66

kind, than slavery's forced lot1. But I was begotten of a free father, a man powerful by his wealth among Phrygians, if any were. Yet now I am a slave; for so, I ween, it seemed fit to the gods, and above all to thy hand. Wherefore, since that I have shared thy bed, I am a well-wisher to thee and thine, and conjure thee by Jove Guardian of the Hearth2, and thy couch whereby thou wert united to me, donot think me deserving to get offensive language from thine enemies, leaving me a spoil for the hand of any. Since, shouldst thou die, and, being deceased, abandon me, bethink thee that on that very day I too, violently seized on by the Greeks, shall eat the bread of slavery with thy son. And some one among my tyrants shall say with bitter taunt, harrowing me by his words, Behold the consort of Ajax, who was of might preeminent amid our host,-what servitude, in exchange for how envied a lot, does she support!" Thus some one will say. And me fortune will drive to this; 'tis to thee and thy family words like these are a disgrace. But respect thy father, whom thou abandonest in forlorn old age: respect thy mother, allotted to the heritage of many years, who often implores the gods that thou mayest return home alive. And, Ō prince! compassionate thy son, in that, bereft of childhood's nurture, abandoned by thee, he will be thrust about by no friendly guardians: how much of ill this is, that thou at thy death wilt bequeath to him and me3. For to me there remains no longer any one to whom I can look, save thee, for thou hast annihilated my country with thy spear; and my mother and my father another fate took off to be in their deaths inhabitants of Hades. What then could be to me a country in thy

1 Lobeck would exclude the idea of slavery from the Greek expression here, as unsuitable to Tecmessa's purpose. TR.-But cf. Æsch Choeph. 75. áváɣкav åμþíπтоλ. Soph. El. 1193. See also Eustath. p. 1089, 38: παρὰ Σοφοκλεῖ ἀναγκαία τύχη ἡ δουλική. Β.

A most solemn adjuration, and used by Themistocles to Admetus, in his greatest need. Thuc. I.

3 These sentiments find a parallel in those of the Sabine women in Livy : and the lamentation of Andromache throughout is very similar:

An only child, once comfort of my pains,
Sad product now of hopeless love, remains!
No more to smile upon his sire, no friend
To help him now, no father to defend !

Pope's II. B. XXII. 1. 620.

4 Hermann remarks on the gratuitous barbarity of making Ajax kill the

stead? what prosperity could I have? in thee is centred all my hope of safety. Nay, preserve the remembrance of me too. Believe me, it is fitting that memory should abide by a man, if anywhere he have received aught pleasurable'; for it is kindness that aye engenders kindness, but from whomsoever the recollection of a benefit received melts away, that man could never be of generous birth2.

CH. Ajax, I could wish that thou didst feel pity in thy heart, even as I do, for then wouldst thou assent to her words.

AJ. Nay, largely shall she meet with approbation from me at least, if she but dare aright to execute the task enjoined. TEC. Nay, my dear Ajax, for my part I will obey thee in everything.

AJ. Go fetch me now my son, that I may see him.
TEC. Nay, but in alarm I rescued him from thee.
AJ. In these my woes? or what meanest thou?

TEC. Lest he, ill fated, having haply fallen in thy way, should die.

AJ. This were, indeed, well suited to my fate.

TEC. Nay, therefore I guarded him, to prevent this.

Aл. I approve of the action and the forethought you practised.

TEC. By doing what then, in this case, can I profit you?
AJ. Give me to speak to him, and see him before me.
TEC. Well, but he is at hand, in keeping of the attendants.
AJ. Why then delays he to vouchsafe his presence?

TEC. My boy, thy father calls thee. Bring him hither, whoever of the servants have him in charge, in thy hands. mother of Tecmessa, and adopts Porson's reading, supposing, however, that there is a line omitted. According to him, the lines stand thus: οὐ γάρ μοι πατρὶδ' ᾔστωσας δορί,

*

καὶ μητέρ ̓ ἄλλη μοῖρα τὸν φύσαντά τε
καθεῖλεν "Αιδου θανασίμους οἰκήτορας.

1 Si bene quid de merui, fuit aut tibi quicquam

*

Dulce meum, miserere domus labantis, et istam,
Oro, si quis adhuc precibus locus, exue mentem.

Æn. IV. v. 317.

2 Brunck has paid no attention to Porson's remarks on the metre in this passage; but Lobeck has adopted the Professor's emendation of Suidas. For just reasons against the other readings proposed by Porson, vid. Seale's Metres, p. 11.

AJ. Dost thou speak to one drawing near, or one who heeds not thy words?

TEC. Even now this attendant is conveying him from no great distance.

AJ. Bring, bring him hither, for he will not shudder at beholding this fresh-slaughtered butchery, if he be truly in his father's ways my son. Nay, forthwith it is needful to break him in, as a colt, to the stern lore of his sire, and that he be rendered like him in nature. My child, be thou more fortunate than thy father, but in all else his counterpart, and thou canst not be a coward. Yet even now thus much I have to envy thee, for that thou art sensible of none of these present evils. For in feeling nought' is centred the sweetest life, until thou learn to know what it is to rejoice, what to feel pain. But when thou art arrived at this, it is thy duty to prove on thy father's foes, thyself how great, from how great a father thou art sprung. Till then be fostered by light gales, cherishing thy early life, the joy of this thy mother. There is no fear, I know, that any of the Greeks should insult thee with hateful contumely; no, though thou art far from me, such a watchful protector in Teucer shall I leave for thee, an unwearied guardian of thy nurture3, although at present he is gone far out of sight, busied in the chase of foemen. But, O ye shielded warriors, seafaring people, to you also I enjoin this common favour, and announce ye to him my mandate, that he bring this my son to my home, and present him to Telamon and my mother, I mean Eribœa*,

1 Ah! how regardless of their doom

The little victims play!

No sense have they of ills to come,

No care beyond to-day.-GRAY.

2 Hermann here inserts a line which Brunck on the authority of Stobæus had omitted, it is this:

τὸ μὴ φρονεῖν γὰρ, κάρτ ̓ ἀνώδυνον κακόν.

Ajax admits ignorance to be an evil, but still asserts that "where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise."

3 Lobeck praises, in his note on this passage, Reiske's emendation, who reads Eμπα, Kεi raviv; and the scholiast on v. 122 says the Ionians use ἔμπης, the Attics ἔμπας and ἔμπα.

4 Eriboea, sometimes called Periboea, was daughter of Alcathous, king of Megara, and son of Pelops, and is said to have been sold by her father on suspicion of an intrigue with Telamon, and carried to Cyprus, whither Telamon followed and married her.

S

that he may ever be the support of their old age, until they shall reach the dark chambers of the nether god. And mine arms let no masters of the games, nor he my bane, set as a prize to the Greeks; but do thou, my son Eurysaces, take and keep thy namesake, my shield of seven bulls' hides, that none can break; wielding it through the thickly twisted handle1: my other arms in common shall anon be buried with me2. But take now with all speed this my son, and make fast the house, nor raise lamentations within my tent. A very piteous object, truly, is a woman. Close the door speedily: 'tis not the skilful leech's part to howl an incantation over a sore that asks the knife.

CH. I tremble at hearing this eagerness, for thy sharpened tongue likes me not.

TEC. Ajax, my lord, what canst thou purpose in thy mind to do?

AJ. Ask not, question not; best be resigned.

TEC. Ah me, how I despair! I conjure thee by thy child, and by the gods, abandon us not.

AJ. Too much thou vexest me; knowest thou not that I no longer am the god's debtor3 to be of service to any? TEC. Good words.

AJ. Speak to those that hear.

TEC. And wilt thou not be persuaded?

AJ. Thou pratest overmuch already.
TEC. Ay, for I fear me, prince.
AJ. Will ye not stay her quickly?

TEC. In heaven's name, be softened.

1 For a description of such a shield, see Wunder's extracts from Wesseling and Lobeck.

B.

2 This was a common custom in ancient times, as may be gathered from Thucydides, L. I. c viii. TR.-Such was also the custom of the Danes. See Olaus Magnus, quoted by Stevens on Hamlet, Act I.; "That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel." Seward, Earl of Northumberland, was, by his own desire, buried armed cap à pie. B.

3. A similar expression is found in Virgil:

Nos juvenem exanimum et nil jam cœlestibus ullis
Debentem vano moesti comitamur honore.

Yet it would perhaps be going too far to say that Ajax meant nothing contemptuous to the gods.-Since writing the above note, Hermann's edition has appeared, and the translation is altered to suit that edition in this passage.

AJ. Methinks thou hast but a fool's wisdom, if thou purposest but now to school my temper.

CH. Illustrious Salamis, thou somewhere, rocked by ocean1, art situate in happiness, ever conspicuous to all: while I unhappy from time of old, tarry for the Idæan meadowy pastures as a reward, through countless months, continually worn away by regular and unvaried time; having a sorry hope that still I shall one day reach the abhorred destructive, Pluto. And now the cureless Ajax is upon me, a fresh assailant, alas! alas! co-mate of a heaven-sent frenzy; whom once, in former time, thou sentest forth as a conqueror in furious war; but now, on the contrary, his senses all astray, he has proved a deep affliction to his friends. But the former deeds of his hands, deeds of the noblest valour, fell, ay, fell, thankless to the thankless, the unwise Atridæ. Surely, somewhere a mother, nursed in the lap of ancient days and hoar old age, when she shall have heard that he is diseased as with the sickness of the soul, hapless shall utter not ah! Linus, ah! Linus, nor plaint of the nightingale, that piteous bird, but shrill-toned shrieks will she wail forth: while blows, struck by her own hand, shall fall on her breasts, and rend

1 This epithet, though perfectly suitable to Delos, appears rather misplaced here; and Lobeck suggests, that as Eschylus has applied the term θαλασσόπληκτος to Salamis, it is probable that Sophocles wrote ἀλίTλαктоg. This reading is adopted by Hermann.

2 Cf. Homer II. β, 626, νήσων, αἳ ναίουσι πέρην ἁλός. Β.

3 Hermann proposes to read the passage thus: 'Idaĩa μíμvw Xɛiμóví ἄποινα, μηνῶν ἀνήριθμος, Idea pratensia præmia expecto, mensium innumerabilis. These proemia pratensia are the overthrow and sack of Troy. TR. I have followed Hermann, with Dindorf, although I am doubtful of any attempt to restore this difficult passage successfully. B. 4 See Buttm. Lexil. s. v. The word may be also taken for "dark," "gloomy."

B.

5 "Epecpoc is, in the Frogs of Aristophanes, applied to Sophocles himself, and the Oxford translator has this note: 66 The ἔφεδρος (tertianus) was a combatant, who waited the decision of some trial of prowess in the games, with intent to offer himself as opponent to the conqueror," p. 169.

6 Literally "feeding apart from his senses."

7 There is great beauty in the suppression of the name throughout this passage: it may in some measure be thought to resemble the veil of Timanthes.

8 Cf. Asch. Ag. 121, 139, and for the origin of the ditty, Pausan. ix. 29, with Kuhn's note. B.