Ajax
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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It is plain to me that he will let his clumsy tongue fly.
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Agamemnon
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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,
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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.
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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
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to the Greeks the contests for the arms of Achilles, if on all sides we are accounted corrupt 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,
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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 winners aside and bring those in the rear up to the front ranks.
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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.
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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 us and give your tongue too much freedom. Restrain yourself, I say. Recall your birth, your nature.
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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.
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Chorus
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If only you both had the sense to exercise self-restraint!
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There is no better advice that I could give you two.
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Teucer
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My, how quickly gratitude 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
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you toiled so often in battle, offering your own life 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,
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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?
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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 his duty to you there? 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?
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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.
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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?
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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,
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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 as I am from two noble parents,
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could I disgrace my own flesh and blood, whom even as he lies here subdued by such massive troubles, 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.
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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
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that you had been more timid than bold when confronting me.
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Chorus
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Lord Odysseus, you arrive at the right time, if mediation, not division, is your purpose in coming.
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Odysseus
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What is the trouble, friends? From far off I heard shouting from the Atreidae over this brave man’s corpse.
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Agamemnon
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Is it not because we, Lord Odysseus, have long had to hear the worst, most shameful language from this man?
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Odysseus
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How so? I can pardon a man a retaliatory barrage of abuse if another has insulted him.
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Agamemnon
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I insulted him, since his conduct toward me was of the same stripe.
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Odysseus
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And what did he do that harmed you?
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Agamemnon
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He declares that he will not leave this corpse without due burial, but will entomb it in spite of me.
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Odysseus
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Then may a friend speak the truth, and still remain your helpmate no less than before?
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Agamemnon
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Speak. Otherwise I would be less than sane, since I count you my greatest friend among all the Greeks.
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Odysseus
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Listen, then. In the name of the gods, do not let yourself so ruthlessly cast this man out unburied. Do not in any way let the violence of your hatred overcome you
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so much that you trample justice under foot. To me, too, this man was once the most hostile enemy in the army from the day on which I beat him for possession of Achilles’ arms. Yet for all that he was hostile towards me, I would not dishonor him in return or refuse to admit
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that in all our Greek force at Troy he was, in my view, the best and bravest, excepting Achilles. It would not be just, then, that he should be dishonored by you. It is not he, but the laws given by the gods that you would damage. When a good man is dead, there is no justice
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in doing him harm, not even if you hate him.
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Agamemnon
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You, Odysseus—do you champion him against me in this battle?
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Odysseus
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I do, though I did hate him, when it was honorable for me to hate.
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Agamemnon
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But should you not also trample him now that he is dead?
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Odysseus
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Do not take delight, son of Atreus, in that superiority which brings no honor.
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Agamemnon
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Reverence, I tell you, is not easily practiced by the autocrat.
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Odysseus
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But it is easy to grant dispensations to friends when they advise well.
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Agamemnon
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A good man should listen to those in charge.
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Odysseus
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Stop! Your power is victorious when you surrender to your friends.
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Agamemnon
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Remember to what sort of man you show this kindness!
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Odysseus
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The man was once my enemy, yes, but he was also noble.
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Agamemnon
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Why do you do this? Why do you so respect an enemy’s corpse?
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Odysseus
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I yield to his excellence much more than his hostility.
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Agamemnon
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Men who act as you do are the unstable sort in humankind.
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Odysseus
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Quite the majority of men, I assure you, are friendly at one time, and bitter at another.
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Agamemnon
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So then, are these the type of friends that you recommend we make?
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Odysseus
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It is not my habit to recommend an inflexible spirit.
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Agamemnon
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You will make us appear to be cowards today.
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Odysseus
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On the contrary, we will be men of justice in the eyes of all the Greeks.
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Agamemnon
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Then do you truly urge me to allow the burying of the dead?
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Odysseus
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Yes, for I too shall come to that necessity.
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Agamemnon
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How true it is that in all things alike each man works for himself!
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Odysseus
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And for whom should I work more than for myself?
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Agamemnon
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It must be called your doing then, not mine.
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Odysseus
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However you do it, in all respects you will at least prove beneficent.
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Agamemnon
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In any case, be quite certain that to you I would grant a larger favor than this. To that man, however, as on earth, so below I give my hatred. But you can do what you will.
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Chorus
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Whoever denies, Odysseus, that you were born wise in judgment
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is a total fool since you have shown it just now.
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Odysseus
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And now I announce that from this point on I am ready to be Teucer’s friend as much as I was once his enemy. And I would like to join in the burying of your dead and share your labors, omitting no service
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which mortals should render to their best and bravest warriors.
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Teucer
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Good Odysseus, I have only praise for your words. You have greatly belied my fears. Of all the Greeks you were his deadliest enemy, and yet you alone have stood by him with helping hand and did not come here and allow yourself in life
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to violate the dead Ajax ruthlessly, as did the crazed general who came, since he and his brother wanted to cast out the outraged corpse without burial. Therefore may the Father supreme on Olympus above us,
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and the unforgetting Fury and Justice the Fulfiller destroy them for their wickedness with wicked deaths, just as they sought to cast this man out with unmerited, outrageous mistreatment. But you, progeny of aged Laertes, I hesitate to permit you to touch the corpse in burial,
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lest I so offend the dead. In all other tasks do indeed be our partner. And if you wish to bring any soldier of the army with you, he shall be welcome. For the rest, I will make all things ready. But you, Odysseus, know that to us you have been a good and noble friend.
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Odysseus
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It was my wish to help, but if it is not pleasing to you that I should assist here, I accept your decision and depart.
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Teucer
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Enough. Already the interval has been long drawn out. Come, hurry some of you to dig the hollow grave; others erect the
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cauldron wrapped in fire on its high stand for prompt preparation of the ritual cleansing. Let another company bring from the tent the finery which he wore in battle beneath his shield. And you, too, child, with such strength as you have
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lay a loving hand upon your father and help me to lighten his body; for his channels are still warm and spray upwards the dark force of his spirit. Come, come everyone who claims to be our friend, start forward and move on,
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laboring in service to this man of perfect excellence. To a nobler man such service has never yet been rendered —nobler than Ajax when he lived, I mean.
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Chorus
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Many things, I tell you, can be known through mortal eyes; but before he sees it happening, no one can foretell
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the future, or what his fate will be.
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Ajax
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Do you see the bold, the strong of heart,
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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!
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Tecmessa
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Ajax, my lord, I beg you, do not talk this way!
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Ajax
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Away with you! Will you not take yourself outside!
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Ah, me! Ah, me!
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Chorus
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By the gods I plead, give way and acquire good sense!
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Ajax
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My rotten fortune!—I let slip from my grasp those men who were begging for punishment,
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and fell instead on cattle with twisted horns and fine goats, making their dark blood flow!
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Chorus
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Why grieve when the deed is past recall? These things can never be but as they are.
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Ajax
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Ah, you who spy out all things,
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you ready tool of every crime, ah, son of Laertes, you filthiest sneak in all the army, I am sure you laugh loud and long for joy!
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Chorus
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It is at the god’s dispensation that every man both laughs and mourns.
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Ajax
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Yet if only I could see him, even shattered as I am!
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Oh! Oh!
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Chorus
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Make no big threats! Do you not see the trouble you are in?
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Ajax
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O Zeus, forefather of my forebears, if only I might destroy that deep dissembler, that hateful sneak, and
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the two brother-kings, and finally die myself, also!
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Tecmessa
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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?
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Chorus
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Surely his mother, companion of antiquity and
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grey with age, when she hears that he has been afflicted with the ruin of his mind will raise a loud cry of wailing. It is not the nightingale’s piteous lament
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that she, unhappy, will sing. Rather in shrill-toned odes the dirge will rise, while the hollow sound of beating hands and the shredding of grey hair will fall upon her breast.
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Chorus
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Yes, better hid in Hades is the man plagued by foolishness, who by the lineage from where he springs is noblest of the enduring Achaeans, yet now is
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constant no more in his inbred temperament, but wanders outside himself. O Telamon, unhappy father, how heavy a curse upon your son awaits your hearing, a curse which never yet has
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any life-portion of the heirs of Aeacus nourished but his!
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Chorus
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No delight in garlands