Ajax
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 7: The Ajax. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.
- Then was this a plot aimed against the Greeks?
- Yes, and he would have accomplished it, too, had I not been attentive.
- And what reckless boldness was in his mind that he dared this?
- Under night’s cover he set out against you, by stealth and alone.
- And did he get near us? Did he reach his goal?
- He was already at the double doors of the two generals.
- How, then, did he restrain his hand when it was eager for murder?
- It was I who prevented him, by casting over his eyes oppressive notions of his fatal joy, and I who turned his fury aside on the flocks of sheep and the confused droves guarded by herdsmen, the spoil which you had not yet divided.