Sophocles Ajax 129

Thomas Francklin (Translator)

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Chorus
\ The rest be uttered to the shades below. Scene II. 866
2. 'Twas ours, your friends.

Ajax. Sophocles. Thomas Francklin (Translator). London. 1758–1759.

Current edition Experimental

English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (4)
Αἴας μαστιγοφόρος First1KGreek (Sophocles. Sophoclis Aiax. Lobeck Christian, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1866.) — 172-201 focus
Αἴας First1KGreek (Sophocles. Sophoclis Fabulae. Pearson, Alfred Chilton, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.) — 172-200 focus
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 129 focus
μηδ᾽ ὄγκον ἄρῃ ἄρῃ ἄρης μηδέν', εἴ τινος πλέον
Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 172-200 focus
Translations (4)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 129 focus
CHORUS
CHORUS. 596
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.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 134 focus
Telamonischer Sohn, der Salamis' Höh'n 1
Am ringsumwogten Gestade beherrscht,
135
Ich freue mich, lächelt das Glück dir.
Doch wann Zeus' Groll und ein zorniges Wort
Aus Danaermunde dich feindlich betraf,
Da faßt mich die Angst, ich erbebe vor Furcht,
Wie das Auge des flatternden Täubchens. 2
140
So hat von der jüngst entschwundenen Nacht
Uns mächtiger Schreck und Entsezen erfüllt
Bei dem schmähenden Ruf, du hab'st in der Au,
In der Rosse Gefild' einstürmend, dem Heer
Das erbeutete Vieh,
145
Das übrig allein von dem Raube noch war,
Mit flammendem Eisen gemordet.
Solch höhnende Reden ersinnt uns keck,
Und zischelt Odysseus Allen in's Ohr,
Und sie glauben ihm leicht; denn er meldet von dir,
150
Was gerne man glaubt, und wer es vernimmt,
Der freut sich noch mehr, denn der es erzählt,
Treibt Spott mit deiner Bedrängniß.
Denn send' auf mächtige Geister den Pfeil,
Nie fehlst du das Ziel; wer aber von uns
155
Solch Arges erzählt, dem glauben sie nicht.
Stets kriecht ja der Neid an die Großen heran.
Und dennoch sind, von den Großen getrennt,
Die Geringen der Burg ein betrüglicher Schuz;
Mit dem Großen ja hebt der Geringe sich leicht,
160
Und der Große, gestüzt von dem Kleinen, empor.
Doch ist es unmöglich, der Thoren Geschlecht
Von diesem Gesez zu belehren.
Solch alberner Männer Geschrei stürmt, Herr,
Auf dich, und uns ward nimmer die Kraft,
165
Dawider zu steh'n, so gesondert von dir.
Denn, flohen sie dir aus den Blicken hinweg,
Dann tosen sie laut, wie Vögel im Schwarm;
Doch bebten sie scheu vor dem mächtigen Aar,
Und verkröchen, sobald du plözlich erschienst,
170
Sich alsbald schweigend und lautlos.
Strophe.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 129 focus
Tecmessa
O king, I tremble.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 172-200 focus

Commentary

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

mvp-comment-503-1 πόνος πόνῳ πόνον 1

mvp-comment-504-1 κοὐδεὶς … τόπος 2 συμμαθεῖν 3 σφε 4 κοὐδεὶς ἐπίσταταί σφε συνναίειν τόπος 5

mvp-comment-505-1 ἰδού 6

mvp-comment-506-1 ἡμῶν 7 ναὸς … ὁμιλίαν 8

mvp-comment-506-2 κοινόπλουν 9

mvp-comment-507-1 τί οὖν δή 10

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

865-866. mvp-comment-563-1 Ajax having fallen upon his sword at the back of the proscenium, and the orchestra as well as the stage being otherwise vacant, the Chorus re-enter by the two side doors, the first ἡμιχορίον coming in on the spectator's left, as if from the east. Before the opening of the strophe, infr. 879, they have taken up their position in the orchestra.

866. mvp-comment-564-1 'Toil upon toil brings only toil.' The dative here is partly governed by the verb. Cp. Eur. Hel. 195, δάκρυα δάκρυσί μοι φέρων. But in Eur. Phoen. 1496, φόνῳ φόνos, by an extension of the idiom, φόνῳ is simply = ἐπὶ φόνῳ.

869. mvp-comment-565-1 'And no spot arrests me that I may share its secret.' Although the causative sense of the middle voice of ἐφίστημι is usually confined to the first aorist, this is not the case with other compounds of ἵστημι, e. g. καθίσταμαι; and in Trach. 339, τοῦ με τήνδ᾽ ἐφίστασαι βάσιν, the active or causative meaning is the most natural. See L. and S. s. v. ἐφίστημι, C. διίσταμαι occurs with active meaning only in Plat. Tim. 63 C, γεώδη γένη διϊστάμενοι. The force of the middle voice comes out if we complete the expression, ἐφίσταταί με συμμαθεῖν ἑαυτῷ. ἐπίσταταί με συμμαθεῖν can only mean 'is aware that I know what it knows.'

870. mvp-comment-566-1 ἴδου] Cp. El. 1410, ἰδοὺ μάλ᾽ αὖ θροεῖ τις.

872. mvp-comment-567-1 Either (1) with a comma after γε, as in the text, 'You hear our sound, your mates of the same ship's crew:' ἡμῶν governed by δοῦπον, and ὁμιλίαν (abstract for concrete) being placed in lax apposition with the preceding words. Or (2) with no stop, supplying κλύεις, 'What you hear is our company, your mates of the same ship's crew.'