Ajax
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 7: The Ajax. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.
- Ajax, our terrible, mighty lord of untamed power, now lies plagued by a turbid storm of disease.
- And what is the heavy change from the fortune of yesterday which this night has produced?
- Daughter of Teleutas the Phrygian, speak, since for you his spear-won mate bold Ajax maintains his love, so that with some knowledge you could suggest an explanation.
- Oh, how am I to tell a tale too terrible for words?
- Grave as death is the suffering which you will hear. By madness our glorious Ajax was seized in the night, and he has been subjected to utter disgrace. All this you may see inside his dwelling—butchered victims bathed in blood,
- sacrifices of no hand but his.
- What report of the fiery warrior have you revealed to us, unbearable, nor yet escapable—
- a report which the great Danaans propound, which their powerful storytelling spreads! Ah, me, I shudder at the future’s advancing step. In public view the man will die