Ajax
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Chorus
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You were bound, poor man, with that unbending heart you were bound, it seems, to fulfill a harsh destiny of limitless toils! So wild to my ears
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were the words of hatred which in your fierce mood you moaned against the Atreidae with such deadly passion. True it is that that moment was a potent source of sorrows,
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when the arms were made the prize for a contest in the skills of warfare!
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Tecmessa
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Ah! Ah!
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Chorus
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True anguish, I know, pierces your heart.
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Tecmessa
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Ah! Ah, me!
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Chorus
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I do not wonder, lady, that you wail and wail again, when you have just lost one so loved.
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Tecmessa
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It is for you to analyze my troubles, but for me to feel them too fully.
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Chorus
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I must agree.
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Tecmessa
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Oh, my son, to what a heavy yoke of slavery
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we advance! What cruel task-masters stand over us!
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Chorus
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Ah, the deeds of the two ruthless Atreidae which you name in our present grief would be unthinkable! May the gods hold them back!
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Tecmessa
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These events that you see would not have happened as they have without the will of the gods.
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Chorus
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Yes, they have brought upon us a burden too heavy to bear.
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Tecmessa
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Yet what suffering the divine daughter of Zeus, fierce Pallas, engenders for Odysseus’ sake!
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Chorus
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No doubt the much-enduring hero exults in his dark soul and mocks in loud laughter at these frenzied sorrows—what shame!—
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and with him, when they hear the news, will laugh the royal brothers, the Atreidae.
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Tecmessa
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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
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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?
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He died before the gods, not at all before them—no! And so let Odysseus toss his insults in empty glee. For them Ajax is no more; for me he is gone, abandoning me to anguish and mourning.
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Teucer
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Ah! Ah, no!
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Chorus
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Quiet—I think I hear the voice of Teucer striking a note that points to this disaster.
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Teucer
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Beloved Ajax, brother whose face was so dear to me, have you truly fared as the mighty rumor says?
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Chorus
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He is dead, Teucer. Take it as fact.
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Teucer
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Then I am destroyed by my heavy fortune!
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Chorus
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When things stand as they do—
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Chorus
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—you have cause to mourn.
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Chorus
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Yes, Teucer, far too rash.
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Chorus
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He is alone near the tent.
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Chorus
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Yes, while still alive, Teucer, Ajax ordered you to care for the child, just as you are in fact doing.
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Teucer
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This sight is truly most painful to me of all that my eyes have seen.
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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 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.
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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,
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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? No doubt Telamon, your father and mine, will likely greet me with a smile and kind words,
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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 will he forego against the bastard offspring of his spear’s war-prize, against your cowardly, unmanly betrayer, dear Ajax,
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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,
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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
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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.
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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,
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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.
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Chorus
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Do not go on at length, but consider how you will bury him and what you will next say. For I see our enemy approaching, and chances are that he comes to mock at our sorrows, like one who would do us harm.
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Teucer
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What man of the army do you see?
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Chorus
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Menelaus, the beneficiary of this expedition.
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Teucer
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I see him; he is not hard to recognize when near.
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Menelaus
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You there, I tell you not to lift that corpse for burial, but leave it where it lies.
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Teucer
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Why do you waste your breath on this arrogant command?
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Menelaus
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It conveys my decree, and the decree of the army’s supreme ruler.
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Teucer
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Would you mind, then, telling me what reason you pretend?
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Menelaus
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This—that when we had hoped we were bringing Ajax from home to be an ally and a friend for the Greeks, we found him on closer examination to be an enemy worse than the Phrygians,
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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,
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while he would be living. But now a god has turned his outrage 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 of Ajax. Instead he shall be cast forth somewhere on the yellow sand
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to become forage for the birds of the seashore. So then do not inflame the terrible force 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
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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,
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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 great and mighty, must expect to fall, even from a light blow. Whoever knows fear and shame both,
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you can be certain that he has found his salvation; but where there is license to attack others 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;
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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, now it is my hour to glory. And so I warn you not to bury him,
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so that you can avoid falling into your own grave.
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Chorus
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Menelaus, after laying down wise precepts, do not then violate the dead.
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Teucer
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Never again, my fellow Salaminians, will I be amazed if some nobody by birth does wrong,
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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?
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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 him any more than he you.
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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
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in the grave as justice 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.
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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.
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Chorus
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Again, I say, in these troubles I cannot approve of such a tone. Harsh words sting, however just they are.
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Menelaus
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The bowman seems to feel no little grandeur.
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Teucer
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I do, since it is no lowly skill that I possess.
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Menelaus
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How you would boast, if you had a shield!
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Teucer
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Even without a shield I would be a match for you fully armed.
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Menelaus
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What a tongue you have! What dreadful anger it feeds!
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Teucer
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When right is with him, a man’s thoughts may be grand.
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Menelaus
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What, is it right that the man who murdered me should prosper?
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Teucer
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Murdered you? It is truly a strange happening, if in fact you live after being killed.
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Menelaus
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A god rescued me. So far as that corpse is concerned, I am in Hades.
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Teucer
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Then since it was the gods who saved you, do not dishonor the gods.
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Menelaus
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What, would I find fault with divine law?
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Teucer
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Yes, if by your presence here you prevent burial of the dead.
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Menelaus
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Prevent it I do, since he was at war with me and I with him. Burial in such a case would not be right.
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Teucer
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What do you mean? Did Ajax ever stand forth publicly to war with you?
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Menelaus
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He hated me as I hated him, and you knew it, too.
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Teucer
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Yes, he hated you because you had been caught fixing the votes in order to rob him.
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Menelaus
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At the hands of the jurymen, not mine, he suffered that loss.
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Teucer
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You could make a thousand stealthy crimes look pretty.
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Menelaus
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That sentiment leads to pain for someone I know.
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Teucer
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The pain will be no greater, I think, than that which we will inflict.
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Menelaus
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I will tell you once and for all—there is to be no burial for him.
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Teucer
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And hear my reply—he shall be buried immediately.
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Menelaus
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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
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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.
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Teucer
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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?
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Menelaus
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I will go—it would be a disgrace to have it known
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that I argue when I have the power to use force.
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Teucer
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Leave then! The worst disgrace for me is that I should listen to a fool’s empty chatter.
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Chorus
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A trial of this great discord will soon come about. But you, Teucer, with all the speed you can muster,
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be quick to seek a hollow grave for Ajax, where he shall establish his dank tomb, a constant memorial for mortals.
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Chorus
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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
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throughout broad Troy, the cause of sorrow and of shame for Greece?
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Chorus
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If only that man had first passed into the depths of the sky or into Hades, the common home of all,
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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!
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Teucer
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Here I am! I hurried back when I saw the supreme commander, Agamemnon, rapidly approaching.