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Enter the Chorus of Salaminian Sailors, followers of Ajax.
Chorus
Son of Telamon, you who hold
your throne on wave-washed
Salamis
near the open sea, when your fortune is fair, I rejoice with you. But whenever the stroke of Zeus, or the raging rumor of the Danaans with the clamor of their evil tongues attacks you, then I shrink with great fear and shudder in terror,
135
like the fluttering eye of the winged dove.
Just so with the passing of the night loud tumults oppressed us to our dishonor, telling how you visited the meadow wild with horses and destroyed
140
the cattle of the Greeks, their spoil, prizes of the spear which had not yet been shared, how you killed them with flashing iron.
Such are the whispered slanders that Odysseus moulds and breathes into the ears of all,
145
and he wins much belief. For now he tells tales concerning you that easily win belief, and each hearer rejoices with spiteful scorn at your burdens more than he who told.
Point your shaft at a noble spirit,
150
and you could not miss; but if a man were to speak such things against me, he would win no belief. It is on the powerful that envy creeps. Yet the small without the great are a teetering tower of defence.
155
For the lowly stand most upright and prosperous when allied with the great, and the great when served by less.
But foolish men cannot learn good precepts in these matters beforehand. It is men of this sort that subject you to tumult, and
160
we lack the power to repel these charges without you, O King. For when they have escaped your eye, they chatter like flocking birds. But, terrified by a mighty vulture,
165
perhaps, if you should appear, they would quickly cower without voice in silence.
170
Son of Telamon, you who hold
your throne on wave-washed
Salamis
near the open sea, when your fortune is fair, I rejoice with you. But whenever the stroke of Zeus, or the raging rumor of the Danaans with the clamor of their evil tongues attacks you, then I shrink with great fear and shudder in terror,
135
like the fluttering eye of the winged dove.
Just so with the passing of the night loud tumults oppressed us to our dishonor, telling how you visited the meadow wild with horses and destroyed
140
Just so with the passing of the night loud tumults oppressed us to our dishonor, telling how you visited the meadow wild with horses and destroyed
the cattle of the Greeks, their spoil, prizes of the spear which had not yet been shared, how you killed them with flashing iron.
Such are the whispered slanders that Odysseus moulds and breathes into the ears of all,
145
Such are the whispered slanders that Odysseus moulds and breathes into the ears of all,
and he wins much belief. For now he tells tales concerning you that easily win belief, and each hearer rejoices with spiteful scorn at your burdens more than he who told.
Point your shaft at a noble spirit,
150
Point your shaft at a noble spirit,
and you could not miss; but if a man were to speak such things against me, he would win no belief. It is on the powerful that envy creeps. Yet the small without the great are a teetering tower of defence.
155
For the lowly stand most upright and prosperous when allied with the great, and the great when served by less.
But foolish men cannot learn good precepts in these matters beforehand. It is men of this sort that subject you to tumult, and
160
But foolish men cannot learn good precepts in these matters beforehand. It is men of this sort that subject you to tumult, and
we lack the power to repel these charges without you, O King. For when they have escaped your eye, they chatter like flocking birds. But, terrified by a mighty vulture,
165
perhaps, if you should appear, they would quickly cower without voice in silence.
170
Ajax. Sophocles. Richard Jebb (Translator). Cambridge. 1893.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.