Scaife ATLAS

CTS Library / Ajax

Ajax (1133-1211)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg003.perseus-eng2:1133-1211
Refs {'start': {'reference': '1133', 'human_reference': 'Line 1133'}, 'end': {'reference': '1211', 'human_reference': 'Line 1211'}}
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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
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
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
when the worst 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.
1150
Teucer
Yes, and I have seen a man stuffed with foolishness who exulted in his neighbor’s misfortunes. It turned out that a man like me and of similar temperament stared at him and said, Man, do not wrong the dead; 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
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.
1163
Chorus
A trial of this great discord will soon come about. But you, Teucer, with all the speed you can muster,
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
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;
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 may he be wickedly 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.
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.
1185
Chorus
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
throughout broad Troy, the cause of sorrow and of shame for Greece?
1192
Chorus
If only that man had first passed into the depths of the sky or into Hades, the common home of all,
before he taught the Greeks the shared plague of Ares’ detested arms! Ah, those toils of his invention, which produced so many more toils! Look how that man has ravaged humanity!
1199
Chorus
No delight in garlands
or deep wine-cups did that man provide me, no sweet din of flutes, that miserable man, or pleasing rest in the night.
And from love—god!—from love he has totally barred me. Here I lie uncared for, while heavy dews constantly wet my hair,
damp reminders of joyless Troy.
1211
Chorus
In the past bold Ajax was always my bulwark against night’s terrors and flying missiles. But now he has become an offering consecrated

Tokens

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