Ajax

Sophocles

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

  1. Make no big threats! Do you not see the trouble you are in?
Ajax
  1. O Zeus, forefather of my forebears, if only I might destroy that deep dissembler, that hateful sneak, and
  2. the two brother-kings, and finally die myself, also!
Tecmessa
  1. When you make that prayer, pray at the same time for me that I, too, may die. What reason is there for me to live when you are dead?
Ajax
  1. Ah, Darkness, my light!
  2. O Gloom of the underworld, to my eyes brightest-shining, take me, take me to dwell with you—yes, take me. I am no longer worthy to look for help to the race of the gods,
  3. or for any good from men, creatures of a day. No, the daughter of Zeus, the valiant goddess, abuses me to my destruction. Where, then, can a man flee? Where can I go to find rest?
  4. If my past achievements go to ruin, my friends, along with such victims as these near me, and if I am inclined to foolish plunderings, then with sword driven by both hands all the army would murder me!