Teucer
Are all the merits of the dead forgotten !
Already lost, e'en by the man for whom
Thy life so oft was ventured in the field?
But now 'tis past, and buried in oblivion.
Thou wordy slanderer ! Canst thou not remember
When, biiffled and unequal to the foe,
Close pent within the walls our forces lay —
Canst thou not call to mind who came alone
To your deliverance, when devouring flames
Towered o'er our ships, when Hector leaped the fosse
And rushed amongst us? Then who fought for Greece?
Who drove him back, but Ajax, who, thou sayst,
Could never fight ? Did he not fight for you ]
He met the noble Hector hand to hand,
Unbidden dared the fortune of the field.
He scorned the coward's art to fix his lot
In the moist earth : fortli from the crested helmet
It sprang the first. Such were the deeds of Ajax,
And I was witness of them — I, the slave.
For so thou call'st me, sprung from a barbarian.
How dares a wretch like thee to talk of birth 1
Who was thy grandsire ? Canst thou not remember
That old barbarian, Phrygian Pelops, tell me?
Who was thy father — Atreus, was he not?
That worst of men, who at a brother's table
Served up his children — horrible repast !
Thy mother, too, a Cretan and a slave —
A vile adultress, whom thy father caught
And headlong cast into the sea, Shalt thou
Talk then to me of birth — to me, the son
Of valiant Telamon, renowned in war.
And wedded to a queen, the royal race
Of great Laomedon, and fairest gift
Of famed Alcides 1 Thus of noble blood
From either parent sprung, shall I disgrace
The man whom thou, inhuman, wouldst still keep
Unburied here 1 Dost thou not blush to think on't ?
But, mark me well ! If thou dost cast him forth,
Not he alone inglorious on the plain
Shall lie — together we will perish all :
To die with glory in a brother's cause
la better far than fighting for the wife
Of AgJimemnou or of Menolaus :
For thy own snke, aiul not for mine, remember,
If thou provoke me, thou' It be sorry for it,
And wish thou'dst rather feared than angered Teu(;er.
