Sophocles - The Complete Works of Sophocles (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 16)

The Complete Works ofSOPHOCLES (497/6-406/5 BC) ContentsDelphi Classics 2013 Version 1

The Complete Works ofSOPHOCLESBy DelphiClassics, 2013

Ajaxthen gives his son, Eurysakes, his shield. He leaves the house saying that heis going out to purify himself and bury the sword given to him by Hector.Teukros, Ajaxsbrother, arrives in the Greek camp and is taunted by his fellow soldiers.Kalchas warns that Ajaxshould not be allowed to leave his tent until the end of the day or he willdie. Teukros sends a messenger to Ajaxscampsite with word of Kalchas prophesy. Tecmessa and soldiers try to track himdown, but are too late. Ajaxhad indeed buried the sword, but has left the blade sticking out of the groundand has impaled himself upon it. The last partof the drama revolves around the dispute over what to do with Ajaxs body.

Ajaxs half brother Teukros intends onburying him despite the demands of Menelaus and Agamemnon that the corpse isnot to be buried. Odysseus, although previously Ajaxs enemy, steps in andpersuades them to allow Ajax a proper funeral by pointing out that even onesenemies deserve respect in death, if they were noble.
An Athenian vase depicting Odysseus and Ajax
CONTENTS
An ancient depiction of the suicide of Ajax
DRAMATISPERSONA E ATHENA. ODYSSEUS. AIAS, the sonof Telamon. CHORUS ofSalaminian Mariners. TECMESSA. AGAMEMNON. AGAMEMNON.

EURYSAKS, thechild of Aias and Tecmessa, appears, but does not speak. SCENE. Before theencampment of Aias on the shore of the Troad. Afterwards a lonely place beyondRhoeteum. Time, towards theend of the Trojan War.
ARGUMEN T A wounded spirit who can bear? After the death ofAchilles, the armour made for him by Hephaestus was to be given to theworthiest of the surviving Greeks. Although Aias was the most valiant, thejudges made the award to Odysseus, because he was the wisest.

Aias in his rageattempts to kill the generals; but Athena sends madness upon him, and he makesa raid upon the flocks and herds of the army, imagining the bulls and rams tobe the Argive chiefs. On awakening from his delusion, he finds that he hasfallen irrecoverably from honour and from the favour of the Greeks. He alsoimagines that the anger of Athena is unappeasable. Under this impression heeludes the loving eyes of his captive-bride Tecmessa, and of his Salaminiancomrades, and falls on his sword. (The soul and body rive not more in partingThan greatness going off.) But it is revealedthrough the prophet Calchas, that the wrath of Athena will last only for a day;and on the return of Teucer, Aias receives an honoured funeral, the tyrannicalreclamations of the two sons of Atreus being overcome by the firm fidelity ofTeucer and the magnanimity of Odysseus, who has been inspired for this purposeby Athena. ATHENA. ATHENA.

Oft have I seen thee,Lartiades,
Intent on some surprisal of thy foes;
As now I find thee by the seaward camp,
Where Aias holds the last place in your line,
Lingering in quest, and scanning the fresh print
Of his late footsteps, to be certified
If he keep house or no. Right well thy sense
Hath led thee forth, like some keen hound of Sparta!
The man is even but now come home, his head
And slaughterous hands reeking with ardent toil.
Thou, then, no longer strain thy gaze within
Yon gateway, but declare what eager chase
Thou followest, that a god may give thee light. ODYSSEUS. Athena, tis thy voice!Dearest in heaven,
How well discerned and welcome to my soul
From that dim distance doth thine utterance fly
In tones as of Tyrrhenian trumpet clang!
Rightly hast thou divined mine errand here,
Beating this ground for Aias of the shield,
The lion-quarry whom I track to day.
For he hath wrought on us to night a deed
Past thought if he be doer of this thing;
We drift in ignorant doubt, unsatisfied
And I unbidden have bound me to this toil. Brief time hath flown since suddenlywe knew
That all our gathered spoil was reaved and slaughtered,
Flocks, herds, and herdmen, by some human hand,
All tongues, then, lay this deed at Aias door.
And one, a scout who had marked him, all alone,
With new-fleshed weapon bounding oer the plain,
[31-66] Gave meto know it, when immediately
I darted on the trail, and here in part
I find some trace to guide me, but in part
I halt, amazed, and know not where to look.
Thou comst full timely. ATH. ATH.

I knew thy doubts, Odysseus, andcame forth
Zealous to guard thy perilous hunting-path. OD. Dear Queen! andam I labouring to an end? ATH. Thou schemstnot idly. This is Aias deed. OD.

What can haveroused him to a work so wild? ATH. His grievousanger for Achilles arms. OD. But whereforeon the flock this violent raid? ATH. He thought toimbrue his hands with your hearts blood. OD.

What? Was thisplanned against the Argives, then? ATH. Planned, andperformed, had I kept careless guard. OD. What daringspirit, what hardihood, was here! ATH. Alone by nightin craft he sought your tents. OD.

How? Came henear them? Won he to his goal? ATH. He stood indarkness at the generals gates. OD. What thenrestrained his eager hand from murder? ATH. I turned him backward from hisbaleful joy,