Ajax

Sophocles

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

  1. I do not wonder, lady, that you wail and wail again, when you have just lost one so loved.
Tecmessa
  1. It is for you to analyze my troubles, but for me to feel them too fully.
Chorus
  1. I must agree.
Tecmessa
  1. Oh, my son, to what a heavy yoke of slavery
  2. we advance! What cruel task-masters stand over us!
Chorus
  1. Ah, the deeds of the two ruthless Atreidae which you name in our present grief would be unthinkable! May the gods hold them back!
Tecmessa
  1. These events that you see would not have happened as they have without the will of the gods.
Chorus
  1. Yes, they have brought upon us a burden too heavy to bear.