Ajax

Sophocles

Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 7: The Ajax. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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,
  4. 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,
  5. 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;
  6. 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,
  7. so that you can avoid falling into your own grave.
Chorus
  1. Menelaus, after laying down wise precepts, do not then violate the dead.