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Teucer
Ah me, how soon the memory of the dead
Fades from the faithless mind, and is effaced,
Thee, Ajax, in his favour, e'en in things
To him of little import, since this man
No longer holds ! Yet oft hast thou exposed
Thy life for him with toil in bloody fields.
1270
But all these things are vanish'd, and have left
No trace behind. Thy tongue abounds with words,
Vain-talker! but is all remembrance lost?
Can'st thou forget, within your works enclosed,
When all was rout, confusion, and dismay,
1275
Alone he came, he saved you? When the flames
Blazed on your lofty decks, when o'er the trench
Hector had leap'd, and on your navy roll'd
The thunder of the war, who check'd his force?
Was not the glorious action his, who ne'er,
Thou say'st, advanced his foot? Did not for you
1280
His valour these heroic deeds achieve?
Nay more, 'gainst Hector shield to shield opposed
He stood in dreadful fight, by choice, not chance ;
No' coward lot into the 'midst he threw,
No clod of moisten'd earth; but with light bound
1285
What from the crested helmet first would leap.
These were his noble deeds: with him I stood,
This slave, from a barbaric mother born.
What was thy view in this unhappy taunt?
1290
Thy father's father, Pelops of old times,
1290
Was a barbarie Phrygian: know'st thou this?
Know'st thou that Atreus was thy sire, of men
Most impious, to his brother at a feast
Who served up his own sons. From Crete her birth
Thy mother drew; and when thy father found:
His bed polluted with adulterous lust,
1295
He cast her to the monsters of the main......
From such art thou descended; and my birth
Darest thou revile, from Telamon derived,
My father, whose illustrious deeds in arms.
Shone with the brightest splendor, and obtain'd
1300
My mother to his bed, of royal blood,
The daughter of Laomedon, the prize.
Of highest honour by Alcides giv'n'?...
Thus noble, and from noble parents sprung,
Should I dishonour those whose blood I share,
Whom thou, thus miserably fall'n, wou'dst cast
1305
Unburied forth? Nor dost thou blush, this threat
Denouncing. But of this be thou assured,
Him if your violence cast forth, us three
Shall it cast forth together with him laid.
To me more glorious 'midst this honest toil
1310
I deem it in a brother's cause to die,
Than for thy wife, or for thy brother's. Go,
Of me regardless, yet regard thyself:
Me if thou wrong, thou shalt have cause to wish
That coward fear had check'd thy daring pride.
1315
Ah me, how soon the memory of the dead
Fades from the faithless mind, and is effaced,
Thee, Ajax, in his favour, e'en in things
To him of little import, since this man
No longer holds ! Yet oft hast thou exposed
Thy life for him with toil in bloody fields.
1270
But all these things are vanish'd, and have left
No trace behind. Thy tongue abounds with words,
Vain-talker! but is all remembrance lost?
Can'st thou forget, within your works enclosed,
When all was rout, confusion, and dismay,
1275
Alone he came, he saved you? When the flames
Blazed on your lofty decks, when o'er the trench
Hector had leap'd, and on your navy roll'd
The thunder of the war, who check'd his force?
Was not the glorious action his, who ne'er,
Thou say'st, advanced his foot? Did not for you
1280
His valour these heroic deeds achieve?
Nay more, 'gainst Hector shield to shield opposed
He stood in dreadful fight, by choice, not chance ;
No' coward lot into the 'midst he threw,
No clod of moisten'd earth; but with light bound
1285
What from the crested helmet first would leap.
These were his noble deeds: with him I stood,
This slave, from a barbaric mother born.
What was thy view in this unhappy taunt?
Thy father's father, Pelops of old times,
1290
Was a barbarie Phrygian: know'st thou this?
Know'st thou that Atreus was thy sire, of men
Most impious, to his brother at a feast
Who served up his own sons. From Crete her birth
Thy mother drew; and when thy father found:
His bed polluted with adulterous lust,
1295
He cast her to the monsters of the main......
From such art thou descended; and my birth
Darest thou revile, from Telamon derived,
My father, whose illustrious deeds in arms.
Shone with the brightest splendor, and obtain'd
1300
My mother to his bed, of royal blood,
The daughter of Laomedon, the prize.
Of highest honour by Alcides giv'n'?...
Thus noble, and from noble parents sprung,
Should I dishonour those whose blood I share,
Whom thou, thus miserably fall'n, wou'dst cast
1305
Unburied forth? Nor dost thou blush, this threat
Denouncing. But of this be thou assured,
Him if your violence cast forth, us three
Shall it cast forth together with him laid.
To me more glorious 'midst this honest toil
1310
I deem it in a brother's cause to die,
Than for thy wife, or for thy brother's. Go,
Of me regardless, yet regard thyself:
Me if thou wrong, thou shalt have cause to wish
That coward fear had check'd thy daring pride.
1315
Ajax. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.