Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/371

349 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 349 arrogant words — " Wilh (he assistance of the gods even the feeble might conquer ; that he was confident he could perform his part even without their help ; " are cited as proof of his mode of thinking.* Now, by the vote of the Greeks, which has awarded the arms of Achilles to Ulysses and not to him, Ajax has suffered that sort of humiliation, which, to a character like his, is always most intolerable, and the gods have chosen this moment for the punishment of his presumption. In the night after the decision, when Ajax has set out in the most un- governable passion to wreak his vengeance on the Atridse and Ulysses, Athena distracts his mind so that he mistakes oxen and sheep for his enemies, and gives vent to his wrath against them. In this unworthy condition and performing these unworthy actions, Sophocles shows him at the very beginning of his drama as " Ajax the whip-bearer'' (Aiac uaaTiyotyopoc). When he returns to his senses, his whole soul is pos sessed with the deepest sense of shame, and the more so as all his pride is shaken to its foundation. The beautiful Eccyclema scene t is intro- duced for the purpose of representing Ajax, ashamed and humbled, with all the circumstances of his case. However deeply he feels his dis- grace, and however clearly he recognizes the gods as the authors of it, he is as far as possible from being a downcast penitent. His whole character is far too consistent to allow him to live on in humble resignation. He has convinced himself that he can no longer live with honour. It is true that the poet, in the oracle ascribed to Calchas, " {hat Athena is persecuting Ajax only for this day, and that he will be delivered if he survives it," suggests the possibility of Ajax having more modest views, of his recognizing the limits of his power. But this, though possible, is never actually the case. Ajax remains as he is. His death, in order to effect which he employs a sort of stratagem, is the only atonement which he offers to the gods. J Sophocles, how- ever, would look upon this as only one side of the complete develope- ment of the action. Severely as the poet punishes what was worthy of punishment in Ajax, he acknowledges with equal justice the greatness of such a character as his. The opinions of antiquity, which regarded a man's burial as an essential part of the destiny of his life, allowed a continuation of the action after the death of the hero. Teucer, the brother of Ajax, contends, as the champion of his honour, with the Atridae, who seek to deprive him of the rites of burial; and Ulysses, T« yap iri^urau. xavovnra owpaTa 'iipatrx' o ftccvn;. v. 758, ff. f V. 346— 595. comp. chap. XXXII. § 10. t Compare the ambiguous words in the deceitful speech : — a.' dpi *^s n Xewrpa, &c, v. 654, ff.
 * See the speech of Calchas : —