Sophocles Ajax 596

Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator)

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Ruhmvoll thronest du, Salamis,
575
Du von Wogen umspültes Glückseiland,
Stets Allen im Glanze sichtbar!
Doch ich verweile undenkliche Zeiten, ach!
Hier auf des Ida grasüppiger Lämmerau,
Von hineilender Jahre Flucht ewig
580
Verzehrt, ledig des Ruhms,
Und bang harrend in Furcht,
Endlich zu geh'n die Bahn
Zum Graunthale des düstern Hades.
Erste Gegenstrophe.

Ajax. Sophocles. Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator). . .

Current edition Experimental

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) (German) (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (4)
Αἴας μαστιγοφόρος First1KGreek (Sophocles. Sophoclis Aiax. Lobeck Christian, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1866.) — 592-633 focus
Αἴας First1KGreek (Sophocles. Sophoclis Fabulae. Pearson, Alfred Chilton, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.) — 596-645 focus
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 596 focus
στρ.ά. ὦ κλεινὰ Σαλαμίς, σὺ μέν που
ναίεις ἁλίπλακτος ἁλίπλαγκτος ἁλίπλακτος εὐδαίμων,
πᾶσιν πᾶσι περίφαντος ἀεί·
Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 596-645 focus
Translations (4)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 596 focus
Island of glory! whom the glowing eyes
Of all the wondering world immortalize,
Thou, Salamis, art planted evermore,
Happy amid the wandering billows’ roar;
While I—ah, woe the while!—this weary time,
By the green wold where flocks from Ida stray,
Lie worn with fruitless hours of wasted prime,
Hoping—ah, cheerless hope!—to win my way
Where Hades’ horrid gloom shall hide me from the day.
Aias is with me, yea, but crouching low,
Where Heaven-sent madness haunts his overthrow,
Beyond my cure or tendance: woful plight!
Whom thou, erewhile, to head the impetuous fight,
Sent’st forth, thy conquering champion. Now he feeds
His spirit on lone paths, and on us brings
Deep sorrow; and all his former peerless deeds
Of prowess fall like unremembered things
From Atreus’ loveless brood, this caitiff brace of kings.
Ah! when his mother, full of days and bowed
With hoary eld, shall hear his ruined mind,
How will she mourn aloud!
Not like the warbler of the dale,
The bird of piteous wail,
But in shrill strains far borne upon the wind,
While on the withered breast and thin white hair
Falls the resounding blow, the rending of despair.
Best hid in death were he whom madness drives
Remediless; if, through his father’s race
Born to the noblest place
Among the war-worn Greeks, he lives
By his own light no more,
Self-aliened from the self he knew before.
Oh, hapless sire, what woe thine ear shall wound!
One that of all thy line no life save this hath found.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 596 focus
My friends, I bear you news of highest import
From Mysia's rocky mountains hither comes
The noble Teucer ; know, e'en now I saw him
Amid the Grecian host, who, as he came,
Surrounded, and on ev'ry side poured forth
Reproaches on him. Not a man but cried
'' Behold the brother of that frantic foe
To Greece and to her council." Such their rage
That they had well-nigh stoned liim ; swords were
drawn,
And dire had been the conflict, but that some
Among the aged chiefs by calm advice
Appeased the strife. But where is Ajax gone 1
That I may tell him : from oui- mastei-s nought
Should be concealed.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 596 focus
STRO. 1. Illustrious Salamis, around whose shores
The sea with all its wild waves roars,
Conspicuous rise thy cliffs sublime,
And guard, loved isle, thy happy plains.
Whilst me an irksome length of time
In Ida's marshy vales detains:
Unheeded here a wretched life I lead,
Amidst the flocks that graze the meed;
Year after year rolls slow away,
On me hope beams no cheerful ray;
From misery doom'd no pause to know
But in the dark and dreary realms below.
ANTIS. 1. The noble Ajax now with frenzy fired
(Some god the glowing rage inspired)
Immedicable ills sustains;
And with fresh pangs my heart is rent
By thee amidst embattled plains
To conquest and to glory sent.
With grief th' illustrious hero we survey
To gloomy thadness now a prey;
And all his mighty deeds in war,
Deeds which the highest worth declare,
Are lost, unwelcome to the unkind,
While folly swells the proud Atridæ's mind.
Hoary in her locks of age
And worn with many a rolling year,
With what affliction will his mother hear
Her frentic son's distemper'd rage!
Not in soft notes will she complain,
Like Philomela's pity-moving strain;
But she will give loud griefs to fise,
Lamenting with heart-piercing cries;
And in the anguish of despair
Beat her sad breast, and rend her silver hair.
In the silent shades below
Får better were thy doom to rest,
Than thus to breathe the vital air, opprest
With dire disease and hopeless woe;
Thy train of kind affections lost,
And all thy soul in frenzy's whirlwind tost,
Thou high-born Chief, in martial fame
Surpassing all of Grecian name.
These ills how will thy sire deplore,
Ills to his noble race ne'er known before!
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 596-645 focus

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-346-1 πολυρράφου … πόρπακος 1

mvp-comment-346-2 But a loop at the edge of the shield, such as the

πόρπαξ
offered to the warrior's hand ( Helen. 1376
ἐμβαλὼν πόρπακι γενναίαν χέρα
), would not suffice to give him control. Hence, in the vasepainting noticed above, we see the
πόρπαξ
combined with another contrivance, viz., a band (of metal, or wood), placed vertically across the inside of the shield, and furnished at the middle with an arrangement of small bars, forming a support for the arm just below the elbow. This band was the
ὄχανον
or
ὀχάνη
.—See Appendix.

mvp-comment-346-3 πολυρράφου 2

mvp-comment-346-4 ἑπτάβοιον 3

mvp-comment-347-1 τεθάψεται 4

mvp-comment-347-2

κοίν’ ἐμοὶ· κοινὰ
is here adv.: cp. Ant. 546
μή μοι θάνῃς σὺ κοινά
.

mvp-comment-348-1 πάκτου 5

mvp-comment-348-2 ἐπισκήνους 6

mvp-comment-348-3 φιλοίκτιστον 7

mvp-comment-349-1 πύκαζε 8

mvp-comment-349-2 οὐ πρὸς ἰατροῦ 9

mvp-comment-349-3 θρηνεῖν ἐπῳδὰς 10

mvp-comment-349-4 τομῶντι 11

mvp-comment-350-1 προθυμίαν 12

mvp-comment-350-2 ἀρέσκει 13

mvp-comment-350-3 τεθηγμένη 14

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

575-576. mvp-comment-394-1 The epithet shows that the πόρπαξ was not of metal, but of embroidered leather. Cp. Eur. Tro. 1196, ὡς ἡδὺς ἐν πόρπακι σὸς κεῖται τύπος.

577. mvp-comment-395-1 κοινά may be either (1) adverbial. as in Ant. 546, μή μοι θάνῃς σὺ κοινά, or (2) predicative, agreeing with τεύχη, probably the latter (2).

579. mvp-comment-396-1 ἐπισκήνους] 'Before the tent,' = ἐπὶ σκηναῖς, supr. 3, and so 'in public.'

580. mvp-comment-397-1 φιλοίκτιστον] i.e. φιλοῦν τὸ οἰκτίζεσθαι, in the sense of inviting commiseration. 'A woman is a very tearful creature.'

581. mvp-comment-398-1 'To whine faint charms over a wound that cries out for the knife.' The desiderative, = τομὴν αἰτοῦντι, here implies the passive meaning of the verbal noun. For the use of charms in assisting surgery, cp. Od. 19. 456-8, ὠτειλὴν δ' Ὀδυσῆος ἀμύμονος, ἀντιθέσιο, | δῆσαν ἐπισταμένως· ἐπαοιδῇ δ᾽ αἷμα κελαινὸν | ἔσχεθον· αἶψα δ' ἵκοντο φίλου πρὸς δώματα πατρός.

583. mvp-comment-399-1 τήνδε τὴν προθυμίαν] ‘This earnest haste,' viz. the impatience of Ajax to be alone. Cp. supr. πύκαζε θάσσον.