Literature and Arts c-14

First Semichorus

Toil [ponos] follows toil [ponos] yielding toil [ponos]! Where, where have I not trudged? And still no place can say that I have shared its secret. [870] Listen! A sudden thud!

Second Semichorus

We made it, we shipmates of your voyage.

Semichorus 1

[875] What news, then?

Semichorus 2

All the westward flank of the ships has been scoured for tracks.

Semichorus 1

And did you find anything?

Semichorus 2

Only an abundance of toil [ponos]. There was nothing more to see.

Semichorus 1

Neither, as a matter of fact, has the man been seen along the path that faces the shafts of the morning sun.

Chorus

Who, then, can guide me? What toiling [philos + ponos] [880] fisherman, busy about his sleepless hunt, what nymph of the Olympian heights or of the streams that flow toward [885] Bosporus, can say whether she has anywhere seen the wanderings of fierce-hearted Ajax? It is cruel that I, who have roamed with such great toil [ponos], cannot come near him with a fair course, [890] but fail to see where the enfeebled man is.

(Enter Tecmessa near the corpse of Ajax.)
Tecmessa

Ah, me, ah, me!

Chorus

Whose cry broke from that nearby grove?

Tecmessa

Ah, misery!

Chorus

There, I see his unfortunate young bride, who was the prize of his spear, [895] Tecmessa, dissolved in that pitiful wailing.

Tecmessa

I am lost, destroyed, razed to the ground, my friends!

Chorus

What is it?

Tecmessa

Here is our Ajax--his blood newly shed, he lies folded around the sword, burying it.

Chorus

[900] Ah, no! Our homecoming [nostos] is lost! Ah, my king, you have killed me, the comrade of your voyage! Unhappy man--broken-hearted woman!

Tecmessa

[905] His condition demands that we cry 'ai-ai.'

Chorus

But by whose hand can the ill-fated man have contrived this end?

Tecmessa

He did it with his own hand; it is obvious. [910] This sword which he planted in the ground and on which he fell convicts him.

Chorus

Ah, what blind folly I have displayed! All alone, then, you bled, unguarded by your friends! And I took no care, so entirely dull was I, so totally stupid. Where, where lies inflexible Ajax, whose name means anguish?

Tecmessa

[915] No, he is not to be looked at! I will cover him over entirely with this enfolding shroud, since no one--no one, that is, who is philos to him--could bear to see him spurt the darkened gore of his self-inflicted slaughter up his nostrils and out of the bloody gash.

[920] Ah, what shall I do? What loved one is there to lift you in his arms? Where is Teucer? How timely would be his arrival, if he would but come to compose the corpse of his brother here! Ah, unlucky Ajax, from so great a height you are fallen so low! [925] Even among your enemies [ekhthros, plural] you are worthy of mourning!
Chorus

You were bound, poor man, with that unbending heart you were bound, it seems, to fulfill a harsh [kakos] destiny of limitless toils [ponos, plural]! So wild to my ears [930] were the words of hatred which in your fierce mood you moaned against the Atreidae with such deadly passion [pathos]. True it is that that moment was a potent source of sorrows, [935] when the arms were made the prize for a contest [agôn] in the skills of warfare!

Tecmessa

Ah! Ah!
Chorus

True anguish, I know, pierces your heart.
Tecmessa

Ah! Ah, me!

Chorus

[940] I do not wonder, lady, that you wail and wail again, when you have just lost one so loved [philos].

Tecmessa

It is for you to analyze my troubles, but for me to feel them too fully.

Chorus

I must agree.

Tecmessa

Oh, my son, to what a heavy yoke of slavery [945] we advance! What cruel task-masters stand over us!

Chorus

Ah, the deeds of the two ruthless Atreidae which you name in our present grief would be unthinkable! May the god hold them back!

Tecmessa

[950] These events that you see would not have happened as they have without the will of the gods.

Chorus

Yes, they have brought upon us a burden too heavy to bear.

Tecmessa

Yet what suffering the divine daughter of Zeus, fierce Pallas, engenders for Odysseus' sake!

Chorus

[955] No doubt the much-enduring hero exults [verb from hubris] in his dark soul and mocks in loud laughter at these frenzied sorrows [akhos]--what shame!-- [960] and with him, when they hear the news, will laugh the royal brothers, the Atreidae.

Tecmessa

Then let them mock and rejoice at this man's misery. Perhaps, even though they did not cherish him while he lived, they will lament his death, when they meet with the difficulties of war. Men of crooked judgment do not know what good [965] they have in their hands until they have thrown it away. His death is more bitter to me than it is sweet to the Greeks; but in any case to Ajax himself it is a joy, since he has accomplished all that he desired to get--his longed-for death. So why should they exult over him? [970] He died before the gods, not at all before them--no! And so let Odysseus toss his insults [verb from hubris] in empty glee. For them Ajax is no more; for me he is gone, abandoning me to anguish and mourning.

Teucer (Approaching.)

Ah! Ah, no!

Chorus

[975] Quiet--I think I hear the voice of Teucer striking a note that points to this disaster [atê].

(Enter Teucer.)
Teucer

Beloved [most philos] Ajax, brother whose face was so dear to me, have you truly fared as the mighty rumor says?

Chorus

He is dead, Teucer. Take it as fact.

Teucer

[980] Then I am destroyed by my heavy fortune!

Chorus

When things stand as they do--

Teucer

Ah, misery, misery!

Chorus

--you have cause to mourn.

Teucer

O rash passion [pathos]!

Chorus

Yes, Teucer, far too rash.

Teucer

Ah, misery--what about the man's child? Where in all of Troy can I find him?

Chorus

[985] He is alone near the tent.

Teucer (To Tecmessa.)

Then bring him here right away, so that we may prevent some enemy from snatching him away, as a hunter snatches a cub from a lioness and leaves her barren! Go quickly; give me your help! It is the habit of men everywhere to laugh in triumph over the dead when they are mere corpses on the ground.

(Exit Tecmessa.)
Chorus

[990] Yes, while still alive, Teucer, Ajax ordered you to care for the child, just as you are in fact doing.

Teucer

This sight is truly most painful to me of all that my eyes have seen. [995] And the journey truly loathsome to my heart above all other journeys is this one that I have just now made while pursuing and scouting out your footsteps, dearest [most philos] Ajax, once I learned of your fate! For a swift rumor about you, as if sent from some god, passed throughout all the Greek army, telling that you were dead and gone. [1000] I heard the rumor while still far away from you, and I groaned quietly in sadness. But now that I see its truth, my heart is utterly shattered! Oh, god!

Come, uncover him; let me see the worst.
(The corpse of Ajax is uncovered.)
O face painful to look upon and full of cruel boldness, [1005] what a full crop of sorrows you have sown for me in your death! Where can I go? What people will receive me, when I have failed to help you in your troubles [ponos, plural]? No doubt Telamon, your father and mine, will likely greet me with a smile and kind words, [1010] when I return without you. Yes, of course he will--a man who, even when enjoying good fortune, tends not to smile more brightly than before! What will a man like him leave unsaid? What insult [kakos] will he forego against "the bastard offspring of his spear's war-prize," against your "cowardly, unmanly betrayer," dear [most philos] Ajax, [1015] or better yet, your "treacherous betrayer" with designs to govern your domain and your house after your death? So will he insult me; he is a man quick to anger, severe in old age, and his rage seeks quarrels without cause. And in the end I shall be thrust out of our land, and cast off, [1020] branded by his taunts as a slave instead of a freeman. These are my prospects at home. At Troy, on the other hand, my enemies are many, while I have few things to help me. All this have I gained from your death! Ah, me, what shall I do? How shall I draw your poor corpse [1025] off the sharp tooth of this gleaming sword, the murderer who, it seems, made you breathe your last? Now do you see how in time Hector, though dead, was to destroy you?
By the gods, note the fortune of this mortal pair. [1030] First Hector with the very warrior's belt given to him by Ajax was lashed to the chariot-rail and shredded without end, until his life fled with his breath. Now Ajax here had this gift from Hector, and by this he has perished in his deadly fall. Was it not the Fury who forged this blade, [1035] was not that belt the product of Hades, the grim artificer? I, for my part, would affirm that these happenings and all happenings ever are designed by the gods for men. But if there is anyone in whose judgment my words are unacceptable, let him cherish his own thoughts, as I do mine.
Chorus

[1040] Do not go on at length, but consider how you will bury him and what you will next say. For I see our enemy [ekhthros] approaching, and chances are that he comes to mock at our sorrows [kakos, plural], like one who would do us harm.

Teucer

What man of the army do you see?

Chorus

[1045] Menelaus, the beneficiary of this expedition.

Teucer

I see him; he is not hard to recognize when near.

(Enter Menelaus.)
Menelaus

You there, I tell you not to lift that corpse for burial, but leave it where it lies.

Teucer

Why do you waste your breath on this arrogant command?

Menelaus

[1050] It conveys my decree, and the decree of the army's supreme ruler.

Teucer

Would you mind, then, telling me what reason you pretend?

Menelaus

This--that when we had hoped we were bringing Ajax from home to be an ally and a friend [philos] for the Greeks, we found him on closer examination to be an enemy worse than the Phrygians, [1055] since he plotted the murder of the entire army and marched by night against us in order to take us with his spear. And if some god had not smothered this attempt, we would have been allotted the fate which he now has, and we would be dead and lie prostrate by an ignoble doom, [1060] while he would be living. But now a god has turned his outrage [hubris] aside, so that it fell on the sheep and cattle.

For this reason there is no man so powerful that he will be able to entomb the corpse [sôma] of Ajax. Instead he shall be cast forth somewhere on the yellow sand [1065] to become forage for the birds of the seashore. So then do not inflame the terrible force [menos] of your spirit. If we were unable to master him while he lived, in any case in death, at least, we shall rule him despite your opposition and control him by force of our hands. For while he lived, there never was a time [1070] when he would obey my commands.
Now it is, in truth, the mark of a base nature when a commoner does not think it right to obey those who stand over him. Never can the laws maintain a prosperous course in a city where fear has no fixed place, [1075] nor can a camp be ruled any more with moderation, if it lacks the guarding force of fear and reverence. A man, though he grow his body [sôma] great and mighty, must expect to fall, even from a light blow [kakos]. Whoever knows fear and shame both, [1080] you can be certain that he has found his salvation [sôtêria]; but where there is license to attack others [verb from hubris]and act at will, do not doubt that such a State, though she has run before a favoring wind, will eventually sink with time into the depths.
No, let me see fear, too, established, where fear is fitting; [1085] let us not think that we can act on our desires without paying the price in pain. These things come by turns. He was once the hot attacker [hubristês], now it is my hour to glory. And so I warn you not to bury him, [1090] so that you can avoid falling into your own grave.
Chorus

Menelaus, after laying down wise [sophos] precepts, do not then violate the dead.

Teucer

Never again, my fellow Salaminians, will I be amazed if some nobody by birth does wrong, [1095] when those who are reputed to be born of noble blood employ such wrongful sentiments in their arguments.

Come, tell me from the first once more--do you really say that you brought Ajax here to the Greeks as an ally personally recruited by you? Did he not sail of his own accord? As his own master? [1100] On what grounds are you his commander? On what grounds have you a right to kingship over the men whom he brought from home? It was as Sparta's king that you came, not as master over us. Nowhere was it established among your lawful powers that you should order [verb from kosmos] him any more than he you. [1105] You sailed here under the command of others, not as a supreme commander who might at any time exercise authority over Ajax.
No, rule the troops you rule, and use your reverend words to punish them! But this man, whether you or the other general forbid it, I will lay [1110] in the grave as justice[dikê] demands, and I will not fear your tongue. It was not at all for your wife's sake that Ajax made this expedition, as did those toil-worn drudges. No, it was for the sake of the oath by which he had sworn, and not at all for you, since it was not his habit to value nobodies. [1115] And so when you come here again, bring more heralds, and the leader of the expedition, too. Your bluster could not make me turn to notice you, so long as you are what you are.
Chorus

Again, I say, in these troubles I cannot approve of such a tone. Harsh words sting, however just [adjective from dikê] they are.

Menelaus

[1120] The bowman seems to feel no little grandeur.

Teucer

I do, since it is no lowly skill that I possess.

Menelaus

How you would boast, if you had a shield!

Teucer

Even without a shield I would be a match for you fully armed.

Menelaus

What a tongue you have! What dreadful anger it feeds!

Teucer

[1125] When right [word from dikê] is with him, a man's thoughts may be grand.

Menelaus

What, is it right [word from dikê] that the man who murdered me should prosper?

Teucer

Murdered you? It is truly a strange happening, if in fact you live after being killed.

Menelaus

A god rescued [sôzô] me. So far as that corpse is concerned, I am in Hades.

Teucer

Then since it was the gods who saved you [sôzô] , do not dishonor [verb from timê] the gods.

Menelaus

[1130] What, would I find fault with the law of the daimones?

Teucer

Yes, if by your presence here you prevent burial of the dead.

Menelaus

Prevent it I do, since he was at war with me and I with him. Burial in such a case would not be right.

Teucer

What do you mean? Did Ajax ever stand forth publicly to war with you?

Menelaus

He hated me as I hated him, and you knew it, too.

Teucer

[1135] Yes, he hated you because you had been caught fixing the votes in order to rob him.

Menelaus

At the hands of the jurymen, not mine, he suffered that loss.

Teucer

You could make a thousand stealthy crimes look pretty.

Menelaus

That sentiment leads to pain for someone I know.

Teucer

The pain will be no greater, I think, than that which we will inflict.

Menelaus

[1140] I will tell you once and for all--there is to be no burial for him.

Teucer

And hear my reply--he shall be buried immediately.

Menelaus

Once I saw a bold-tongued man who had urged sailors to set sail during wintertime. Yet in him you could have found no voice [1145] when the worst [kakos] of the storm was upon him. No, hidden beneath his cloak he allowed the crew to trample on him at will. And so it is with you and your raging speech--perhaps a great storm, even if its blast comes from a small cloud, will extinguish your shouting.

Teucer

[1150] Yes, and I have seen a man stuffed with foolishness who exulted [verb from hubris] in his neighbor's misfortunes [kakos, plural]. It turned out that a man like me and of similar temperament stared at him and said, " Man, do not wrong the dead; [1155] for, if you do, rest assured that you will come to harm." So he warned the misguided man before him. Take note--I see him now, and I think that he is no one but you. Have I spoken in riddles?

Menelaus

I will go--it would be a disgrace to have it known [1160] that I argue when I have the power to use force.

Teucer

Leave then! The worst disgrace for me is that I should listen to a fool's empty chatter.

(Exit Menelaus.)
Chorus

A trial [agôn] of this great discord [eris] will soon come about. But you, Teucer, with all the speed you can muster, [1165] be quick to seek a hollow grave for Ajax, where he shall establish his dank tomb, a constant memorial for mortals.

(Enter Tecmessa and Eurysaces.)
Teucer

And now just in time his son and his wife approach [1170] to arrange the burial of the pitiable corpse. Come here, nephew. Take your place near him, and grasp in supplication your father, your begetter. Kneel and pray for help, with locks of hair in your hand from me, her, and thirdly you; [1175] they are the suppliant's only resource. But if any soldier from the army should tear you by violence from this body, then for his wickedness [kakos] may he be wickedly [adverb from kakos] cast out of his country and get no burial, but be severed at the root with all his race, just as I shear this lock. [1180] Take it, Nephew, and keep it safe. Let no one move you, but kneel there and cling to the dead.

And you there, do not stand idly by like women, not men. Help defend us until I return, when I have seen to a grave for him, though all the world forbids it. (Exit Teucer.)
Chorus

[1185] Which will be the last year? When will the sum of the years of our many wanderings stop bringing upon me the unending doom of toilful spear-battles [1190] throughout broad Troy, the cause of sorrow and of shame for Greece?

[1192] If only that man had first passed into the depths of the sky or into Hades, the common home of all, [1195] before he taught the Greeks the shared plague of Ares' detested arms! Ah, those toils [ponos, plural] of his invention, which produced so many more toils [ponos, plural]! Look how that man has ravaged humanity!
No delight in garlands [1200] or deep wine-cups did that man provide me, no sweet din of flutes, that miserable man, or pleasing rest in the night. [1205] And from love--god!--from love he has totally barred me. Here I lie uncared for, while heavy dews constantly wet my hair, [1210] damp reminders of joyless Troy.
In the past bold Ajax was always my bulwark against night's terrors and flying missiles. But now he has become an offering consecrated [1215] to a malignant divinity. What joy, then, what delight awaits me anymore? O to be where the wooded wave-washed cape fences off the deep sea, [1220] to be beneath Sunium's jutting plateau, so that we might salute sacred Athens!
(Enter Teucer.)
Teucer

Here I am! I hurried back when I saw the supreme commander, Agamemnon, rapidly approaching. [1225] It is plain to me that he will let his clumsy tongue fly.

(Enter Agamemnon.)
Agamemnon

So it is you, they tell me, who dared open your mouth wide to make fierce threats against us--and are you still unpunished? Yes, I mean you--you, the captive slave's son. No doubt if you were born from a noble mother, [1230] your talk would reach the sky and you would proudly strut about, when now it is the case that, though you are a nobody and a nothing, you have stood up for this other nothing lying here, and have vowed that we came out with no authority either as admirals or as generals to rule the Greeks or you. No, as an autonomous ruler, you say, Ajax set sail.

[1235] Does it not shame me that I hear these proud words from slavish mouths? What was the man whom you shout about with such arrogance? Where did he advance, or where did he stand his ground, where I did not do the same? Have the Greeks, then, no other men but him? To our own harm, it seems, we announced [1240] to the Greeks the contests for the arms of Achilles, if on all sides we are accounted corrupt [kakos, plural] because of Teucer, and if it will never satisfy you Salaminians, even when you are defeated, to accept the verdict which satisfied the majority of the judges. But instead you will always no doubt aim your slanderous arrows at us, [1245] or treacherously lash at our backs when you fall behind us in the race.
Yet in a place where such ways prevail, there could be no settled order for any law, if we are to thrust the rightful [with dikê] winners aside and bring those in the rear up to the front ranks. [1250] These tendencies must be checked. It is not the stout, broad-shouldered men that are the steadiest allies. No, it is the wise who prevail in every engagement. A broad-backed ox is kept straight on the road all the same when only a small whip directs him. [1255] And a dose of this very medicine, I foresee, will find you before long, unless you gain a little good sense. He no longer exists, but is already a shade, yet still you boldly insult [verb from hubris] us and give your tongue too much freedom. Restrain [verb from sôphron] yourself, I say. Recall your birth, your nature. [1260] Bring someone else here--a man who is freeborn--who can plead your cause before me in your place. For when you speak, I no longer understand-- I do not know your barbarian language.
Chorus

If only you both had the sense to exercise self-restraint! [1265] There is no better advice that I could give you two.

Teucer

My, how quickly gratitude [kharis] to the dead seeps away from men and is found to have turned to betrayal, since this man no longer offers even the slightest praise in remembrance of you, Ajax, even though it was for his sake [1270] you toiled so often in battle, offering your own life [psukhê] to the spear! No, your assistance is dead and gone, all flung aside!

Full and foolish talker, do you no longer remember anything of the time when you were trapped inside your defenses, [1275] when you were all but destroyed in the turn of the battle and he, he alone came and saved you at the moment when the flames were already blazing around the decks at your ships' sterns and Hector was leaping high over the trench towards the vessels? [1280] Who averted that? Was it not Ajax who did it, the one who, you say, nowhere set foot where you were not? Well, do you grant that he did these things for you with dikê? And what about when another time, all alone, he confronted Hector in single combat according to the fall of the lots, and not at anyone's command? [1285] The lot which he cast in was not the kind to flee the challenge; it was no lump of moist earth, but one which would be the first to leap lightly from the crested helmet! It was this man who did those deeds, and I, the slave, the son of the barbarian mother, was at his side.
[1290] Pitiful creature, how can you be so blind as to argue the way you do? Are you not aware of the fact that your father's father Pelops long ago was a barbarian, a Phrygian? That Atreus, your own begetter, set before his brother a most unholy feast made from the flesh of his brother's children? [1295] And you yourself were born from a Cretan mother, whose father found a stranger straddling her and who was consigned by him to be prey for the mute fish. So being of such a kind, can you reproach a man like me for my lineage? I am the son of Telamon, [1300] who won my mother for his consort as prize for valor supreme in the army. And she was the daughter of Laomedon, of royal blood, and it was as the flower of the spoil that Alcmena's son gave her to Telamon. Thus nobly born [aristos] as I am from two noble [aristos] parents, [1305] could I disgrace my own flesh and blood, whom even as he lies here subdued by such massive troubles [ponos, plural], you, making your pronouncements without a blush of shame, would thrust out without burial? Now consider this well: wherever you cast him away, with him you will also cast our three corpses. [1310] It is right for me to die before all men's eyes while I am toiling in his cause, rather than for your wife--or should I say your brother's? With this in mind, then, look not to my safety, but to yours instead, since if you cause me any grief at all, you will soon wish [1315] that you had been more timid than bold when confronting me.
(Enter Odysseus.)