Ajax

Sophocles

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

  1. Yet what suffering the divine daughter of Zeus, fierce Pallas, engenders for Odysseus’ sake!
Chorus
  1. No doubt the much-enduring hero exults in his dark soul and mocks in loud laughter at these frenzied sorrows—what shame!—
  2. and with him, when they hear the news, will laugh the royal brothers, the Atreidae.
Tecmessa
  1. Then let them mock and rejoice at this man’s misery. Perhaps, even though they did not cherish him while he lived, they will lament his death, when they meet with the difficulties of war. Men of crooked judgment do not know what good
  2. they have in their hands until they have thrown it away. His death is more bitter to me than it is sweet to the Greeks; but in any case to Ajax himself it is a joy, since he has accomplished all that he desired to get—his longed-for death. So why should they exult over him?
  3. He died before the gods, not at all before them—no! And so let Odysseus toss his insults in empty glee. For them Ajax is no more; for me he is gone, abandoning me to anguish and mourning.
Teucer
  1. Ah! Ah, no!
Chorus
  1. Quiet—I think I hear the voice of Teucer striking a note that points to this disaster.