Page:Ajax (Trevelyan 1919).djvu/39

 MESSENGER

Alas! Alas!

Then too late on this errand was I sped

By him who sent me; or I have proved too slow.

CHORUS

What urgent need has been neglected here?

MESSENGER

Teucer forbade that Aias should go forth

Outside his hut, till he himself should come.

CHORUS

Well, he is gone. To wisest purpose now

His mind is turned, to appease heaven's wrath.

MESSENGER

These words of thine are filled with utter folly,

If there was truth in Calchas' prophecy.

CHORUS

What prophecy? And what know you of this thing?

MESSENGER

Thus much I know, for by chance I was present.

Leaving the circle of consulting chiefs

Where sat the Atreidæ, Calchas went aside,

And with kind purpose grasping Teucer's hand

Enjoined him that by every artifice

He should restrain Aias within his tents

This whole day, and not leave him to himself,

If he wished ever to behold him alive.

For on this day alone, such were his words,

Would the wrath of divine Athena vex him.

For the overweening and unprofitable

Fall crushed by heaven-sent calamities,

(So the seer spoke,) whene'er one born a man

Has conceived thoughts too high for man's estate:

And this man, when he first set forth from home,

Showed himself foolish, when his father spoke to him

Wisely: "My son, seek victory by the spear;