第4章

Erebus, oh to me verily bright as day!

Receive, receive me your habitant.

Receive me now no more worthy to seek help of the gods, Nor any more from fellow mortal men to claim kindness:

No, but she the strong Zeus-born deity Miserably tortures me.

Whither should I then flee?

Whither seek for rest?

Since my former glory is gone, my friends, With yonder victims, yonder spoils by frenzy won, Since all the host with swords uplifted Sternly would slay me, TECMESSAAh, woe is me! from such a noble warrior To hear such words as once he ne'er had deigned to speak!

AJAX (chanting)

Alas!

Billowy paths of foam, Eddying caves, and ye coppices by the shore, A weary, weary time tarrying here Beneath the walls of Troy me have you kept, but from this hour Alive you shall not keep me. Truth I speak: let none doubt it.

O Scamander's wave, Stream whose neighbouring flow Oft have the Argives blest, Never, nevermore Me shall you behold, Me (a proud word will I utter now)Whose peer in battle Troy has never seen yet come From Hellas' land: but now dishonoured Thus am I prostrate.

LEADER

In truth I know not how to restrain thy speech, nor yet To suffer it; so grievous is thy couch of woe.

AJAX

Aiai! Who ever would have thought my name Would harmonise so aptly with my woes?

For now well may I wail that sound out twice, Yea thrice; such woeful destinies are mine, Whose father from this land of Ida won Fame's noblest guerdon over the whole host, And crowned with praises only sailed back home;But I, his son, who to the self-same Troy Came after him, in might no less than he, Nor rendering meaner service by my deeds, Dishonoured by the Argives perish thus.

Yet this methinks I know for truth, were now Achilles living and called on to adjudge As the award of valour his own arms, No man's hand would have grasped them before mine.

But now the Atreidae to a scheming knave Have dealt them, thrusting by my valiant deeds.

And if these eyes, these wits had not in frenzy Swerved from my purpose, never would they thus Pervert judgment against another man.

But the irresistible fierce-eyed goddess, even As I was arming my right hand to slay them, Foiled me, smiting me with a maddening plague, So that I stained my hand butchering these cattle.

Thus my foes mock me, escaped beyond my reach, Through no goodwill of mine: but if a god Thwart vengeance, even the base may escape the nobler.

And what should I now do, who manifestly To Heaven am hateful; whom the Greeks abhor, Whom every Trojan hates, and this whole land?

Shall I desert the beached ships, and abandoning The Atreidae, sail home o'er the Aegean sea?

With what face shall I appear before my father Telamon? How will he find heart to look On me, stripped of my championship in war, That mighty crown of fame that once was his?

No, that I dare not. Shall I then assault Troy's fortress, and alone against them all Achieve some glorious exploit and then die?

No, I might gratify the Atreidae thus.

That must not be. Some scheme let me devise Which may prove to my aged sire that I, His son, at least by nature am no coward.

For 'tis base for a man to crave long life Who endures never-varying misery.

What joy can be in day that follows day, Bringing us close then snatching us from death?

As of no worth would I esteem that man Who warms himself with unsubstantial hopes.

Nobly to live, or else nobly to die Befits proud birth. There is no more to say.

LEADER

The word thou hast uttered, Ajax, none shall call Bastard, but the true offspring of thy soul.

Yet pause. Let those who love thee overrule Thy resolution. Put such thoughts aside.

TECMESSA

O my lord Ajax, of all human ills Greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny.

Of a free father was I born the child, One rich and great as any Phrygian else.

Now am I a slave; for so the gods, or rather Thy warrior's hand, would have it. Therefore since I am thy bedfellow, I wish thee well, And I entreat thee by domestic Zeus, And by the embraces that have made me thine, Doom me not to the cruel taunts of those Who hate thee, left a bond-slave in strange hands.

For shouldst thou perish and forsake me in death, That very day assuredly I to Shall be seized by the Argives, with thy son To endure henceforth the portion of a slave.

Then one of my new masters with barbed words Shall wound me scoffing: "See the concubine Of Ajax, who was mightiest of the host, What servile tasks are hers who lived so daintily!"Thus will men speak, embittering my hard lot, But words of shame for thee and for thy race.

Nay, piety forbid thee to forsake Thy father in his drear old age-thy mother With her sad weight of years, who many a time Prays to the gods that thou come home alive.

And pity, O king, thy son, who without thee To foster his youth, must live the orphaned ward Of loveless guardians. Think how great a sorrow Dying thou wilt bequeath to him and me.

For I have nothing left to look to more Save thee. By thy spear was my country ravaged;And by another stroke did fate lay low My mother and my sire to dwell with Hades.

Without thee then what fatherland were mine?

What wealth? On thee alone rests all my hope.

O take thought for me too. Do we not owe Remembrance, where we have met with any joy?

For kindness begets kindness evermore But he who from whose mind fades the memory Of benefits, noble is he no more.

LEADER

Ajax, would that thy soul would feel compassion, As mine does; so wouldst thou approve her words.

AJAX

Verily my approval shall she win, If only she find heart to do my bidding.

TECMESSA

Dear Ajax, in all things will I obey.

AJAX

Then bring me here my son, for I would see him.

TECMESSA

Nay, but I sent him from me in my fears.

AJAX

During my late affliction, is that thy meaning?

TECMESSA

Lest by ill chance he should meet thee and so perish.

AJAX

Yes, that would have been worthy of my fate.

TECMESSA

That at least I was watchful to avert.

AJAX

I praise thine act and the foresight thou hast shown.

TECMESSA

Since that is so, what shall I do to serve thee?

AJAX

Let me speak to him and behold his face.

TECMESSA

He is close by in the attendants' charge.

AJAX

Why is his coming then so long delayed?

TECMESSA (calling)