Sophocles Ajax 609

ed. Francis Storr

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Ajax. Sophocles. ed. Francis Storr. London. 1913.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Experimental

Αἴας (Greek) (Sophocles, Volume 2. Storr, Francis, editor. London; New York: William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company, 1913.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (3)
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)) — 609 focus
ἀντ.ά. καί μοι δυσθεράπευτος Αἴας
Translations (5)
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.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 609 focus
Ajas, schwer zu beschicken, ist 1
585
Mir gesellt, und erneut den Kampf, ach, ach!
Durch göttliche Wuth getrieben,
Er, den du sandtest einst, als er im Waffensturm
So groß war; nun verirrt, schwärmt er auf einsamer
Trift, die Freunde mit herber Qual marternd.
590
Was sein tapferer Arm
Ehmals herrlich vollbracht,
Von der Atriden Haß
Verkannt fiel's, von der Thoren Undank.
Zweite Strophe.
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)) — 609 focus

Commentary

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

mvp-comment-364-1 ἔφεδρος 1

mvp-comment-364-2 Prof. Campbell pronounces this interpretation ‘untenable,’ and renders

ἔφεδρος
‘fixed at my side,’ because ‘Ajax had remained sitting throughout the previous scene,’ and had now apparently relapsed into sullen inaction within his tent.

mvp-comment-365-1 θείᾳ 2

mvp-comment-366-1 ἐξεπέμψω … θουρίῳ 3

mvp-comment-366-2 πρὶν δή ποτε 4

mvp-comment-366-3 Ἄρει 5 α— 6

mvp-comment-367-1 φρενὸς οἰοβώτας 7

mvp-comment-368-1 ηὕρηται 8

mvp-comment-369-1 ἔργα χεροῖν … ἀρετᾶς 9

mvp-comment-370-1 ἄφιλα παρ’ ἀφίλοις 10

mvp-comment-370-2 ἄφιλα … ἔπεσε 11

mvp-comment-370-3 ἔπεσ’ ἔπεσε 12

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

607-608. mvp-comment-414-1 'Some day yet to win my way to Hades, the abhorred and dark.' ἀΐδηλον] · Unillumined' rather than 'destroying.' Essay on L. §§ 53. pp. 98.9.

609-611. mvp-comment-415-1 'And I have Ajax on my hands, defying treatment, fixed in the tent, where Heaven-sent madness dwells with him.'

610. mvp-comment-416-1 ἔφεδρος] 'Fixed at my side.' Ajax had remained sitting throughout the previous scene. He had rejected the solicitations of his friends, and apparently returned to his sullen inaction within the tent. Instead of being their hope and pride, he was now an irremovable burden. Cp. supr. 194 foll., ἀλλ᾽ ἄνα ἐξ ἑδράνων, κ.τ.λ. The interpretation of the ancient Scholiast, 'Ready to assail me when other evils are subdued' (an application of the technical use of ἔφεδρος with reference to contests), is untenable. μανίᾳ includes the evidence of Ajax's madness, which is still within the tent. Supr. 337, 8.

613. mvp-comment-417-1 φρενός οἰοβώτας] 'Feeding his will apart;' i. e. either (1) referring to the wilful solitary raid described by Tecmessa, supr. 285 foll.: or (2), as Prof. Jebb explains it, 'One who broods sullenly apart, as did Ajax before the outbreak of his frenzy.' Not 'feeding on his own thoughts' (L. and S.), but 'pasturing his heart on lonely paths.'

615. mvp-comment-418-1 (1) 'He has proved a mighty sorrow to his friends.' Cp. Trach. 1075, θήλυς εὕρημαι τάλας: Aesch. Pers. 743, νῦν κακῶν ἔοικε πηγὴ πᾶσιν εὑρῆσθαι φίλοις. But πένθος is not elsewhere used of a person, and it is possible that εὕρηται may have a middle signification: (2) 'He has procured a mighty sorrow for his friends.' See Veitch, Gr. Irr. V. s. v. εὑρίσκω.

617. mvp-comment-419-1 μεγίστας ἀρετᾶς] 'Evincing' (or 'proceeding from') 'supreme valour.'