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 CHORUS

Oh, by the Gods, we pray thee, yield to wisdom's voice.

AIAS

Oh, wretch that I was to allow

Those cursfed foes to slip from my hands, and assaulting

Horned kine and goodly flocks, madly to spill

Their life in streams of dark blood!

CHORUS

Why still be afflicted, now the deed is done past cure?

Never can these things be as though they had not been.

AIAS

Thou áll-spýing knave, of áll deéds of shame

The prompt, easy tool, Odysseus the wise!

Villain, of all the camp the most foul and vile!

Huge laughter doubtless shakes thee now for sheer delight.

CHORUS

As God appoints, so every man laughs or laments.

AIAS

Would I might meet him, crushed and broken though I be.

Alas! Woe, woe!

CHORUS

Speak no proud words. Seest thou not to what woe thou art sunk?

AIAS

Zeus, of my fathers the sire,

Might I but kill that hateful and crafty dissembler,

Yea, and those two brother kings, partners in pride,

Then last myself too perish!

TECMESSA

If thus thou prayest, pray therewith for me, that I

Die with thee. Why, when thou art dead, should I live on?