Sophocles Ajax 815

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.) — 865-936 focus
Αἴας First1KGreek (Sophocles. Sophoclis Fabulae. Pearson, Alfred Chilton, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.) — 879-960 focus
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 815 focus
ὁ μὲν σφαγεὺς ἕστηκεν ᾗ τομώτατος
815
γένοιτ᾿ ἄν, εἴ τῳ καὶ λογίζεσθαι σχολή,
δῶρον μὲν ἀνδρὸς Ἕκτορος ξένων ξέναν ξένων ἐμοὶ
μάλιστα μισηθέντος ἐχθίστου θ᾽ ὁρᾶν·
πέπηγε δ᾽ ἐν γῇ πολεμίᾳ τῇ Τρωάδι,
σιδηροβρῶτι σιδηροβρώτηι σιδηροβρῶτι θηγάνῃ νεηκονής·
820
ἔπηξα δ᾽ αὐτὸν εὐ περιστείλας ἐγώ,
εὐνούστατον τῷδ᾽ ἀνδρὶ διὰ τάχους θανεῖν.
οὕτω μὲν εὐσκευοῦμεν· ἐκ δὲ τῶνδέ μοι
Translations (5)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 815 focus
Fall frustrate, and the steely-tempered will.
815
Ay, and even mine, that stood so diamond-keen
Like iron lately dipped, droops now dis-edged
And weakened by this woman, whom to leave
A widow with her orphan to my foes,
Dulls me with pity. I will go to the baths
And meadows near the cliff, and purging there
My dark pollution, I will screen my soul
820
From reach of Pallas’ grievous wrath. I will find
Same place untrodden, and digging of the soil
Where none shall see, will bury this my sword,
Weapon of hate! for Death and Night to hold
Evermore underground. For, since my hand
Had this from Hector mine arch-enemy,
No kindness have I known from Argive men.
So true that saying of the bygone world,
‘A foe’s gift is no gift, and brings no good.’
845
Well, we will learn of Time. Henceforth I’ll bow
To heavenly ordinance and give homage due
To Atreus’ sons. Who rules, must be obeyed.
Since nought so fierce and terrible but yields
Place to Authority. Wild Winter’s snows
Make way for bounteous Summer’s flowery tread,
850
And Night’s sad orb retires for lightsome Day
850
With his white steeds to illumine the glad sky.
The furious storm-blast leaves the groaning sea
Gently to rest. Yea, the all-subduer Sleep
Frees whom he binds, nor holds enchained for aye.
And shall not men be taught the temperate will?
Yea, for I now know surely that my foe
855
Must be so hated, as being like enough
To prove a friend hereafter, and my friend
So far shall have mine aid, as one whose love
Will not continue ever. Men have found
But treacherous harbour in companionship.
Our ending, then, is peaceful. Thou, my girl,
Go in and pray the Gods my heart’s desire
860
Be all fulfilled. My comrades, join her here,
Honouring my wishes; and if Teucer come,
Bid him toward us be mindful, kind toward you.
I must go—whither I must go. Do ye
But keep my word, and ye may learn, though now
Be my dark hour, that all with me is well.
865
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 815 focus
Da steht der Mordstahl, meine Brust am sichersten
780
Zu treffen, wenn mir Muße noch zum Prüfen blieb,
Die Gabe Hektors, der im Fremdlingsvolke mir
Verhaßt vor Allen und zu seh'n ein Gräuel war.
In Feindeserde steht er hier, im Troerland,
Am Steine frischgeschliffen, der das Eisen schärft:
785
Wohl zugerichtet hab' ich ihn und eingebohrt,
Den treusten Helfer meiner Brust zu jähem Tod.
So wär' ich wohlbereitet! Und nun leihe du,
Zeus, vor Allen Hülfe mir, wie's billig ist!
Doch nicht um große Gaben fleh' ich, Herr, dich an:
790
Nur einen Boten sende, der das Trauerwort
Zu Teukros bringe, daß er mich zuerst erhebt,
Nachdem ich sank in dieses blutgetränkte Schwert,
Auf daß der Feinde keiner mich zuvor erspäht,
Und Vögeln oder Hunden hin zum Raybe wirft.
795
Nur dieses Eine fleh' ich, Zeus! Auch ruf' ich dir,
Dem Todtenführer Hermes, bette du mich sanft,
Nachdem ich, raschen Sprunges, ohne Zuckungen,
Den Mörderstahl in meine Seiten eingebohrt.
Als Helferinnen ruf' ich an die ewigen
800
Jungfrau'n, die ewig alle Noth der Erde schaun,
Die hehren Nachgöttinnen, die weitschreitend nah'n,
Zu seh'n, wie Atreus' Söhne schnöd mich mordeten!
mögt ihr schlimm die Schlimmen, Allverderblichen,
Mit euch entraffen! Wie sie mich vom eignen Schwert
805
Hinsinken sehen, mögen sie gemordet selbst
Von ihres eignen Stammes Hand zu Grunde gehn!
Ja, kommt, Erinnen, racheschwer, mit schnellem Schritt,
Uebt keine Schonung, sättigt euch am ganzen Heer!
Du, der am hohen Himmel hin den Wagen führt,
810
Erblickst du meiner Ahnen Land, o Helios,
So ziehe schnell die goldgesäumten Zügel an,
Und meine Qualen melde dort und meinen Tod
Dem greisen Vater und der armen Pflegerin!
Die Jammervolle, wenn sie diese Kunde hört,
815
Füllt wohl mit lautem Klageruf die ganze Stadt.
Doch gilt es nicht ein thatenloses Trauern hier;
Nein, angegriffen sei das Werk in raschem Muth!
O Tod, o Tod, erscheine, wend' auf mich den Blick!
Doch dich begrüß' ich drunten noch, mit dir vereint.
820
Dich aber, lichten Tages Glanz, der heute strahlt,
Und Helios, den Wagenlenker, ruf' ich an
Zum leztenmale, künftighin nie wieder mehr!
Licht, o Heimaterde, dich, geweihtes Land
Von Salamis, o meines Vaterherdes Siz,
825
Dich, Burg Athene's, dich Geschlecht, mit mir genährt,
Euch Flüsse hier und Quellen, euch, ihr troischen
Gefilde, ruf' ich, meine Pfleger, lebet wohl!
Dies Wort, sein allerleztes, rust euch Ajas zu;
Das Andre sag' ich jenen dort in Hades' Haus.
830
(er tritt hinter das Gebüsch und stürzt sich in sein Schwert.) (er tritt nach einander in zwei Halbchören von zwei entgegengesezten Seiten ein.)
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 815 focus
Thestorian Chalcas did foretell this day
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 815 focus
He is; I therefore dread to hear thy charge.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 815 focus

Commentary

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

mvp-comment-475-1 εἴ τῳ καὶ λογίζεσθαι σχολή 1

mvp-comment-476-1 δῶρον μὲν 2

mvp-comment-476-2 ἀνδρὸς 3

mvp-comment-476-3 ξένων 4

mvp-comment-477-1 πολεμίᾳ 5

mvp-comment-477-2 σιδηροβρῶτι 6

mvp-comment-477-3 θηγάνῃ 7

mvp-comment-477-4 νεηκονής 8

mvp-comment-478-1 περιστείλας 9

mvp-comment-478-2 θανεῖν 10

mvp-comment-479-1 εύσχευοῦμεν 11

mvp-comment-479-2 ἐκ δὲ τῶνδε 12

mvp-comment-479-3 Ζεῦ 13

mvp-comment-479-4 καὶ γὰρ εἰκός 14

mvp-comment-479-5 αἰτήσομαι 15 λαχεῖν 16

mvp-comment-479-6 μακρὸν 17

mvp-comment-480-1 ἡμῖν 18 ἄγγελον 19

mvp-comment-481-1 βαστάσῃ 20

mvp-comment-481-2 πεπτῶτα περὶ ξίφει 21

mvp-comment-482-1 πρόβλητος 22

mvp-comment-482-2 ἕλωρ 23

mvp-comment-482-3 Ajax forebodes that, as a public enemy, he will suffer the doom which Achilles assigns to Hector ( Il. 22. 354 ), Creon to Polyneices ( Ant. 205 ), and Electra to Aegisthus ( El. 1487 ). The Atreidae, in fact, so intended (1064 f.).

mvp-comment-483-1 τοσαῦτά σε … προστρέπω 24

mvp-comment-483-2 καλῶ δ’ 25 καλῶ θ’ 26

mvp-comment-483-3 832 The sense of πομπαῖον 27 χθόνιον 28

mvp-comment-484-1 ἀσφαδάστῳ 29

mvp-comment-484-2 The precept to write

σφαδᾴζω
(and therefore, as Nauck does,
ἀσφάδᾳστος
) dates from Herodian ( c. 160 A.D. ), but is not confirmed by any such independent evidence as exists in the case of
ματᾴζω
( Soph. O. T. 891 ). Ellendt writes
σφαδᾴζω
, yet
ἀσφάδαστος
.

mvp-comment-484-3 πηδήματι 30 ξὺν 31

mvp-comment-485-1 πλευρὰν διαρρήξαντα 32

mvp-comment-486-1 τὰς ἀεί τε παρθένους 33

mvp-comment-486-2 ἀεί θ’ ὁρώσας 34

mvp-comment-486-3 ὁρώσας 35

mvp-comment-487-1 σεμνὰς 36

mvp-comment-487-2 τανύποδας 37

mvp-comment-487-3 839—

mvp-comment-488-1 κάκιστα καὶ πανωλέθρους 38

mvp-comment-488-2 The last two of these four verses are certainly spurious, as three things show.

mvp-comment-488-3 (1) The poet would not have made the dying Ajax pray that the Atreidae may die ‘at the hands of their offspring,’ unless there had been some legend that they so died. But, according to the current mythology, Agamemnon was slain by his wife and her paramour, while Menelaüs and Helen passed, without dying, to Elysium ( Od. 4. 561 ). It is only in later times that we meet with the story of Menelaüs and Helen having been sacrificed by Iphigeneia in the land of the Tauri ( Ptolemy Heph. 4 , cp. Roscher, Lex. p. 1951 ): a myth which the author of these verses may have had in view. Odysseus, indeed, was slain by Telegonus; but he does not come into account here, unless we make the improbable change of

Ἀτρειδῶν
to
Ἀχαιῶν
in 838. [As to the double sense of
αὐτοσφαγής
, with ref. to one who is slain (1) by himself, (2) by a kinsman, see on Ant. 56
αὐτοκτονοῦντε
.]

mvp-comment-488-4 (2) These two verses confuse the construction, since

ὥσπερ εἰσορῶσ’ ἐμέ
( sc.
ξυναρπασθέντα
) refers to what precedes: while
τὼς
in 841 refers to
ὥσπερ
.

mvp-comment-488-5 (3) The form

φίλιστος
occurs nowhere else, except as a proper name.

mvp-comment-488-6

τώς
is not elsewhere found in Soph. or Eur. : it is, however, used by Aesch. , not only in lyrics ( Aesch. Th. 484 , Suppl. 69, 670, 691), but once, at least, in a trimeter, Th. 637
ἢ ζῶντ’ ἀτιμαστῆρα τὼς ἀνδρηλάτην
. We should not, then, insist on
τώς
as a mark of spuriousness: and
ὀλοίατο
is, of course, free from objection ( O. T. 1274
γνωσοίατο
n.). But the case against 841 f. seems conclusive without them.

mvp-comment-488-7 A more difficult question is whether vv. 839, 840 are also spurious. The schol. in L on v. 841 is as follows:—

τὼς αὐτοσφαγεῖς
:
ταῦτα νοθεύεσθαί φασιν ὑποβληθέντα πρὸς σαφήνειαν τῶν λεγομένων
. As the lemma,
τὼς αὐτοσφαγεῖς
, clearly indicates,
ταῦτα
refers only to the two verses 841 f., and not (as Dindorf and others have assumed) to all the four verses 839—842. The surmise was, says the scholiast, that vv. 841 f. were added ‘to make the meaning clearer’; i.e., to explain the elliptical phrase,
ὥσπερ εἰσορῶσ’ ἐμέ
. Such a surmise itself shows that vv. 839, 840 were believed to be older than 841 f. It is indeed plain that all four verses are not by the same author. The incoherent construction noticed above, under (2), was possible for an interpolator whose attention was fixed on
ὥσπερ εἰσορῶσ’ ἐμέ
, but hardly for one who was forging vv. 839—842 as a whole. If, then, all four verses are condemned, we must assume two independent interpolations.

mvp-comment-488-8 I incline to think that the two verses 839 and 840 are genuine; because, otherwise, the imprecation on the

πάνδημος στρατός
(844) would follow too abruptly on v. 838. The prayer for the destruction of his chief foes, uttered in 839 f., leads up to the more sweeping denunciation of the Greek army.

mvp-comment-489-1 ἴτ’ 39

mvp-comment-489-2 γεύεσθε 40

mvp-comment-489-3 πανδήμου στρατοῦ 41

mvp-comment-490-1 αἰπὺν 42

mvp-comment-490-2 οὐρανὸν διφρηλατῶν 43

mvp-comment-491-1 ἴδῃς 44

mvp-comment-491-2 χρυσόνωτον ἡνίαν 45

mvp-comment-492-1 τροφῷ 46

mvp-comment-493-1 ἦ που 47

mvp-comment-493-2 ἥσει … κωκυτὸν 48

mvp-comment-493-3 ἐν πάσῃ πόλει 49

mvp-comment-494-1 ἔργον 50

mvp-comment-494-2 ἀλλ’ … ἀλλ’ 51

mvp-comment-495-1 Θάνατε 52

mvp-comment-496-1 κἀκεῖ 53

mvp-comment-496-2 The absence of caesura gives a more deliberate weight to

σὲ μὲν κἀκεῖ
: cp. 994 : Ph. 1369
ἔα κακῶς αὐτοὺς ἀπόλλυσθαι κακούς
, and ib. 101: Ant. 44.

mvp-comment-497-1 τὸ νῦν σέλας 54

mvp-comment-497-2 διφρευτὴν 55

mvp-comment-498-1 πανύστατον δὴ 56

mvp-comment-498-2 κοὔποτ’ … ὕστερον 57

mvp-comment-499-1 ἱερὸν 58

mvp-comment-499-2 πατρῷον 59 βάθρον 60

mvp-comment-500-1 κλειναί 61

mvp-comment-500-2 καὶ τὸ σύντροφον γένος 62

mvp-comment-501-1 κρῆναί τε ποταμοί θ’ οἵδε 63

mvp-comment-501-2 καὶ τὰ Τρ. πεδία προσαυδῶ 64

mvp-comment-501-3 τροφῆς 65

mvp-comment-502-1 Αἴας … θροεῖ 66 μυθήσομαι 67

mvp-comment-502-2 Ajax falls upon his sword. (See n. on 815.)—The actor Timotheus of Zacynthus (says the scholiast) was celebrated in this scene:

ἦγε τοὺς θεατὰς καὶ ἐψυχαγώγει, ὡς Σφαγέα αὐτὸν κληθῆναι
.

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

815-865. mvp-comment-530-1 The scene is changed to a wooded place ( infr. 892) not far from the camp ( infr. 874-8), where Ajax is disclosed, somewhat retired, but so that both he and the projecting point of the sword which he has planted in the ground, are visible to the spectators.

815. mvp-comment-531-1 ὁ.. σφαγεύς] Either (1) 'the slayer,' or (2) 'the sacrificer;' probably the former (1). ἕστηκεν .. ἄν] 'Stands so as he may prove most keen:' whetted not only with the grind-stone, but with the hate of Hector who gave it, the enmity of the Trojan soil in which it is fixed, the determined will of Ajax and his care in executing that will. The sword thus ordered cannot fail of its effect.

816. mvp-comment-532-1 εἴ τῳ.. σχολή] These words mark Ajax' feeling of the extreme deliberateness of his act. After long repression he is at leisure not only to make elaborate preparations, but also to reason over what he is about to do. For the language, cp. Thuc. 2. 45, εἰ δέ με δεῖ καὶ γυναικείας τι ἀρετῆς . μνησθῆναι, βραχεία παραινέσει ἅπαν σημανῶ. The clause is rather to be connected with what follows than with what precedes. (Others would supply ἦν, and render 'If one had but time to make reflections'). The indefinite Te has an ironical effect, and also somewhat of solemnity, like the impersonal expression in Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 5. 1: 'O, that a man might know | The end of this day's business ere it come!'

817-818. mvp-comment-533-1 ἀνδρὸς ὁρᾶν] 'Of Hector, who of men not Greek was by me most hated and abhorred.' ἀνδρός adds a touch of distinction to the name which follows. Cp El. 45, παρ᾿ ἀνδρὸς Φανοτέως ἥκων. By the addition of ξένων he reserves his chief hatred for the Argives.

820. mvp-comment-534-1 The reading σιδηροβρώτηῃ is not impossible. Cp. Ο. Τ. 80, 1, τύχῃ ·· σωτῆρι, and note. The iteration of ἔπηξα after πέπηγε, supr. 819, strengthens our impression of the firmness with which the sword was fastened in the earth.

821. mvp-comment-535-1 εὖ περιστείλας) 'Carefully securing it.' He had trodden the earth about it, as if planting a young tree.

822. mvp-comment-536-1 εὐνούστατον..θανεῖν] 'So as most kindly to provide for me a speedy death,' εὐνούστατον is supplementary predicate with ἔπηξα. Essay on L. § 23, P. 38, § 38, p. 71. θανεῖν is epexegetic = ὥστε θανείν. Ajax has but two desires, that his death may be (1) certain, (2) swift. His preparation of the sword secures both ends in one.

823. mvp-comment-537-1 οὕτω μὲν εὐσκευοῦμεν] 'So well provided with an instrument am I.' μέν is resumed from supr. 815.

824. mvp-comment-538-1 καὶ γὰρ εἰκός] These words are characteristic of the indomitable hero, who, in his supreme hour, addresses the sovereign of the gods as his kinsman. ( Cp. supr. 387, προγόνων προπάτωρ.)

825. mvp-comment-539-1 λαχεῖν, if the true reading, is epexegetic, the accusative γέρας being governed, primarily, by αἰτήσομαι. But λαβεῖν may be right. See v. rr.

826. mvp-comment-540-1 κακὴν φάτιν] A rumour of evil sound. In the 'clairvoyance' of this moment Ajax imagines the effect which the news of his death would have on Teucer, as also, infr. 850, on his mother. It has been supposed that infr. 998, ὀξεῖα γὰρ .. θανών indicates the answer of Zeus to this prayer. But, although this is possible, such a rumour is sufficiently accounted for by what passes at supr. 749 foll., especially the words in l. 783, οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνηρ κεῖνος.

828. mvp-comment-541-1 περί] Cp. infr. 899, φασγάνῳ περιπτυχής. νεορράντῳ] 'Then freshly streaming.' For this vivid touch, cp. infr. 898, ἀρτίως νεοσφαγής. He does not mention Tecmessa.

830. mvp-comment-542-1 ῥιφθῶ .. ἕλωρ] 'I be cast forth, exposed to dogs and birds for a prey.'

833-834. mvp-comment-543-1 'And that the leap wherewith I plunge this sword into my side may be swift and without a struggle.' πηδήματι has been interpreted of the involuntary spring upwards at the moment of the sword piercing the heart; but it is rather, more simply, the act of falling on the sword. Ajax prays that this may be unattended with convulsions, and may lead directly to the consummation.

835. mvp-comment-544-1 ἀεὶ . . παρθένους] Cp. especially, Aesch. Eum. 69, 70, παλαιαὶ παῖδες, αἷς οὐ μίγνυται | θεῶν τις, οὐδ᾽ ἄνθρωπος, οὐδὲ θήρ ποτε.

836. mvp-comment-545-1 Ср. О. С. 42, τὰς πάνθ᾽ ὁρώσας Εὐμενίδας, κ.τ.λ.

837. mvp-comment-546-1 μαθεῖν] The inf. depends on the general notion in καλῶ, the full expression, καλῶ ἀρωγούς, being partly lost sight of.

839-842. mvp-comment-547-1 See v. rr. The reasons for rejecting these four lines may be briefly given. The allusion to the death of Agamemnon, which is the chief point in them, interferes with the poetical simplicity of the passage, and is moreover not applicable to Menelaus. The emphatic use of αὐτοσφαγής in two different senses in the same line is awkward, and like an imitation. φίλιστος occurs nowhere else, and τώς not elsewhere in Sophocles; and ἐκγόνων seems to have arisen from a confusion of the death of Agamemnon with that of Clytemnestra, together with an attempt to include the fate of Odysseus. 1

839-842. mvp-comment-547-2 839 ff. καί σφας κακοὺς κάκιστα καὶ πανωλέθρους | ξυναρπάσειαν, ὥσπερ εἰσορῶσ' ἐμὲ | αὐτοσφαγῆι πίπτοντα, τὼς αὐτοσφαγεὶς | πρὸς τῶν φιλίστων ἐκγόνων ὀλοίατο LAL Pal. Vat. ac. (Variants: αὐτοσφαγῆ Α. αὐτοσφαγεῖσ CA. ἐκγονων L. καὐτοσφαγεῖς Pal. τως αὐτοσφαγεῖς Vat. ac. ὣς αὐτοσφαγεῖς V. ἐκγόνων Vat. a.)

844. mvp-comment-548-1 'Flesh yourselves unsparingly on all the populous host.' μὴ φείδεσθε is introduced dià mésou. The πάνδημος στρατός of the Achaeans is contrasted with the Argive chiefs.

847. mvp-comment-549-1 ἐπισχὼν .. ἡνίαν] ‘Checking thy rein.' Instead of saying ἐπέχειν ἅρμα, or ἵππους, the means, or more immediate object, is put into the accusative.

847. mvp-comment-549-2 χρυσόνωτον] ‘Gilded,' viz, having the upper surface studded with gold.

848. mvp-comment-550-1 ἄτας.. ἐμόν] 'My troubles and my fate.' This is not a mere pleonasm. The ἅται may include his first provocation of Athena as well as his wild actions since; the word μόρον is specially applicable to his death.

849. mvp-comment-551-1 τῇ τε δυστήνῳ τροφῷ] Either (1) 'and the unhappy one who nursed my infancy;' or (2) 'and the unhappy one who tends on him.' According to (1) Ajax in thinking of his mother with special tenderness, speaks of her as the one who nursed him at her breast ( ἥ μ' ἔτεχ᾽, ἤ μ᾿ ἔθρεψε, Od. 2. 131.) According to (2) he is thinking of the dreary household at Salamis, where she who had been the wife of Telamon's youth was now the nurse of his declining years. Cp. Od. 24. 211, ἐν δὲ γυνὴ Σικελὴ γρηὺς πέλεν, ἤ ῥα γέροντα | ἐνδυκέως κομέεσκεν ἐπ᾿ ἀγροῦ, νόσφι πόληος.

851. mvp-comment-552-1 Cp. Eur. Med. 1176, εἶτ' ἀντίμολπον ἡκεν ὀλολυγῆς μέγαν | κωκυτόν.

852. mvp-comment-553-1 'But I have nought to do with vain laments for this.' οὐδὲν ἔργον, lit. 'It is no part of the business in hand.'

853. mvp-comment-554-1 σὺν τάχει τινί] 'And that with speed.' The addition of the indefinite pronoun, as in ἀνύσας τι ('with something of haste'), has an effect of peremptoriness.

856. mvp-comment-555-1 τὸ νῦν] By hypallage for τῆς νῦν, giving a lighter rhythm.

857. mvp-comment-556-1 προσεννέπω is introduced by an expansion similar to that in Aesch. Prom. 91, καὶ τὸν πανόπτην κύκλον ἡλίου καλῶ, and then becomes the governing word.

858. mvp-comment-557-1 κοὔποτ᾽ αὖθις] Sc. προσαυδήσω. Cp. Ant. 808, 9, νέατον δὲ φέγγος λεύσσουσαν ἀελίου | κοὔποτ᾽ αὖθις.

859. mvp-comment-558-1 ὦ φέγγος] He passionately resumes his invocation (856-8), and as his heart goes forth with the universal sunlight, he again (as in 846) fixes his thoughts on home.

860. mvp-comment-559-1 πατρῷον ἑστίας βάθρον] 'Hearth-stone of my sire.' See Essay on L. § 42. p. 80 γ.

861. mvp-comment-560-1 κλειναί] Cp. supr. 596, and note. The glory of Athens, like that of Salamis, is anticipated.

861. mvp-comment-560-2 τὸ σύντροφον γένος] 'And ye, her race, among whom I was brought up.' These words, in which Ajax adopts the Athenians as brethren of the Aeacidae, are well calculated to move the Athenian audience.

862-864. mvp-comment-561-1 After bidding farewell to Salamis and Athens, he is returning to his purpose, when his eye falls on the fresh waters in which he has lately bathed ( supr. 654); and they remind him of his Trojan environment of the last ten years. To this also he bids an affectionate farewell.

864. mvp-comment-562-1 The repetition of his own name by Ajax here is significant. Still conscious of his greatness, he imagines all Nature as moved at his departure.

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.