My child, your father calls you. Bring him here, servant, whichever of you is guiding his steps.AjaxIs the man coming? Or has he missed your call?TecmessaHere now one of the servants approaches with him.Enter the Servant and Eurysaces.AjaxLift him; lift him up here. Doubtless he will not shrink to look on this newly-shed
blood, if he is indeed my true-born son and heir to his father’s manners.
But he must at once be broken into his father’s harsh ways and moulded to
the likeness of my nature.Ah, son, may you prove luckier than your father, but in all else like him. Then you would not prove base. Yet even now I may well envy you on this account, that you have no perception of these evils about us. Yes, life is sweetest when one lacks sense, for lack of sensation is a painless evilthat is, until one learns to know joy or pain. But when you come to that knowledge, then
you must be sure to prove among your father’s enemies of what mettle and of
what lineage you are. Meanwhile feed on light breezes, and nurse your tender
life for your mother’s joy.There is no Greek—I know it for certain—who will do violence to you with hard outrages, even when you are without me. So trusty is the guard, Teucer himself, whom I will leave at your gates. He will not falter in his care for you, although now he walks a far path, busied with the hunt of enemies.
O my warriors, my seafaring comrades! On you as on him, I lay this shared task of love: give my command to Teucer! Let him take this child to my home and set him before the face of Telamon, and of my mother, Eriboea,