Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/77

 (above)..

. Oft have I seen thee, Laërtiades,

Intent on some surprisal of thy foes;

As now I find thee by the seaward camp,

Where Aias holds the last place in your line,

Lingering in quest, and scanning the fresh print

Of his late footsteps, to be certified

If he keep house or no. Right well thy sense

Hath led thee forth, like some keen hound of Sparta!

The man is even but now come home, his head

And slaughterous hands reeking with ardent toil.

Thou, then, no longer strain thy gaze within

Yon gateway, but declare what eager chase

Thou followest, that a god may give thee light.

. Athena, ’tis thy voice! Dearest in heaven,

How well-discerned and welcome to my soul

From that dim distance doth thine utterance fly

In tones as of Tyrrhenian trumpet-clang!

Rightly hast thou divined mine errand here,

Beating this ground for Aias of the shield,

The lion-quarry whom I track to-day.

For he hath wrought on us to-night a deed

Past thought—if he be doer of this thing;

We drift in ignorant doubt, unsatisfied:—

And I unbidden have bound me to this toil.

Brief time hath flown since suddenly we knew

That all our gathered spoil was reaved and slaughtered,

Flocks, herds, and herdmen, by some human hand,

All tongues, then, lay this deed at Aias’ door.

And one, a scout who had marked him, all alone,

With new-fleshed weapon bounding o’er the plain,