Literature and Arts c-14

Translated by Sir Richard Jebb

Adapted by Casey Dué

Athena

Always, son of Laertes, have I observed you on the prowl to snatch some means of attack against your enemies [ekhthros, plural]. So now at the tent of Ajax by the ships where he has his post at the camp's outer edge, I watch you [5] for a long time as you hunt and scan his newly pressed tracks, in order to see whether he is inside or away. Your course leads you well to your goal, like that of a keen-scenting Laconian hound. For the man has just now gone in, [10] with sweat dripping from his head and from his hands that have killed with the sword. There is no further need for you to peer inside these doors. Rather tell me what your goal is that you have shown such eagerness for, so that you may learn from her who holds the knowledge.

Odysseus

Voice of Athena, dearest to me of the gods, [15] how clearly, though you are unseen, do I hear your call and snatch its meaning in my mind, just as I would the bronze tongue of the Tyrrhenian trumpet! And now you have discerned correctly that I am circling my path on the track of a man who hates me, Ajax the shield-bearer. [20] It is he and no other that I have been tracking so long. For tonight he has done us a deed beyond comprehension--if he is indeed the doer. We know nothing for certain, but drift in doubt. And so I of my of accord took up the burden [ponos] of this search. [25] For we recently found all the cattle, our plunder, dead--yes, slaughtered by human hand--and with them the guardians of the flocks.

Now, all men lay responsibility for this crime to him. And further, a scout who had seen him [30] bounding alone over the plain with a newly-wet sword reported to me and declared what he saw. Then immediately I rush upon his track, and sometimes I follow his signs [sêmaino], but sometimes I am bewildered, and cannot read whose they are. Your arrival is timely, for truly in all matters, both those of the past [35] and those of the future, it is your hand that steers me.
Athena

I know it, Odysseus, and some time ago I came on the path as a lookout friendly to your hunt.

Odysseus

And so, dear [philê] mistress, do I toil to good effect?

Athena

Know that that man is the doer of these deeds.

Odysseus

[40] Then to what end did he thrust his hand so senselessly?

Athena

He was mad with anger over the arms of Achilles.

Odysseus

Why, then, his onslaught upon the flocks?

Athena

It was in your blood, he thought, that he was staining his hand.

Odysseus

Then was this a plot aimed against the Greeks?

Athena

[45] Yes, and he would have accomplished it, too, had I not been attentive.

Odysseus

And what reckless boldness was in his mind that he dared this?

Athena

Under night's cover he set out against you, by stealth and alone.

Odysseus

And did he get near us? Did he reach his goal?

Athena

He was already at the double doors of the two generals.

Odysseus

[50] How, then, did he restrain his hand when it was eager for murder?

Athena

[65] It was I who prevented him, by casting over his eyes oppressive notions of his fatal joy, and I who turned his fury aside on the flocks of sheep and the confused droves guarded by herdsmen, the spoil which you had not yet divided. [55] Then he fell upon them and kept cutting out a slaughter of many horned beasts as he split their spines in a circle around him. At one time he thought that he was killing the two Atreidae, holding them in his very hand; at another time it was this commander, and at another that one which he attacked. And I, while the man ran about in diseased frenzy, [60] I kept urging him on, kept hurling him into the snares of doom [kakos]. Soon, when he rested from this toil [ponos], he bound together the living oxen along with with all the sheep and brought them home, as though his quarry were men, not well-horned cattle. And now he abuses them, bound together, in the house.

But to you also will I show this madness openly, so that when you have seen it you may proclaim it to all the Argives. Be of good courage and stand your ground, and do not regard the man as a cause of disaster for you. I will turn away the beams of his eyes [70] and keep them from landing on your face.
(To Ajax.)
You there, you who bind back your captive's arms, I am calling you, come here! I am calling Ajax! Come out in front of the house!
Odysseus

What are you doing, Athena? Do not call him out.

Athena

[75] Hold your peace! Do not earn a reputation for cowardice!

Odysseus

No, by the gods, let it content you that he stay inside.

Athena

What is the danger? Was he not a man before?

Odysseus

Yes, a man hostile [ekhthros] to me in the past, and especially now.

Athena

And is not the sweetest mockery the mockery of enemies [ekhthros, plural]?

Odysseus

[80] I am content that he stay within his tent.

Athena

Do you fear to see a madman right before your eyes?

Odysseus

I would not shrink from him in fear, if he were sane.

Athena

But he will not see you now, even though you stand nearby.

Odysseus

How could that be, if he still sees with the same eyes?

Athena

[85] I shall darken them, though their sight is keen.

Odysseus

It is true: all is possible when a god contrives.

Athena

Stand silent, then, and stay where you are.

Odysseus

I must stay. But I would prefer to be far from here!

Athena

You there, Ajax, once again I call you! [90] Why do you show so little regard for your ally?

(Enter Ajax, holding a blood-stained whip in his hand.)
Ajax

Welcome, Athena! Welcome, daughter sprung from Zeus! How well have you stood by me! I will crown you with trophies of pure gold in gratitude [kharis] for this quarry!

Athena

A fine pledge. But tell me this-- [95] have you dyed your sword well in the Greek army?

Ajax

I can make that boast. I do not deny it.

Athena

And have you launched your armed hand against the Atreidae?

Ajax

Yes, so that never again will they dishonor [verb from timê] Ajax.

Athena

The men are dead, as I interpret your words.

Ajax

[100] Dead they are. Now let them rob me of my arms!

Athena

I see. And the son of Laertes, how does his fortune with respect to you? Has he escaped you?

Ajax

That blasted fox! You ask me where he is?

Athena

Yes, I do. I mean Odysseus, your adversary.

Ajax

[105] My most pleasing prisoner, mistress, he sits inside. I do not wish him to die just yet.

Athena

Until you do what? Or win what greater advantage?

Ajax

Until he be bound to a pillar beneath my roof--

Athena

What evil [kakos], then, will you inflict on the poor man?

Ajax

[110] --and have his back crimsoned by the lash, before he dies.

Athena

Do not abuse the poor man so cruelly!

Ajax

In all else, Athena, I bid you take your pleasure, but he will pay this penalty [dikê] and no other.

Athena

Well, then, since it delights you to do so, [115] put your arm to use; spare no portion of your plan.

Ajax

I go to my work. And I give you this commission: be always for me the close-standing ally that you have been for me today! Exit Ajax.

Athena

Do you see, Odysseus, how great is the strength of the gods? Whom could you have found more prudent than this man, [120] or better able to do what the situation demanded?

Odysseus

I know of no one, but in his misery I pity him all the same, even though he hates me, because he is yoked beneath a ruinous [kakos] delusion [atê]--I think of my own lot no less than his. [125] For I see that all we who live are nothing more than phantoms or fleeting shadow.

Athena

Therefore since you witness his fate, see that you yourself never utter an arrogant word against the gods, nor assume any swelling pride, if in the scales of fate you are weightier [130] than another in strength of hand or in depth of ample wealth. For a day can press down all human things, and a day can raise them up. But the gods embrace [verb from philos] men of sense and abhor the evil [kakos]. (Exit Odysseus and Athena.)

(Enter the Chorus of Salaminian Sailors, followers of Ajax.)
Chorus

Son of Telamon, you who hold [135] your throne on wave-washed Salamis near the open sea, when your fortune is fair, I rejoice with you. But whenever the stroke of Zeus, or the raging rumor of the Danaans with the clamor of their evil tongues attacks you, then I shrink with great fear and shudder in terror, [140] like the fluttering eye of the winged dove.

Just so with the passing of the night loud tumults oppressed us to our dishonor [bad kleos], telling how you visited the meadow wild with horses and destroyed [145] the cattle of the Greeks, their spoil, prizes of the spear which had not yet been shared, how you killed them with flashing iron.
Such are the whispered slanders that Odysseus moulds and breathes into the ears of all, [150] and he wins much belief. For now he tells tales concerning you that easily win belief, and each hearer rejoices with spiteful scorn at your burdens more than he who told.
Point your arrow at noble spirits [psukhê, plural], [155] and you could not miss; but if a man were to speak such things against me, he would win no belief. It is on the powerful that envy creeps. Yet the small without the great are a teetering tower of defence. [160] For the lowly stand most upright and prosperous when allied with the great, and the great when served by less.
But foolish men cannot learn good precepts in these matters beforehand. It is men of this sort that subject you to tumult, and [165] we lack the power to repel these charges without you, O King. For when they have escaped your eye, they chatter like flocking birds. But, terrified by a mighty vulture, [170] perhaps, if you should appear, they would quickly cower without voice in silence.
[172] Was it Artemis ruler of bulls, Zeus's daughter, that drove you, O powerful Rumor, O mother of my shame, [175] drove you against the herds of all our people? Was she exacting retribution, perhaps, for a victory that had paid her no tribute, whether it was because she had been cheated of the glory of captured arms, or because a stag had been slain without gifts for recompense? Or can the bronze-cuirassed Lord of War [180] have had some cause for anger arising out of an alliance of spears, and taken vengeance for the outrage by contrivance shrouded in night?
[182] For never of your own heart alone, son of Telamon, would you have gone so far down the sinister path [185] as to fall upon the flocks. When the gods send madness, it cannot but reach its target, but may Zeus and Phoebus avert the evil rumor of the Greeks!
And if it is the great kings who slander you with their furtive stories, [190] or if it is he born of the abject line of Sisyphus, do not, my king, do not win me an evil [kakos] name by keeping your face still hidden in the tent by the sea.
[193] Come now, up from your seat, wherever you are settled in this long-lived pause from battle [195] and are making the flame of disaster blaze up to the sky! The violent insolence [hubris] of your enemies [ekhthros, plural] rushes fearlessly about in the breezy glens, while the tongues of all the army cackle out a load of grief. [200] For me, sorrow [akhos] stands firmly planted.
(Enter Tecmessa.)
Tecmessa

[201] Mates of the ship of Ajax, offspring of the race that springs from the Erechtheids, the soil's sons, cries of grief are the portion of us who care from afar for the house of Telamon. [205] Ajax, our terrible, mighty lord of untamed power, now lies plagued by a turbid storm of disease.

Chorus

And what is the heavy change from the fortune of yesterday which this night has produced? [210] Daughter of Teleutas the Phrygian, speak, since for you his spear-won mate bold Ajax maintains his love, so that with some knowledge you could suggest an explanation.

Tecmessa

Oh, how am I to tell a tale too terrible for words? [215] Grave as death is the suffering [pathos] which you will hear. By madness our glorious Ajax was seized in the night, and he has been subjected to utter disgrace. All this you may see inside his dwelling--butchered victims bathed in blood, [220] sacrifices of no hand but his.

Chorus

[221] What report of the fiery warrior have you revealed to us, unbearable, nor yet escapable-- [225] a report which the great Danaans propound, which their powerful storytelling spreads! Ah, me, I shudder at the future's advancing step. In public view the man will die [230] because the dark sword in his frenzied hand massacred the herds and the horse-guiding herdsmen.

Tecmessa

[231] Ah! Then it was from there, from there that he came to me with his captive flock! [235] Of part, he cut the throats on the floor inside; some, striking their sides, he tore asunder. Then he caught up two white-footed rams and sheared off the head of one and its tongue-tip, and flung them away; [240] the other he bound upright to a pillar, and seizing a heavy strap from a horse's harness he flogged it with a whistling, doubled lash, while he cursed it with awful [kakos] imprecations which a god, and no mortal, had taught him.

Chorus

[245] The time has come for each of us to veil his head and steal away on foot, or to sit and take on the swift yoke of rowing, [250] giving her way to the sea-faring ship. So angry are the threats which the brother-kings, the sons of Atreus, speed against us! I fear to share in bitter death beneath an onslaught of stones, [255] crushed at this man's side, whom an untouchable fate holds in its grasp.

Tecmessa

It grips him no longer. For like a southerly wind after it has started up sharply without bright lightning he grows calm. And now in his right mind he has new pain [algos]. [260] To look on self-made suffering [pathos], when no other has had a hand in it--this induces sharp pains.

Chorus

But if he has stopped his madness, I have good hope that all may yet be well, since the trouble [kakos] is of less account once it has passed.

Tecmessa

[265] And which, if the choice were given you, would you choose--to distress your friends [philos, plural], and have joy yourself, or to share the grief of friends who grieve?

Chorus

The twofold sorrow, lady, is certainly the greater evil [kakos].

Tecmessa

Then we are ruined now, although the plague is past.

Chorus

[270] What do you mean? I do not understand what you say.

Tecmessa

That man, while afflicted, found joy for himself in the dire fantasies that held him, though his presence distressed us who were sane. But now, since he has had pause and rest from the plague, [275] he has been utterly subjected to lowly [kakos] anguish, and we similarly grieve no less than before. Surely, then, these are two sorrows [kakos, plural], instead of one?

Chorus

Indeed, I agree, and so I fear that a blow sent by a god has hit him. How could it be otherwise, if his spirit is no lighter [280] than when he was plagued, now that he is released?

Tecmessa

This, you must know, is how matters stand.

Chorus

In what way did the plague [kakos] first swoop down on him? Tell us who share your pain how it happened.

Tecmessa

You will hear all that took place, since you are involved. [285] In the dead of night when the evening lamps were no longer aflame, he seized a two-edged sword and wanted to leave on an aimless foray. Then I admonished him and said, "What are you doing, Ajax? Why do you set out unsummoned on this expedition, [290] neither called by messenger, nor warned by trumpet? In fact the whole army is sleeping now." But he answered me curtly with that trite jingle: "Woman, silence graces [brings kosmos to] woman." And I, taking his meaning, desisted, but he rushed out alone.

[295] What happened out there, I cannot tell. But he came in with his captives hobbled together--bulls, herding dogs, and his fleecy quarry. Some he beheaded; of some he cut the twisted throat or broke the spine; others [300] he abused in their bonds as though they were men, though falling only upon cattle. At last he darted out through the door, and dragged up words to speak to some shadow--now against the Atreidae, now about Odysseus--with many a mocking boast of all the abuse [hubris] that in vengeance he had fully repaid them during his raid. [305] After that he rushed back again into the house, and somehow by slow, painful steps he regained his reason. And as he scanned the room full of his disastrous madness [atê], he struck his head and howled; he fell down, a wreck amid the wrecked corpses of the slaughtered sheep, and there he sat [310] with clenched nails tightly clutching his hair. At first, and for a long while, he sat without a sound. But then he threatened me with those dreadful threats, if I did not declare all that had happened [pathos], and he demanded to know what on earth was the business he found himself in. [315] And in my fear, friends [philos, plural], I told him all that had been done, as far as I knew it for certain. But he immediately groaned mournful groans, such as I had never heard from him before. For he had always taught that such wailing [320] was for cowardly [kakos] and low-hearted men. He used to grieve quietly without the sound of loud weeping, but instead moaned low like a bull.
And now, prostrate in such miserable [kakos] fortune, tasting no food, no drink, [325] the man sits idly where he has fallen in the middle of the iron-slain cattle. And plainly he plans to do something terrible. Somehow his words and his laments say as much. Ah, my friends [philos, plural] --for it was my errand to ask you this--come in and help him, if in any way you can. [330] Men of his kind can be won over by the words of friends [philos, plural].
Chorus

Tecmessa, daughter of Teleutas, terrible is your news that our lord has been possessed by his sorrows [kakos, plural].

(Within)
Ajax (wailing)

Oh! Ah, me! Ah, me!

Tecmessa

Soon there will be more sorrow, it seems. Did you not hear [335] Ajax, did you not hear his resounding howl?

Ajax (wailing)

O! Ah, me! Ah, me!

Chorus

The man seems to be sick, or else to be still pained by the disease which was recently with him, since he sees its traces.

Ajax (wailing)

O my son, my son!

Tecmessa

[340] Ah, miserable me! Eurysaces, it is for you he calls! What can his purpose be? Where are you? I am miserable!

Ajax

Teucer! Where is Teucer? Will his raid last for ever? While I perish?

Chorus

He seems to be sane--open the door! [345] Perhaps merely at the sight of me he will come to a more respectable mood.

Tecmessa

There, it is open. Now you can look on this man's deeds, and his true condition.

(Ajax is discovered sitting amidst the slaughtered cattle.)
Ajax

[348] Ah, good sailors, you alone of my friends [350] who alone still abide by the true bond of friendship, see how great a wave has just now crested over and broken around me, set on by a murderous storm!

Chorus

Ah, lady, too true, it seems, was your testimony! [355] The fact proves that he is not sane.

Ajax

[356] Ah, you clan staunch in maritime skill, who embarked and stroked the oar-blade upon the brine, in you, in you alone [360] I see a defense against suffering. Come, slay me on top of these!

Chorus

[362] Hush! Speak words of better omen! Do not cure evil [kakos] by prescribing evil [kakos]; do not increase the anguish of your mad disaster [atê].

Ajax

Do you see the bold, the strong of heart, [365] the dauntless in battles with the enemy--do you see me now, terrible in the force of my hands against beasts unformidable? Oh, the mockery! How I have been violated [verb from hubris]!

Tecmessa

Ajax, my lord, I beg you, do not talk this way!

Ajax

Away with you! Will you not take yourself outside! [370] Ah, me! Ah, me!

Chorus

By the gods I plead, give way and acquire good sense!

Ajax

My rotten fortune!--I let slip from my grasp those men who were begging for punishment, [375] and fell instead on cattle with twisted horns and fine goats, making their dark blood flow!

Chorus

Why grieve [verb from algos] when the deed is past recall? These things can never be but as they are.

Ajax

Ah, you who spy out all things, [380] you ready tool of every crime [kakos, plural], ah, son of Laertes, you filthiest sneak in all the army, I am sure you laugh loud and long for joy!

Chorus

It is at the god's dispensation that every man both laughs and mourns.

Ajax

Yet if only I could see him, even shattered as I am! [385] Oh! Oh!

Chorus

Make no big threats! Do you not see the trouble [kakos] you are in?

Ajax

O Zeus, forefather of my forebears, if only I might destroy that deep dissembler, that hateful [kakos] sneak, and [390] the two brother-kings, and finally die myself, also!

Tecmessa

When you make that prayer, pray at the same time for me that I, too, may die. What reason is there for me to live when you are dead?

Ajax

Ah, Darkness, my light! [395] O Gloom of the underworld, to my eyes brightest-shining, take me, take me to dwell with you--yes, take me. I am no longer worthy to look for help to the race of the gods, [400] or for any good from men, creatures of a day.

No, the daughter of Zeus, the valiant goddess, abuses me to my destruction. Where, then, can a man flee? Where can I go to find rest? [405] If my past achievements go to ruin, my friends, along with such victims as these near me, and if I am inclined to foolish plunderings, then with sword driven by both hands all the army would murder me!
Tecmessa

[410] Ah, what misery for me that a valuable man should speak words of a sort which he would never before now have endured to speak!

Ajax

Ah! You paths of the sounding sea, you tidal caves and wooded pastures by the shore, long, long, too long indeed [415] have you detained me here at Troy. But no more will you hold me, no more so long as I have the breath of life. Of that much let sane men be sure.

O neighboring streams of Scamander, [420] kindly to the Greeks, no more shall you look on Ajax, whose equal in the army--here I will boast-- [425] Troy has never seen come from the land of Hellas. But now deprived of honor I lie low here in the dust!
Chorus

In truth I do not know how to restrain you, nor how to let you speak further, when you have fallen on such harsh troubles [kakos, plural].