Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/400

302 And thou may'st see his deeds, and how he fares.

Aias. Ah, sailor friends! alone of all my friends,

Alone abiding in your steadfast law,

Behold how great a surge of blood-flecked foam

Now whirls around me.

Chor. [To .] Ah me! Thou dost too true a witness bear:

His deeds show clearly that his sense is gone.

Aias, Ο race, well versed in all the sailor's art,

Who camest, plying still the seaman's oar,

Thee, thee alone I see as help in grief;

Yet kill me, kill, I pray.

Chor. Hush! speak not so, nor, curing ill with ill,

Make sorrow's weight yet greater than it is.

Aias. Me, the bold, the brave-hearted,

Fearless in fight with the foe,

Thou see'st me show the prowess of mine hand

On beasts unformidable.

Ah! woe is me for the shame,

The scorn that falls on me.

Tec. Ah, my lord Aias, speak not thus, I pray.

Aias. Away with thee! What? Wilt thou not withdraw?

Ai! ai!

Tec. Oh! by the Gods, give way, and be advised.

Aias. Ah! woe is me, who let the cursed ones

Slip from my hands, and falling on the herds

Of horned oxen, and those noble flocks,

Shed their dark gore.

Chor. Why dost thou grieve at what is gone and past?

These things are so, and cannot be undone.

Aias. Ο thou whose eye sees all things evermore,

Tool of all evil, child of Lartios,

Of all the host the foulest scoundrel-knave,