2ND MESS.  She with keen knife before the altar place[8]
Closed her dark orbs; but first lamented loud
The glorious bed of buried Megareus[9],
And then of Haemon; lastly clamoured forth
The curse of murdered offspring upon thee.

CR.  Ay me!  Ay me!  II 1
I am rapt with terror.  Is there none to strike me
With doubly sharpened blade a mortal blow? 
Ah!  I am plunged in fathomless distress.

2ND MESS.  The guilt of this and of the former grief By this dead lady was denounced on thee.

CR.  Tell us, how ended she her life in blood?

2ND MESS.  Wounding herself to the heart, when she had heard The loud lamented death of Haemon here.

CR.  O me!  This crime can come
On no man else, exempting me. 
I slew thee—­I, O misery! 
I say the truth, ’twas I!  My followers,
Take me with speed—­take me away, away! 
Me, who am nothing now.

CH.  Thou sayest the best, if there be best in woe. 
Briefest is happiest in calamity.

CR.  Ah! let it come, II 2
The day, most welcome of all days to me,
That brings the consummation of my doom. 
Come!  Come!  I would not see another sun.

CH.  Time will determine that.  We must attend
To present needs.  Fate works her own dread work.

CR.  All my desire was gathered in my prayer.

CH.  But prayer is bootless.  For to mortal men
There is no saviour from appointed woe.

CR.  Take me away, the vain-proud man that slew
Thee, O my son! unwittingly,—­and thee! 
Me miserable, which way shall I turn,
Which look upon?  Since all that I can touch
Is falling,—­falling,—­round me, and o’erhead
Intolerable destiny descends.

LEADER OF CHORUS. 
Wise conduct hath command of happiness
Before all else, and piety to Heaven
Must be preserved.  High boastings of the proud
Bring sorrow to the height to punish pride:—­
A lesson men shall learn when they are old.

* * * * *

AIAS

THE PERSONS

ATHENA. 
ODYSSEUS. 
AIAS, the son of Telamon.
CHORUS of Salaminian Mariners.
TECMESSA.
A Messenger.
TEUCER, half brother of Aias.
MENELAUS. 
AGAMEMNON.

EURYSAKES, the child of Aias and Tecmessa, appears, but does not speak.

SCENE.  Before the encampment of Aias on the shore of the Troad. 
Afterwards a lonely place beyond Rhoeteum.

Time, towards the end of the Trojan War.

’A wounded spirit who can bear?’

After the death of Achilles, the armour made for him by Hephaestus was to be given to the worthiest of the surviving Greeks.  Although Aias was the most valiant, the judges made the award to Odysseus, because he was the wisest.