.
      And don’t keep on weeping here in front.
      How these women really love their wailing!                                     [580]
      Quick now, close up the hut. A skilful healer
      does not howl incantations when a wound
      is crying for the knife.

CHORUS LEADER
                                                 When I hear
      that you’re in such a rush, I get afraid.                                 700
      The sharp edge on your tongue brings me no joy.

TECMESSA
O lord Ajax, what are you going to do?

AJAX
Don’t keep on asking me! No more questions!
The best thing now is self-restraint.

TECMESSA
                                          But I’m desperate!
      By the gods, by your own son, I beg you—
      do not become a man who now betrays us!

AJAX
You pester me too much. Do you not see
that I no longer owe the gods my service? [590]

TECMESSA
You must not utter such impieties.

AJAX
Speak to those who listen.

TECMESSA
You will not hear me? 710

AJAX
You have already chatted far too much.

TECMESSA Yes, my lord, because I’m so afraid.

AJAX [to the servants]
Shut the doors. Do it now!

TECMESSA
By all the gods, concede!

AJAX
      It looks as though you’re thinking like a fool,
      if, at this late date, you still believe
      that what you teach will shape my character.

[The SERVANTS close the main door of the hut, leaving AJAX inside. TECMESSA, EURYSACES, and the SERVANTS go into the hut through the side door from which Eurysaces emerged earlier]

CHORUS
      O splendid Salamis,
      you, I know, lie in the sea,
      whose waves beat on your happy shores,
      a famous place among all men forever.                                720
      I have been held back a long time here                                                                                                      [600]
      in misery, for countless months
      still camped out in the fields of Ida,
      consumed by time and my anxiety,
      expecting to complete my journey
      to implacably destructive Hades.

      And now my troubles multiply,
      a situation hard to remedy,
      for I must wrestle now with Ajax,                                                    [610]
      share my life with that insanity                                             730
      sent from the gods. Alas for me!
      Once, long ago, you sent him out
      filled with the frenzied power of war.
      But now his spirit feeds in isolation,
      and his friends acquire from him
      a heavy sorrow. His earlier deeds,
      those acts of highest excellence,
      have fallen, fallen where he has no friends,
      among the wretched hostile sons of Atreus.                                     [620]

      The years have changed his mother’s hair to white,             740
      and given her old age for company.
      When she learns of his disease,
      that maddening infection of his mind,
      she’ll start to wail forth her laments.
      She will not chant out melodies
      sung by the plaintive nightingale.
      No. In her mood of desolation                                                         [630]
      the sharp-toned music of her grief
      will scream abroad her anguish.
      Her beating hands will thud down on her breasts,                            750
      and she’ll keep tearing out her old gray hair.

      A man brain sick with mad delusions
      is better off concealed in Hades,
      a man who by his ancestry
      is ranked the best of the Achaeans,
      who have endured so much. But now,
      no longer following his inbred character,
      he wanders far beyond himself.                                                        [640]
      O you unhappy father Telamon,
      you have yet to hear the heavy curse                                    760
      laid on your son, a curse which up to now
      has never played a part in any life
      nurtured by the sons of Aeacus.

[Enter AJAX through the main doors of the hut, carrying a sword. TECMESSA enters after him.]

AJAX
      The long succession of the countless years
      reveals what’s hidden, then hides it once again,
      and there is nothing we should not anticipate.
      The solemn oath and the most stubborn heart
      are overcome. In this way, even I,                                                    [650]
      who used to be so marvellously strong,
      like tempered iron, felt my sharp edge dissolve                    770
      at what this woman said. I now feel pity
      leaving her a widow and my son an orphan
      among my enemies. And so I’ll go
      to the bathing waters by the sea shore
      and wash off my defilement. I will deflect
      the weighty anger of the goddess there.
      When I leave, I’ll find some isolated place
      and then inter my sword, of all my weapons
      the one I most despise. I’ll dig the earth
      where no one else will see. Then let Night                           780
      and Hades keep it there below the ground.                                                                                                [660]
      For ever since I’ve held it in my grip,
      this gift from Hector, my greatest enemy,
      I’ve won no prizes from the Argives.*
      That old human saying is true: gifts men get
      from enemies—they are no gifts at all
      and bring them no advantages. And so,
      from this day forward I shall understand
      how to revere the gods. And I will learn
      how to respect the sons of Atreus.                                       790
      They are our rulers, so we must obey.
      Why not? Things of the greatest power and awe
      give way to privileged authorities.                                                    [670]
      Snow-footed Winter yields to fruitful Summer,
      and Night’s dark vault withdraws the moment Day
      with her white-footed horses fires up the sky;
     the blasts of fearful Winds at last bring rest
      which calms the groaning seas. All-powerful Sleep
      lets go the one he holds tied up in chains;
      his grasp does not go on forever. As for us,                          800
      how can we mortals not learn self-control?
      I, at least, am only now discovering
      that we should hate our enemies as much
      as suits a man who will become a friend.                                         [680]
      And when I help a friend, then I will give
      only what is due a man who’ll not remain
      a friend forever. For common mortals
      see that the shelter comradeship affords
      is treacherous. Thus, my situation
      will turn out for the best. And so, woman,                           810
      go inside now. Keep praying to the gods
      my heart’s desires will reach fulfilment
      and be carried out to their conclusion.

[TECMESSA return into the hut through the side door. AJAX turns to address the CHORUS]

AJAX
      My comrades, you, too, honour this request.
     Tell Teucer, when he comes, to care for me
      and also to protect your interests.
      I am now going where I have to go.                                                  [690]
      As for you, carry out what I have said,
      and very soon, perhaps, you will find out
      that, though I’m suffering now, I am at peace.                     820

[AJAX leaves, heading for the sea shore.]

CHORUS
      I feel a sudden thrill of passionate delight,
      which makes me soar aloft with happiness
                  and cry with joy to Pan—
                        O Pan, Pan—
                  appear to us, sea rover—
            come down from your stony ridge
            on snow-beat Mount Cyllene,
           you dancing master of the gods—
                        come, O king,
        begin your self-taught dancing steps                                   830
                  from Mysia and Cnossos,                                                      [700]
            for what I want now is to dance.
            And may Apollo, lord of Delos,
               race across the Icarian Sea
              and manifest himself to me,
        show his benevolence in everything.

        From our eyes Ares has removed
                  those terrifying agonies.
                        What joy! O joy!
                  For now, O Zeus, now                                             840
         the dazzling light of brighter days
               can come to our swift ships
               which speed across the seas,                                                   [710]
        for Ajax is free of pain once more
        and, in a transformed state of mind,
        has carried out appropriate sacrifice
        to all the gods in full, showing them
        due reverence and strictly following
                 our most important laws.
   The power of time extinguishes all things,                              850
             so I can’t say that anything
             lies beyond all expectation—
since, in contrast to what we were waiting for,
         now Ajax’s mind has changed again
          away from actions done in anger
        and his great fight with Atreus’ sons.

[Enter the MESSENGER]

MESSENGER
      Friends, the first thing I have to report is this—
      Teucer has just come from the Mysian heights.                                [720]
      He’s now in the middle of our line of ships,
      in the generals’ camp. All the Argives                                  860
      are shouting insults at him, all at once.
      They saw him coming and, as he approached,
      surrounded him, hurling accusations
      from all directions—everyone joined in—
      calling him the brother of that maniac
      who had conspired against the army
      and saying he could not escape his death—
      their stones would cut him down completely.
      Things reached the point where men had pulled their swords
      out of their scabbards and held them fully drawn.                            870
      Then, as the fight was getting out of hand,
      some elders intervened. Their words stopped it.
      But where can I find Ajax to tell him this?
      I must provide our king a full report.

CHORUS LEADER
He’s not inside. He has just gone away,
with new intentions yoked to his changed mood.

MESSENGER
O no! No! Then the man who sent me here
did so too late, or I have been too slow.

CHORUS LEADER
What’s so urgent? What’s been overlooked? [740]

MESSENGER
Teucer said that Ajax had to stay inside 880
and not leave his hut until he gets here.

CHORUS LEADER
      Well, as I told you, Ajax has gone off.
      He intends to follow now what’s best for him,
      to cleanse away his anger at the gods.

MESSENGER
Your words reveal your complete foolishness,
if what Calchas prophesies has any merit.

CHORUS LEADER
What do you mean? What information
do you have about what’s happening here?

MESSENGER
      Well I was there, so I know this much—
      I witnessed it. Calchas left the leaders                                              890
      sitting in their royal council circle,
      moving off from the sons of Atreus.                                                 [750]
      In a friendly gesture he placed his right hand
      in Teucer’s palm. Then he spoke to him,
      giving him strict orders to use every means
      to keep Ajax in his hut while this day lasts
      and to prevent him moving anywhere
      if he ever wished to see him still alive.
      For divine Athena’s rage would whip Ajax
      only for that day. That’s what Calchas said.                         900
      Then the prophet added, “Those living things
      which become too large and thus unwieldy
      fall into harsh disasters from the gods—
      the sort of man who, born from human stock,                                 [760]
      forgets and thinks beyond his mortal state.
      Take Ajax. As soon as he set out from home,
      he revealed his folly, though his father
      had passed on good advice. For Telamon
      commanded him, ‘My son, with that spear of yours
      you must seek victory, but always fight                                910
      with some god at your side.’ But then Ajax,
      in a lofty boast, thoughtlessly replied,
      ‘Father, with god’s help even a worthless man
      can be victorious. But I believe
      I’ll win glory on my own without them.’
      Such was his arrogance. Another time,                                             [770]
      with divine Athena, as she was rousing him
      and telling him to turn his deadly hands
      against the enemy, he answered her
      with a fearful and sacrilegious speech,                                 920
      ‘Lady, stand there with the other Argives.
    The fight will never break the line through Ajax.’
      It was with words like these that he provoked
      the unremitting anger of the goddess,
      because he does not think as humans should.
      But if he remains alive all day today,
      with god’s help we might be his saviours.”
      That’s what Calchas said. From where he sat                                   [780]
      Teucer sent me off at once with orders
      which you were meant to follow. If we fail,                         930
      Ajax is done for—that is, if Calchas
      has any skill in prophecy.

CHORUS LEADER [calling into the side door of the hut]
                                                Tecmessa,
      unfortunate lady born for sorrow,
      come out and see this man. Hear his news.
      The razor’s slicing closer. I feel its pain.

[Enter TECMESSA through the side door of the hut]

TECMESSA
      Why are you making me come out once more
      and leave the chair where I was getting
      some relief from these unending troubles?

CHORUS LEADER
      Listen to this man—he’s come with news
      about what’s happening with Ajax,                                      940           [790]
      and it’s disturbing.

TECMESSA
                                                      O no! You there,
      tell me what you have to say. Does this mean
      we’re finished?

MESSENGER
                                                 I have no idea
      how things stand with you. As for Ajax,
      if he is not inside, then I’ve lost hope.

TECMESSA
He’s gone away. So I’m in agony
about just what you mean.

MESSENGER
                                   Teucer gave orders
      that you keep Ajax safely in his hut
      and do not let him leave all by himself.

TECMESSA
But where is Teucer? Why did he say that? 950

MESSENGER
He has only just returned. He suspects
if Ajax goes somewhere he’ll be destroyed.

TECMESSA
That’s horrible! What man told him this? [800]

MESSENGER
Thestor’s son, the prophet, whose words proclaimed
this very day would bring life or death for Ajax.

TECMESSA
      O my friends, protect me from this destiny!
      Some of you, get Teucer here more quickly,
      while others go off to the western cove
      and to the east, as well, to investigate—
     find out where Ajax went, when he set off                           960
      on that ill-fated path. For now I know
      I have, in fact, been totally deceived,
      and Ajax has finally cast away
      all that affection he once had for me.
      Alas, my son, what am I going to do?
      I can’t stay idle. So I’ll go out there,                                                 [810]
      as far as I have strength to go. Let’s leave—
      and hurry! This is no time to sit around,
      if we want to save a man who’s eager
      for destruction.

CHORUS LEADER
                                       I’m prepared to help,                           970
      not just with words, as I will demonstrate.
      If we move fast, we can do this quickly.

[They all exit in various directions, leaving the stage empty. The scene now changes to a deserted part of the seashore. AJAX enters, carrying his sword, which he sets upright in the sand, with the blade sticking upward.]

AJAX
      The sacrificial killer is in place,
      so it will now cut most effectively.
      If a man had time, he might reflect on this.
      It is a gift from Hector, a warrior
      who was a friend most hateful to me,
      the one I looked on as my greatest foe.*
      Then, this sword is firmly set in Trojan soil,
      land of my enemy, freshly whetted                                       980
      on the iron-eating sharpening stone.                                                 [820]
      And I have fixed it in the ground with care,
      so it will kill me quickly and be kind.
      Thus, we are well prepared. So, O Zeus,
      in this situation, be the first to help,
      as is appropriate. I’m not asking you
      to give me a grand prize, but for my sake
      send a messenger to carry this bad news
      to Teucer, so he may be the first
      to raise me, once I’ve fallen on the sword                            990
      and covered it with fresh-spilt blood. Don’t let
      the first to spot me be some enemy,
      who’ll throw me out, exposed as carrion food                                  [830]
      for dogs and birds. I appeal to you, O Zeus.
      Grant me this much. I also call on Hermes,
      guide to the world below, to let me sleep
      without convulsions, when by one quick leap
      I break my bones apart on this sharp blade.
      And I summon those immortal maidens
      to my aid, those who always see all things                           1000
      of human suffering, the dread, far-striding Furies,
      to witness how, in my wretchedness,
      the sons of Atreus worked my destruction.
      May they seize on them and destroy them, too,
      with deaths as vile as their disgusting selves.                                   [840]
      Just as they see me killed by my own hand,
      so let them perish, killed by their own kindred,
      the children they love most. Come, you Furies,
      you swift punishers, devour the army,
      all of them, sparing no one. And you, Helios,                      1010
      whose chariot wheels climb that steep path to heaven,
      when you look down over my father’s land,
      pull back those reins of yours, which flash with gold,
      then tell the story of my miseries,
      my destiny, to my old father
      and to the unhappy one who nursed me.
      That poor lady, when she hears this news,                                       [850]
      will, I think, sing out a huge lamenting dirge
      throughout the city. But for me to weep
      is useless. It’s time to start the final act.                               1020
      O Death, Death, come now and watch in person.
      Yet I’ll be seeing you on the other side,
      and there we can converse. And so to you,
      the radiant light of this bright shining day,
      I make my final call, and to the Sun—
      I’ll never see that chariot any more.
      O light, O sacred land of Salamis,
      my home, my father’s sturdy hearth,                                                [860]
      and glorious Athens, whose race was bred
      related to my own—and you rivers,                                     1030
      you streams, you plains of Troy, I call on you.
      Farewell, you who have nurtured me—to you
      Ajax now speaks his final words. The rest
      I’ll say to those below in Hades.

[Ajax falls on his sword. Enter the CHORUS in two separate groups from two different directions. Each has a separate leader. They do not see Ajax’s body until Tecmessa finds it.] *

CHORAL GROUP 1
      We work and work,
      and that brings on more work.
      Where have I not walked? Where?
      No place where I have searched
      has revealed to me where Ajax is.
      What’s that? Listen! I heard a noise.                                     1040         [870]

CHORAL GROUP 2 LEADER
It’s us—the crew that shares the ships with you.

CHORAL GROUP 1 LEADER
What can you report?

CHORAL GROUP 2 LEADER:
We’ve searched everywhere
on the west side of the ships.

CHORAL GROUP 1 LEADER
Did you come up with anything?

CHORAL GROUP 2 LEADER
Just lots of work. There’s nothing there to see.

CHORAL GROUP 1 LEADER
Well, we haven’t seen him either—
not on the path facing the rising sun.

CHORUS
      Who then can lead me on,
      what toiling sons of the sea,                                                             [880]
      sleepless in their shacks?                                                                  1050
      What nymph on high Olympus
      or from the streams that flow
      into the Bosphorus
      could say if she has seen somewhere
      fierce-hearted Ajax wandering around?
      It is not fair that after a long search
      and so much effort I can’t find
      the proper path to him. I cannot see
      where that elusive man might be.                                                     [890]

[Enter TECMESSA behind the Chorus. As she moves on, she stumbles across the corpse of Ajax]

TECMESSA
Ahhh . . . .

CHORUS LEADER
Who cried out? It sounded close, 1060
from that group of trees.

TECMESSA
O how horrible . . . .

CHORUS LEADER
      I see her, the unfortunate young bride,
      Tecmessa, a prize won with his spear—
      she’s lying there, prostrate with grief, in pain . . .

TECMESSA
I’m lost . . . destroyed . . . my life is over.
O my friends. . . .

CHORUS LEADER
What’s happened?

TECMESSA
                                                            It’s our Ajax—
      he’s lying here . . . he’s just been murdered,
      his body’s wrapped around a buried sword.

CHORUS LEADER
      O no! Our dreams of getting home are gone.                                   [900]
      Alas, my king, you have destroyed me, too,                        1070
      the one who sailed across the seas with you . . . .
      you poor, unhappy man . . . heart-sick lady . . .

TECMESSA
With Ajax dead like this, we have good cause
to wail out our grief.

CHORUS LEADER
                                                Who did this?
      With whose help could ill-fated Ajax
      have gone through with this?

TECMESSA
                                                        He did it by himself.
      That’s clear. This sword fixed upright in the ground
      indicates he fell down on top of it.

CHORUS LEADER
      Alas, for my own foolishness!
      You bled to death alone, with no friends there                    1080         [910]
      to keep an eye on you. I was so stupid,
      so blind to everything. I took no care.
      And now, now where does stubborn Ajax lie,
      a man whose very name suggests misfortune.*

TECMESSA
      He’s not a spectacle to gaze upon!
      With this cloak I will cover him completely,
      tuck it all around him—for nobody,
      at least no one who was a friend of his,
      could bear to see him, as he spurts blood
      up his nostrils and from that dark red wound,                      1090
      his self-inflicted slaughter. Alas!
      What shall I do? What friend of yours                                              [920]
      will lift you up for burial? Where’s Teucer?
      How I wish that he would come right now,
      when we need him—if he ever comes
      to care for the body of his brother.
      O ill-fated Ajax, how could a man like you
      end up like this? Even your enemies
      must find you worthy of a funeral song.

CHORUS
      O you unhappy man, how you were doomed,                      1100
      with that unbending heart of yours,
      fated to live out an evil destiny
      of endless suffering.
      I know you groaned such hostile words                                            [930]
      against the sons of Atreus
      all night long and in the morning light,
      the fatal passion of a stubborn heart.
      It’s obvious that when those weapons
      were made the prizes in the competition
      for the finest of our battle warriors,                                      1110
      that was a potent source of trouble.

TECMESSA
Alas! Alas for me!

CHORUS LEADER
Your heart, I know,
is truly filled with grief.

TECMESSA
Such misery for me!

CHORUS LEADER
      It’s no surprise to me, my lady,                                                         [940]
      you wail and wail again, for you’ve just lost
      a man you loved so much.

TECMESSA
                                            You only guess
      how it must feel, but I experience it,
      and to the limit.

CHORUS LEADER
That’s true enough.

TECMESSA
      Alas, my son, what kind of slavery
      will yoke us now as we move on from here,                         1120
      what sort of taskmasters stand over us?

CHORUS LEADER
      Ah, now you’ve given voice to your concerns
      about unspeakable actions by those men,
      the two unfeeling sons of Atreus,
      in this our present grief. May god restrain them!

TECMESSA
But these events would not have taken place [950]
without the gods’ consent.

CHORUS LEADER
Yes—they have set
a burden too heavy for us to bear.

TECMESSA
      It’s Athena, Zeus’ savage daughter.
      What miseries that goddess has produced,                           1130
      and for Odysseus’ sake.

CHORUS LEADER
                                                    I’m sure that man,
      who has endured so much, in his black heart
      exults and laughs with lofty arrogance
      at these insane disasters. Such mockery!
      Such a disgrace! And when they hear of this,
      those two royal sons of Atreus
      will join his merriment.                                                                     [960]

TECMESSA
                                                 Then let them laugh!
      Let them get their joy from this man’s agony.
      Although they did not sense their need of him
      while he was living, perhaps they’ll mourn his death                        1140
      when they need him in war. Men with brutal minds
      have no idea what fine things they possess
      until they throw them out. Ajax’s death—
      to me so bitter and to them so sweet—
      at least has brought him joy, for he has got
      what he desired, the death he yearned for.
      So why should these men make fun of him?
      His death is the gods’ concern, not theirs. No!                                 [970]
      So let Odysseus vaunt his empty jests.
      For them Ajax is dead—for me he’s gone,                           1150
      abandoning me grief and mourning.

TEUCER [heard offstage]
No, no . . . No!

CHORUS LEADER
      Be quiet. I think I hear Teucer’s voice.
      His shouts send out a tone which penetrates
      the heart of this disaster.

[Enter TEUCER]

TEUCER [moving up to Ajax’s body]
                                             O dearest Ajax,
      my bright source of joy, my brother,
      what’s happened to you. Is the rumour true?

CHORUS LEADER
He’s dead, Teucer. That’s the truth.

TEUCER
Alas! Then I bear a heavy destiny! [980]

CHORUS LEADER
Given how things stand . . . .

TEUCER
This is too sad.

CHORUS LEADER
. . . you have good cause to grieve.

TEUCER
This act of his, 1160
so rash and passionate . . . .

CHORUS LEADER
Yes, Teucer,
passion in excess.

TEUCER
                                                  This is disastrous.
      What about his son? Where on Trojan soil
      can I find him?

CHORUS LEADER
He’s in the hut—all by himself.

TEUCER [To Tecmessa]
      You—bring him here as soon as possible,
      in case he gets snatched by an enemy,
      the way a hunter grabs a lion cub
      and leaves its mother childless. Go quickly!
      We need your help. For it’s a fact all men
      love to laugh in triumph above the dead,                             1170
      when they’re stretched out before them.

[Exit TECMESSA]

CHORUS LEADER
                                                         Teucer,
      when Ajax was alive, he said that you                                              [990]
      should look after his son, as you’re now doing.

TEUCER
      O this is surely the most painful sight
      of anything my eyes have ever seen.
      And, of all the roads I’ve travelled, the worst,
      the one most deeply painful to my heart,
      is that pathway I’ve just walked along,
      while trying to track you down, dearest Ajax,
      once I’d learned your fate. There was some gossip,              1180
      some tale to do with you. It spread quickly,
      as if sent by a god, to all the Argives.
      It said that you had wandered off and died.
      I heard the details far away from here
      and there I groaned with sorrow. Now I’m here,
      I see it for myself. It breaks my heart.                                              [1000]
      It’s dreadful. Come, take off this covering,
      so I get a full view of this horror.

[Attendants remove the cloak covering Ajax’s body]

      O that face—it’s so painful to see now,
      so full of bitter daring. How many sorrows                          1190
      you have sown for me by this destruction!
      Where can I go? What sort of people
      will take me in, when I was no use to you
      in times of trouble? No doubt Telamon,
      who fathered you and me, will welcome me,
      perhaps with smiles and words of kindness,
      when I reach home without you. Of course he will!                         [1010]
      For he’s the kind of man who never smiles,
      not cheerfully, even when things go well.
      A man like that—what will he not say?                                1200
      What sort of insult will he not hurl at me—
      a bastard spawned by some battle-prize of his,
      who, because of his unmanly cowardice,
      betrayed you, dearest Ajax, or by treachery
      tried to seize your power and your home,
      once you were dead. That’s what Telamon will say.
      He’s a bad-tempered man, and his old age
      has made him harsh—his anger likes to argue
      over nothing. He’ll end up banishing me,
      throw me from the land. What he’ll say of me                      1210
      will make me seem a slave instead of free.                                                                                                [1020]
      That’s what will happen if I go back home.
      Here in Troy I have many enemies,
      and few ways of getting help. All this
      has happened to me because you’ve been killed.
      It’s a disaster. What am I to do?
      How do I raise you up, you sad corpse,
      from the sharp bite of this glittering sword,
    your murderer, on which you breathed your last?
      You’ve come to sense how, in good time, Hector,               1220
      though dead, was going to slaughter you. Look here,
      by the gods—see the fate of these two men.
      First, Hector was lashed tight to that chariot rail                             [1030]
      with the very belt Ajax had given him,
      and underwent continual mutilation
      until he gasped his life away.* Then Ajax
      took Hector’s gift in hand and used it
      to kill himself in that death-dealing fall.
      Surely a vengeful Fury forged this blade,
      and that harsh craftsman Hades made that belt?                  1230
      For my part, I would assert that gods
      have plotted these events—they always do
      in everything that mortal men go through.
      If someone finds this view objectionable,
      let him love his own beliefs, as I do mine.

CHORUS LEADER
      Don’t stay too long. You need to think                                            [1040]
      how we can bury Ajax. And what to say.
      It’s urgent. For someone coming here,
      a man who is our enemy. It could be
      he comes to mock at our misfortunes, a man                       1240
      who thrives on harm.

TEUCER
Who is it—the man you see?
What member of the army?

CHORUS LEADER
It’s Menelaus,
the one for whom we launched this expedition.

TEUCER
I see him. He’s not hard to recognize
when he’s so close.

[Enter MENELAUS, with a small escort of soldiers]

MENELAUS
                               You there—I order you
      not to take up that corpse for burial.
      Leave it where it is.

TEUCER
Why waste your words
with such an order?

MENELAUS
I think it’s fitting, [1050]
as does the commander of our army.

TEUCER
Then would it bother you to tell me why 1250
you issue this command?

MENELAUS
                                                 The reason’s this:
      we hoped that we were leading Ajax here,
      away from home, so he’d be our ally,
      someone friendly to the Argives, but instead,
      when we saw him more closely, we found out
      he was more hostile than the Phrygians.*
      He planned to destroy our entire army
      and set off at night to take us with his spear.
      If some god had not frustrated his attempt,
      we would have met the same fate he did—             1260
      we’d be dead and lying there, struck down
      by shameful fate, and he’d be still alive.                                           [1060]
      But now, it’s clear a god changed these events,
      and so the violence in his heart fell elsewhere,
      on sheep and cattle. And that’s the reason
      there’s no one powerful enough right now
      to take his corpse and set it in a grave.
      Instead it will be tossed away somewhere
      on the yellow sand, food for shore birds.
      Remember that. Curb the anger in your heart.                      1270
      If we could not control him when he lived,
      at least he will obey us now he’s dead.
      Even if you don’t agree, our forceful hands
      will take charge of him. When he was alive,
      Ajax never listened to a word I said.                                                [1070]
      And it’s a fact that when a common man
      thinks it’s appropriate to disobey
      those in command, he truly demonstrates
      his worthless character. Within the city
     the laws could never foster benefits                                     1280
      if there was no established place for fear.
      Nor can one lead the troops with wise restraint
      where there is neither fear or reverence
      to act in their defence. So any man,
      now matter how powerful his body grows,
      must realize he’ll fall, even when
      the harm to him seems trivial. A man
      who has in him a sense of fear and shame
      is quite secure—you can be sure of that—                                       [1080]
      but where there’s room for hostile arrogance                       1290
      and men do what they want, consider how
      a state like that, though it has raced ahead
      with favouring winds, will, in the course of time,
      sink in the ocean depths eventually.
      And so for me let fear be set in place
      where it’s appropriate. Let’s not believe
      we can just do whatever we desire
      and not pay the painful consequence.
      These matters fluctuate—Ajax was once
      a man of fiery insolence, but now                                         1300
      it’s time for me to manifest my power.
      And thus I warn you not to bury him.                                              [1090]
      If you do, you just might fall yourself
      into your grave.

CHORUS LEADER
                                                               Menelaus,
      after setting out such well-thought precepts,
      do not become too arrogant yourself
      in dealing with the dead.

TEUCER
                                            Fellow soldiers,
      never again will I be much surprised
      if someone born a nobody goes wrong,
      since those apparently of noble birth                                    1310
      can make so many errors when they speak.
      Come, tell me once more from the beginning—
      do you really think it was you personally
      who led Ajax here an Argive ally?
      Did he not sail to Troy all on his own,
      under his own command? In what respect
      are you this man’s superior? On what ground                                  [1100]
      do you have any right to rule those men
      whom he led here from home? You came to Troy
      as king of Sparta. You do not govern us.                              1320
      Under no circumstance did some right to rule
      or give him orders lie within your power,
      just as he possessed no right to order you.
      You sailed here a subordinate to others,
      not as commander of the entire force
      who could at any time tell Ajax what to do.
      Go, be king of those you rule by right—
      use those proud words of yours to punish them.
      But I will set this body in a grave,
      as justice says I should, even though you                             1330
      or any other general forbids it.
      I am not afraid of your pronouncements.
      Ajax did not join the expedition
      because that woman was a wife of yours,
      as did those toiling Spartan drudges—no—
      but because he’d sworn an oath to do it.*
      You were no part of it. He never valued
      men worth nothing. And so when you return,
      come back here and bring more heralds with you,
      as well as the commander. Your vain chat                           1340
      is not something that really bothers me,
      not while you stay the kind of man you are.

CHORUS LEADER
      When things go badly, I don’t like to hear
      a tone like that. Even when it’s justified,
      harsh language stings.

MENELAUS
This mere archer [1120]
seems to entertain some big ideas.*

TEUCER
Indeed I do.
My skill is not something to underrate.

MENELAUS
My, my—if only you possessed a shield,
how grand your boasts would be.

TEUCER
Even with no shield,
I’d get the better of you fully armed. 1350

MENELAUS
That tongue of yours, how it likes to feed
the savage spirit inside!

TEUCER
When a man is right,
he’s entitled to make impressive claims.

MENELAUS
      Do you mean to tell me it is just
      for someone to be treated generously
      when he’s killed me?

TEUCER
Killed you? Your words sound odd,
if, after being killed, you are now alive.

MENELAUS
Some god saved me. As far as Ajax knows,
I’m dead and gone.

TEUCER
Since the gods rescued you,
you should not dishonour them.

MENELAUS
You mean 1360
I could be violating sacred laws? [1130]

TEUCER
Yes, if you personally intervened
to prevent the burial of the dead.

MENELAUS
That’s not so with a personal enemy.
To bury him would not be right.

TEUCER
                                               What’s that?
      Did Ajax ever march ahead in battle
      as your enemy?

MENELAUS
He hated me,
and I hated him. But you knew that.

TEUCER
Yes, he did, because you were found out—
you tampered with the vote which robbed him. 1370

MENELAUS
The judges beat him in that competition,
not me.

TEUCER
With your deceitful secrecy
you can conceal so many crimes.

MENELAUS
Words like that
could well prove painful to someone I know.

TEUCER
Well, I don’t think they will bring more pain
than we’ll inflict.

MENELAUS
Once and for all, then, [1140]
I tell you this: that man will not be buried.

TEUCER
Then hear my answer: Ajax’s corpse
will have a burial.

MENELAUS
                           I have already seen a man
      with a bold tongue urging sailors on                                     1380
      to launch a voyage during winter storms.
      But you could hear no sound from him at all
      once the storm got nasty. He hid himself
      under a cloak and then let the sailors
      step on him at will. You’re just like him,
      you and your braggart mouth—a mighty squall,
      even from a tiny cloud, in no time
      will snuff out your constant shouting.

TEUCER
      And I have seen a man stuffed with stupidity,                                 [1150]
      whose pride delighted in his neighbours’ grief.                                 1390
      Then someone like me, with my temperament,
      faced up to him and said something like this,
      “Hey, you there, don’t harm the dead. If you do,
      you can be sure you’ll find yourself in trouble.”
      So he warned the paltry fellow face to face.
      I see him now, and it appears to me
      he is none other than yourself. I trust
      I haven’t talked too much in riddles?

MENELAUS
      I’m leaving. It would be a great disgrace
      if men found out I’ve started arguing                                   1400         [1160]
      when I could use my power.

TEUCER
                                 Be off with you!
      It would be a great disgrace to me
      to listen to such silly chattering
      from some fool.

[MENELAUS and his escort leave the way they came]

CHORUS LEADER
                                       We’re going to see
      a major altercation from this argument.
      As quickly as you can, Teucer, you should make
      a hollow grave for Ajax, where he’ll rest
      in a dark tomb, and people for all time
      will keep him in their memory.

[Enter TECMESSA and EURYSACES]

TEUCER
                                               Ah, just in time—
      his woman and his son have now arrived                             1410         [1170]
      to perform a funeral for this sad corpse.
      Come, lad, move over here. Stand there by him.
      Set your hand in supplication on him,
      on your father, from whom you were born.
      Kneel down in prayer—hold firmly in your hand
      locks of hair from me, from her, from you—
      the three of us. These give the suppliant strength.*
      If any member of the army tries
      to remove you from this corpse by force,
      then may that wicked man become an exile,                                    1420
      tossed out from his own land in misery,
      and remain unburied, his roots severed
      from his whole race, just as I cut this hair.
      Take this, my boy, and guard it. And don’t let                                 [1180]
      any man push you away. Stay kneeling here,
      and hang on tight. You sailors over there,
      don’t stand around the place like women.
      You’re men. Stand on guard here, and protect him,
      till I get back, once I’ve set up the grave.
      I don’t care who has forbidden it.                            1430

[Exit TEUCER]

CHORUS
      When will our last year here arrive?
      When will the number of those wandering years
      come to an end—and my interminable fate
      to go on carrying this toiling spear
      across the wide expanse of Troy,                                                      [1190]
      a sorrow and a shame for Greeks?

      How I wish that man had been swept off
      high into the great sky or into Hades,
      the home that all men share,
      before he’d introduced the Greeks                                       1440
      to that war mood which sucks up everyone,
     those weapons of the god of war,
      which every man detests.
      O those toils which just produce more toil!
      That man has wiped out our humanity.

      He gave me as my portion no delight
      in garlands or full cups of wine,                                                        [1200]
      no sweet tunes from flutes around me,
      that ill-fated wretch, or in the night
      the joys of sleep. And as for love—alas!—                          1450
      he has denied me love. I lie here
      forgotten, my hair always drenched
      from thickly falling dew, ah yes,
      my memories from desolate Troy.                                                    [1210]

      Bold Ajax used to be my rampart once,
      my constant wall against night fears
      and flying weapons aimed at me.
      But he has now become a sacrifice
      to some malevolent deity.
      What pleasure, then, what joy                                              1460
      now lies in store for me?
      O how I wish I were back there,
      where the wooded wave-washed headland
      juts out, our guard against the open sea,
      below the high flat rock of Sunium,                                                 [1220]
      and we could then greet sacred Athens.*

[Enter TEUCER, in a hurry]

TEUCER
      I’ve just seen commander Agamemnon.
      He coming here, and quickly. So I ran back.
      He’s clearly going to give his blundering mouth
      some exercise.

[Enter AGAMEMNON with an armed escort]

AGAMEMNON
                                       You there—I’ve been told                   1470
      you’ve dared to mouth foul threats against us
      with impunity. I’m talking about you,
      the son of a mere slave, a battle trophy.
      If some well-bred lady were your mother,
      no doubt your boasts would soar high in the sky,                             [1230]
      and you would strut around on tip toe.
      You are a nobody, and here you act
      the champion for this nonentity.
      In all seriousness you made the claim
      we voyaged here with no authority,                                      1480
      as commanders of the troops or of the fleet,
      to give orders to Achaeans or to you,
      since Ajax sailed under his own command.
      Is it not shameful that I have to hear
      such monstrous insults from the mouths of slaves?
      This man you shout about with so much pride,
      what sort of man was he? Where did he go
      or stand and fight, where I was not there, too?
      Do the Achaeans have no man but him?
      It seems it was a painful thing we did                                   1490
      when we announced to all Achaeans
      that competition for Achilles’ weapons,                                           [1240]
      if in every quarter we appear corrupt,
      thanks to Teucer, and if you people here
      never will be satisfied, not even
      after you have been put down, and yield
      to what most of the judges thought was fair.
      Instead you will no doubt keep hurling at us
      these constant gibes, or from your station in the rear
      treacherously lash out at us. In places                                  1500
      where such conditions hold you’ll never find
      a settled order based on rule of law,
      not if we discard the men who justly win
      and put in front the ones who lag behind.
      No. We must prevent such tendencies.                                            [1250]
      It’s not the big, broad-shouldered warriors
      who make the most reliable allies—
      it’s men who think—they win out every time.
      One guides a broad-backed ox straight down the path
      with only a small whip. And I can see                                  1510
      you’ll soon receive some of that medicine,
      unless you get yourself some common sense.
      That man is no longer living—by this time
      he has become a shade, and here you are
      rashly insulting us, letting your mouth
      run on and on. You should control yourself.
      Do you not realize who you are by birth?
      Why not let another man step forward,                                            [1260]
      someone free born, to state your case to us
      instead of you? For when you’re speaking,                           1520
      I’m not prepared to listen any more.
      To me your barbarian way of speaking
      is quite impossible to understand.

CHORUS LEADER
      I wish you two were sensible enough
      to show some self-restraint. Nothing I say
      would be more useful to the both of you.

TEUCER [addressing the corpse of Ajax]
      Well now, how quickly among mortal men
      grateful thoughts about the dead are gone
      and turn into betrayal. This man here
      can’t even manage a few words, Ajax,                                  1530
      to celebrate your memory, and yet
      you often risked your life protecting him,
      hefting that spear of yours in battle.                                                 [1270]
      But now, as you can see, all those great deeds
      are dead and gone, all thrown aside.

[Teucer turns to address Agamemnon]

                                                        And you,
      you talk a lot of a utter foolishness.
      Have you no longer any memory
      of the time when you were all bunched up
      inside the rampart, almost done for
      in that spear fight—then Ajax showed up,                           1540
      all on his own, and kept protecting you,
      with flames already blazing on your ships,
      spreading across the decks right at the stern,
      and Hector leaping high across the ditch,
      heading for our fleet? Who held him back?                                      [1280]
      Was Ajax not the one who managed that,
      the man you claim never went any place
      where you did not go, too? Do you concede
      his actions then, as far as you’re concerned,
      set a high standard? And then another time,                        1550
      when he faced up to Hector by himself
      in single combat. No one ordered him.
      He was picked out by lot, and his marker,
      the one he threw in among the others,
      was not designed to help him not get picked.
      It was no lump of moistened clay, no,
      but a light one which would be the first
      out of the crested helmet.* Yes, Ajax
      was the one who did these things, and I,
      the slave whose mother was a foreigner,                              1560
      was there beside him. You miserable man,
      where are your eyes when you go on like this?                                 [1290]
      Do you not realize your father’s father,
      ancient Pelops, was a barbarian,
      who came from Phrygia? And Atreus,
      the man who spawned you, wasn’t he the one
      who prepared that sacrilegious dinner,
      and served up his own brother’s children as a meal
      for him to eat?* And then, as for yourself,
      the mother who bore you came from Crete.                         1570
      And her own father caught her having sex,
      screwing some stranger. He abandoned her
      to be killed in silence by a bunch of fish.*
      That’s the kind of man you are. How can you
      insult a man like me about my origins?
      I am a son of Telamon, who won
      my mother as his consort, his own prize                                           [1300]
      for being the army’s finest warrior.
      She was of royal blood, Laomedon’s daughter,
      the most desirable of all the battle spoils.                            1580
      Alcmene’s son gave her to Telamon.*
      Since I am nobly born and my parents
      are both noble, too, how could I disgrace
      my own flesh and blood? Ajax is lying here,
      overcome by all his troubles, and you—
      aren’t you ashamed to say you’ll toss him out
      without a burial? Well, think of this—
      if you just throw him out, along with him
      you’ll be casting off three more as well.
      It’s a finer thing for men to see me die                                 1590         [1310]
      while labouring hard on his behalf
      than fighting for your woman—or should I say
      your brother’s wife? Given what I’ve said,
      don’t think about my safety; look to your own.
      For if you make things difficult for me,
      you’re going to wish you had been more afraid
      and not quite so bold when you confronted me.

[Enter ODYSSEUS alone]

CHORUS LEADER
Lord Odysseus, you’ve come just in time,
if you’re here to calm things, not make them worse.

ODYSSEUS
      My friends, what’s going on? From a long way off               1600
      I heard the sons of Atreus shouting out
      over this brave man’s body.

AGAMEMNON
                                             Lord Odysseus,
      we have had to listen for far too long                                               [1320]
      to the most shameful language from this man.
      Is that not reason enough?

ODYSSEUS
                                                   Well, let’s see—
      I could forgive a man who had been listening
      to someone else who was abusing him
      and who then joined in a war of insults.

AGAMEMNON
I did insult him, because his actions
were a direct affront to me.

ODYSSEUS
What did he do 1610
to injure you?

AGAMEMNON
                                 He says he will not let
      this corpse remain without a burial.
      He’ll set it in a grave, no matter what I do.

ODYSSEUS
      Well, may someone who’s a friend of yours
      speak his mind and still remain a colleague
      the way he was before?

AGAMEMNON
                                     You should speak out.                                       [1330]
      I would scarcely be thinking properly
      if I said no. Among the Argives
      I consider you my greatest friend.

ODYSSEUS
      Then listen. In deference to the gods                                   1620
      don’t be so unyielding you throw Ajax out
      without a burial. You should not let
      that spirit of violence at any time
      seize control of you, not to the extent
      that you then trample justice underfoot.
      This man became my greatest enemy
      in all our army on that very day
      I beat him for the armour of Achilles.
      But for all the man’s hostility to me,
      I would not disgrace him. Nor would I deny                        1630
      that in my view he was the finest warrior                                         [1340]
      among the Argive men who came to Troy,
      after Achilles. So if you dishonour him,
      you would be unjust. It would not harm him,
      but you’d be contravening all those laws
      the gods established. When a good man dies,
      it is not right to harm him, even though
      he may be someone you hate.

AGAMEMNON
                                                      Odysseus,
      you mean you’re arguing against me,
      on his behalf?

ODYSSEUS
Yes, that’s what I mean. 1640
I did hate him, when it was all right to hate.

AGAMEMNON
Why would you not walk all over him,
now that he’s dead?

ODYSSEUS
                                             Son of Atreus,
      do not take pleasure in advantages
      which are dishonourable.

AGAMEMNON
An all-powerful king [1350]
does not show reverence all that easily.

ODYSSEUS
But he can give out honourable rewards
to friends when they advise him prudently.

AGAMEMNON
A good man should obey those in command.

ODYSSEUS
Why not concede? You’ll still be in control, 1650
although you let your friends prevail against you.

AGAMEMNON
Just remember the kind of man he was,
the one for whom you want to do this favour.

ODYSSEUS
The man was an enemy of mine, that’s true.
But he was once a noble warrior.

AGAMEMNON
Why are you doing this? Why such respect
for the dead body of an enemy?

ODYSSEUS
His excellence moves me to do it,
far more than his hostility to me.

AGAMEMNON
Men who act the way you’re doing now 1660
are unreliable.

ODYSSEUS
                                                 Let me assure you,
      among human beings most are changeable,
      sometimes friendly, then sometimes bitter.

AGAMEMNON
Are those the sort of men you’d recommend [1360]
that we accept as friends?

ODYSSEUS
Well, I wouldn’t recommend
we choose someone inflexible.

AGAMEMNON
All right,
but now you’ll make us look like cowards.

ODYSSEUS
No. Every Greek will think we’re being just.

AGAMEMNON
So you would urge me to give my permission,
and let this corpse receive a burial? 1670

ODYSSEUS
I would. For I myself will someday reach
the state he’s in, as well.

AGAMEMNON
There we have it.
All men work to benefit themselves.

ODYSSEUS
For whom should I make such an effort
if not for myself?

AGAMEMNON
                                We’ll have to announce
      that you’re the one responsible for this,
      not me.

ODYSSEUS
However you do it, it will serve
to bring you all kinds of advantages.

AGAMEMNON
      Well, in any case, you can rest assured                                             [1370]
      I would grant you a greater favour                                        1680
      than this burial. As for this man here,
      down in the underworld he is my enemy,
      just as he was on earth. But you can do
      whatever you think is appropriate.

[AGAMEMNON and his escort leave]

CHORUS LEADER
      Given how you have acted here today,
      Odysseus, any man who now asserts
      that you are not by nature wise is stupid.

ODYSSEUS
      I now proclaim that from this moment on
      I am Teucer’s friend, as much as earlier
      I was his enemy. And I am willing                                        1690
      to join with him in burying the dead,
      working with you and omitting nothing
      human beings may need to honour and respect                                [1380]
      their finest warriors.

TEUCER
                                                       Noble Odysseus,
      I have nothing but praise for what you’ve said.
      You have done so much to disprove my fears.
      Of all the Argives, you were the one
      who was his greatest enemy, and yet
      you are the only one to stand by him,
      to lend a helping hand. For when he died                             1700
      and you were still alive, you could not bear
      to see such injuries inflicted on him,
      not like that frantic general who was here.
      He and his brother wanted their revenge
      by casting Ajax off without a grave.
      And so may our all-ruling father Zeus,
      high on Olympus, the unforgiving Furies,                                        [1390]
      and Justice, too, who fulfils all things,
      destroy those evil men with evil deaths,
      just as they tried to rid themselves of Ajax,                          1710
      outrageous treatment he did not deserve.
      But you, child of venerable Laertes,
      I hesitate to let you touch the corpse
      in these funeral rites, for that may well offend
      the man who died. But as for all the rest,
      join in with us. If you wish, bring someone,
      any soldier in the army will be welcome.
      I must get all things ready. Odysseus,
      you must know you’ve acted nobly for us.

ODYSSEUS
      That’s what I wished. But if you object                                1720         [1400]
      to my participation here with you,
      I’ll defer to what you want and leave.

[ODYSSEUS leaves]

TEUCER
      Enough. Too much time has passed already.
    Hurry now. Some of you scoop out a hollow grave,
      others set the cauldron high up on the stand,
      with fire all around, so we can start
      the ritual cleansing promptly. One of you,
      bring from his hut the armour he would wear
    behind his shield. And you, too, my child,
      since he’s your father, use those loving arms                        1730         [1410]
      with all the strength you have and help me lift him.
      His windpipe is still warm, and from it flows
      his own dark spirit. Come then, come all of you
      who say your are our friends, come quickly,
      move out, and with your efforts honour Ajax.
      There was no one to match his excellence.*
      No nobler man has received such honour.

CHORUS
      I know of many things which mortal men
      can see and learn from. But until he meets it,
      no one sees what is to come or his own fate.                       1740         [1420]

[They all leave, bearing the body of Ajax.]

Notes

. . . of the army: According to Homer, Ajax’s encampment lay at one end of the Argive line, a position more exposed than other parts and hence a mark of Ajax’s courage. Achilles’ encampment was at the other end. The phrase “of the army” has been added to clarify this point. [Back to Text]

These lines make clear that Odysseus cannot, at this point, see Athena, either because it is still too dark or because she has concealed herself somewhere (or both). Given what happens in a moment, it is not feasible that Athena is simply a disembodied voice. [Back to Text]

. . . insanely angry: When Achilles, the greatest fighter among the Argive leaders, was killed (shortly before the action of this play) his divinely made armour was set up as a prestigious prize among the Argive warriors. Odysseus and Ajax were the main claim-ants, and as the result of a vote among the Argive leaders, the weapons were awarded to Odysseus, over the strong objections of Ajax, who, according to Homer, was ranked the finest Argive warrior after Achilles. [Back to Text]

. . . both commanders: The two commanders are Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus and the chief leaders of the Argive forces at Troy. [Back to Text]

. . . divided up: This detail means that Ajax has killed animals belonging to everyone, since all soldiers were to receive some of the cattle or sheep as battle spoils. [Back to Text]

. . . both sons of Atreus: the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus, the two leaders of the Argive forces at Troy. [Back to Text]

. . . disrespect: In Homer’s Iliad, Athena consistently supports the Argives, including Ajax, during the Trojan War. [Back to Text]

. . . son of Telamon: an epithet for Ajax, whose father was Telamon (also the father of Teucer, but not with the same mother). [Back to Text]

. . . Sisyphus: according to some legends Odysseus was the son of Sisyphus, a notoriously bad king of Corinth (rather than the son of Laertes, king of Ithaca, as in the Odyssey). This genealogy was a slur used by Odysseus’ enemies. Later in the play, Teucer calls Odysseus “son of Laertes.” [Back to Text]

. . . sons of . . . Erechtheus: Erechtheus was a legendary king of Athens who was born from the earth and thus gave the Athenians the claim that they were true natives of the land where they lived (autochthonous). Sophocles is here linking the sailors of Salamis with the residents of Athens (the audience). Salamis is an island just off the coast of Attica, the territory around and belonging to Athens. [Back to Text]

Teucer: an important Argive warrior, Ajax’s half-brother. [Back to Text]

. . . ancestral father: Ajax was son of Telamon, son of Aeacus, son of Zeus. [Back to Text]

Erebus: the gloomy underworld of Hades, the land of the dead. [Back to Text]

Scamander: the main river flowing near the city of Troy. It is not entirely clear why Ajax calls the river “friendly,” since in Homer the god of the river fought against Achilles in order to help the Trojans. [Back to Text]

These lines link Ajax’s name in Greek (Aias) with the Greek verb meaning to cry “Alas” (aiai). The similarity is difficult to render precisely in English if one uses the common English name Ajax. The words “Alas for Ajax” have been added in an attempt to make this point somewhat clearer (and the word poetically has been used rather than the more accurate descriptively). [Back to Text]

. . . father’s excellence: Telamon, father of Ajax, had attacked Troy in an earlier expedition with Hercules and had been awarded as a prize Hesione, a princess of Troy (mother of Ajax’s half-brother Teucer). Ida is a mountain very close to Troy. [Back to Text]

. . . another man: Ajax’s point here is that if he had not lost his sanity, he would have killed the sons of Atreus and thus resolved the matter of the voting, which he sees as an injustice, since the result awarded the weapons to Odysseus. [Back to Text]

. . . after death: What Tecmessa says here is curious because her family was killed by Ajax himself, as she mentions a few lines earlier. It may be that she is trying to win his sympathy and does not want to remind him of that specifically. [Back to Text]

. . . get your name: Eurysaces, the name of the child, literally means “broad shield.” Ajax’s huge shield is described and celebrated in Homer’s Iliad. [Back to Text]

. . . any Argive: Homer recounts in the Iliad how Ajax received a sword from Hector, the great Trojan warrior-prince, in a mutual exchange of gifts, when their single combat was halted by both armies. [Back to Text]

In the Iliad, after their single combat had been halted, Hector and Ajax ceremoniously pledged friendship in a mutual exchange of gifts. Yet Hector, as leader of the Trojans and their greatest warrior, was also Ajax’s most important enemy. [Back to Text]

The suicide of Ajax provides a very rare example in Greek tragedy of a killing performed on stage. It is not clear, however, if it was done in full view of the audience or whether it was concealed somehow by a stage prop (like a bush). Ajax’s body is not plainly visible to anyone who wanders past, since it remains hidden from the Chorus for some time. [Back to Text]

. . . suggest misfortune: Ajax’s name, as mentioned above, is very similar to the Greek verb aiai, “to cry alas!” [Back to Text]

. . . life away: When Ajax and Hector fought in single combat in the Iliad, as mentioned earlier, the fight was stopped and the two warriors exchanged gifts. Ajax gave Hector a fine belt, and Hector presented a sword to Ajax. When Achilles later fought and defeated Hector, he tied Hector’s body to his chariot and desecrated the body by dragging it around in the dirt for days. However, in Homer’s account, Hector is clearly dead before this mutilation of his corpse starts. [Back to Text]

Phrygians: Phrygia was an extensive area to the east of Troy (now modern Turkey). Here the word seems to mean Trojans generally. [Back to Text]

. . . oath to do it: Teucer is perhaps splitting hairs here. Ajax was one of the suitors seeking to marry Helen, and, along with all the others, he swore to assist the man Helen chose to marry if called upon. That oath was not directed at Menelaus specifically, but once he became Helen’s husband, it applied to him. [Back to Text]

. . . mere archer: Teucer was one of the finest archers in the Argive forces. Archers were, however, held in some contempt because, unlike spearman, they did not always fight hand to hand but from a distance. [Back to Text]

. . . suppliant strength: offering locks of hair at the tomb of the departed was an important part of the funeral ritual, giving power to the prayers of those mourning the dead. [Back to Text]

Sunium: an important cape near Athens, separating the open sea from the safer waters of the gulf. [Back to Text]

. . . crested helmet: In the Iliad, the Achaeans chose a warrior to answer Hector’s challenge to single combat by lottery. Some warriors voluntarily put their tokens in a helmet, the helmet was shaken up, and the warrior whose lot fell out first was chosen (in this case it was Ajax’s token). The reference to the lump of moistened clay refers to the practice of putting in an exceptionally heavy marker, which had less chance of falling out first. [Back to Text]

. . . for him to eat: The two brothers Atreus and Thyestes had quarrelled. Atreus invited Thyestes to a dinner of reconciliation and there served him his own children to eat. Thyestes ate them without knowing what he was doing. Atreus then revealed what he had done. [Back to Text]

. . . bunch of fish: Agamemnon’s mother, Aerope, was a daughter of Catreus, a descendant of the royal family of Crete. The sexual exploit mentioned resulted in her being sent away to be killed by drowning, but she was instead given to Atreus as his wife. [Back to Text]

. . . to Telamon: Alcmene’s son is Hercules, who went with Telamon to attack Troy in an earlier expedition. Laomedon was king of Troy. [Back to Text]

. . . his excellence: the phrase which follows in the Greek reads “I mean, when he was living,” which deflates the tribute considerably. For that reason a number of editors have rejected it as spurious. I have followed their lead and omitted the words. [Back to Text]

[Back to johnstonia Home Page]

View Stats

Sophocles

Ajax

Translator’s Note

Introductory Note