Thus well am I resolved. (To TECMESSA) Thou, woman, pass Within, and pray the gods that all things so May be accomplished as my heart desires.
And you, friends, heed my wishes as she doth;And when he comes, bid Teucer he must guard My rights at need, and withal stand your friend.
For now I go whither I needs must pass.
Do as I bid. Soon haply you shall hear, With me, for all this misery, 'tis most well.
(AJAX departs. TECMESSA goes into the tent.)CHORUS (singing)
stropheI thrill with rapture, flutter on wings of ecstasy.
Io, Io, Pan, Pan!
O Pan, Pan! from the stony ridge, Snow-bestrewn of Cyllene's height Appear roving across the waters, O dance-ordering king of gods, That thou mayst join me in flinging free Fancy measures of Nysa and of Cnossus.
Yea for the dance I now am eager.
And over the far Icarian billows come, O king Apollo, From Delos in haste, come thou, Thy kindly power here in our midst revealing.
antistropheAres hath lifted horror and anguish from our eyes.
Io, Io! Now again, Now, O Zeus, can the bright and blithe Glory of happier days return To our swift-voyaging ships, for now Hath Ajax wholly forgot his grief, And all rites due to the gods he now Fain would meetly perform with loyal worship.
Mighty is time to dwindle all things.
Nought would I call too strange for belief, when Ajax thus beyond hope Hath learnt to repent his proud feuds, And lay aside anger against the Atreidae.
(A MESSENGER enters.)
MESSENGER
My friends, these tiding I would tell you first:
Teucer is present, from the Mysian heights But now returned, and in the central camp By all the Greeks at once is being reviled.
As he drew near they knew him from afar, Then gathering around him one and all With taunts assailed him from this side and that, Calling him kinsman of that maniac, That plotter against the host, saying that nought Should save him; stoned and mangled he must die.
And so they had come to such a pitch that swords Plucked from their sheaths stood naked in men's hands.
Yet when the strife ran highest, it was stayed By words from the elders and so reconciled.
But where is Ajax? I must speak with him.
He whom it most concerns must be told all.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
He is not within, but has just now gone forth With a new purpose yoked to a new mood.
MESSENGER
Alas! Alas!
Then too late on this errand was I sped By him who sent me; or I have proved too slow.
LEADER
What urgent need has been neglected here?
MESSENGER
Teucer forbade that Ajax should go forth Outside his hut, till he himself should come.
LEADER
Well, he is gone. To wisest purpose now His mind is turned, to appease heaven's wrath.
MESSENGER
These words of thine are filled with utter folly, If there was truth in Calchas' prophecy.
LEADER
What prophecy? And what know you of this thing?
MESSENGER
Thus much I know, for by chance I was present.
Leaving the circle of consulting chiefs Where sat the Atreidae, Calchas went aside, And with kind purpose grasping Teucer's hand Enjoined him that by every artifice He should restrain Ajax within his tents This whole day, and not leave him to himself, If he wished ever to behold him alive.
For on this day alone, such were his words, Would the wrath of divine Athena vex him.
For the overweening and unprofitable Fall crushed by heaven-sent calamities (So the seer spoke), whene'er one born a man Has conceived thoughts too high for man's estate:
And this man, when he first set forth from home, Showed himself foolish, when his father spoke to him Wisely: "My son, seek victory by the spear;But seek it always with the help of heaven."Then boastfully and witlessly he answered:
"Father, with heaven's help a mere man of nought Might win victory: but I, albeit without Their aid, trust to achieve a victor's glory."Such was his proud vaunt. Then a second time Answering divine Athena, when she urged him To turn a slaughterous hand upon his foes, He gave voice to this dire, blasphemous boast:
"Goddess, stand thou beside the other Greeks.
Where I am stationed, no foe shall break through."By such words and such thoughts too great for man Did he provoke Athena's pitiless wrath.
But if he lives through this one day, perchance, Should heaven be willing, we may save him yet.
So spoke the seer; and Teucer from his seat No sooner risen, sent me with this mandate For you to observe. But if we have been forestalled, That man lives not, or Calchas is no prophet.
LEADER (calling)
Woful Tecmessa, woman born to sorrow, Come forth and hear this man who tells of a peril That grazes us too close for our mind's ease.
(TECMESSA enters from the tent.)
TECMESSA
Why alas do you break my rest again After brief respite from relentless woes?
LEADER
Give hearing to this messenger, who brings Tidings that grieve me of how Ajax fares.
TECMESSA
Ah me, what sayest thou, man? Are we undone?
MESSENGER
I know not of thy fortune; but for Ajax, If he be gone abroad, my mind misgives.
TECMESSA
Yes, he is gone. I am racked to know thy meaning.
MESSENGER
Teucer commands you to keep him within doors, And not to let him leave his tent alone.
TECMESSA
And where is Teucer, and why speaks he thus?
MESSENGER
He has but now returned, and he forebodes That this going-forth will prove fatal to Ajax.
TECMESSA
Woe's me, alas! From whom has he learned this?
MESSENGER
From the seer, Thestor's son, this very day, Which is fraught either with his death or life.
TECMESSA
Ah me, my friends, avert this threatening doom Speed some of you to hasten Teucer hither:
Others go search the bays, some west, some east, And track my lord's ill-omened going-forth.
Yes, now I know I have been deceived by him, And from his former favour quite cast out.
Alas, child, what shall I do? Sit still I must not:
But far as I have strength I too will go.
Let us start quickly-'tis no time for loitering, If we would save one who is in haste to die.
LEADER
I am ready, as not words alone shall prove, But speed of act and foot to make words good.