Sophocles, Ajax (ed. Sir Richard Jebb)

Chorus

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[815] The sacrificial killer stands planted in the way that will cut most deeply--if I have the leisure for even this much reflection. First, it is the gift of Hector, that enemy-friend who was most hateful to me and most hostile to my sight; next, it is fixed in enemy soil, the land of Troy, [820] newly-whetted on the iron-devouring stone; and finally I have planted it with scrupulous care, so that it should prove most kind to me by a speedy death.

Yes, we are well equipped. And so, O Zeus, be the first to aid me, as is proper. [825] It is no large prize that I ask you to award me. Send on my behalf some messenger with news of my downfall to Teucer, so that he may be the first to raise me once I have fallen on this sword and made it newly-wet, and so that I am not first spotted by some enemy [830] and cast out and exposed as prey to the dogs and birds. For this much, Zeus, I appeal to you. I call also on Hermes, guide to the underworld, to lay me softly to sleep with one quick, struggle-free leap, when I have broken open my side on this sword. [835] And I call for help to the eternal maidens who eternally attend to all sufferings among mortals, the dread, far-striding Erinyes, asking them to learn how my miserable life is destroyed by the Atreidae. [840] And may they seize those wicked men with most wicked destruction, just as they see me [fall slain by my own hand, so slain by their own kin may they perish at the hand of their best-loved offspring]. Come, you swift and punishing Erinyes, devour all the assembled army and spare nothing! [845] And you, Helios, whose chariot-wheels climb the steep sky, when you see the land of my fathers, draw in your rein spread with gold and tell my disasters and my fate to my aged father and to the unhappy woman who nursed me. [850] Poor mother! Indeed, I think, when she hears this news, she will sing a song of loud wailing throughout the entire city. But it is not for me to weep in vain like this. No, the deed must quickly have its beginning. O Death, Death, come now and lay your eyes on me! [855] And yet I will meet you also in that other world and there address you. But you, beam of the present bright day, I salute you and the Sun in his chariot for the last time and never again. O light! O sacred soil [860] of my own Salamis, firm seat of my father's hearth! O famous Athens, and your race kindred to mine! And you, springs and rivers of this land--and you plains of Troy I salute you also--farewell, you who have nurtured me! This is the last word that Ajax speaks to you. [865] The rest he will tell to the shades in Hades. Ajax falls upon his sword.

Further comments from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax:
line 830: problêtos
line 830: helôr
line 835: tas aei te parthenous
line 835: aei th' horôsas
line 835: horôsas
line 845: aipun
line 845: ouranon diphrêlatôn
line 850: ê pou
line 850: hêsei &#ch2026; kôkuton
line 850: en pasêi polei
line 855: kakei

Cross references from John Conington, Commentary on Vergil's Aeneid, Volume 1:
2, 333 [LIBER SECUNDUS.]: ho men sphageus hestêken hêi tomôtatos genoit' an
4, 520 [LIBER QUARTUS.]
1, 568 [LIBER PRIMUS.]

Cross references from Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus:
532: aitêsomai de s' ou makron geras lachein
535: muthêsomai

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus:
* [1-116: Prologue]: tas aei te parthenousaei th' horôsas panta tan brotois pathê,semnas Erinus tanupodas
* [1579-1779: Exodus]: hestias bathron
* [1-116: Prologue]: muthêsomai

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax:
* [879-973]
*
* [974-1184]
*
* [1223-1420]

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra:
* [1384-1397]
* [516-1057]
* [1-120]
* [251-471]

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes:
* [865-1080]

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Trachiniae:
* [663-820]

Cross references from W. Walter Merry, James Riddell, D. B. Monro, Commentary on the Odyssey (1886):
11, 128 [Book 11 (l)]
9, 58 [Book 9 (i)]

Cross references from Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900):
1, 5 [Book 1 (A)]: rhiphthô kusin problêtos oiônois th' helôr

Cross references from R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato:
* [Commentary]

Cross references from Basil L. Gildersleeve, Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes:
* [Strophe 3]

This text is based on the following book(s):
Sophocles. The Ajax of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893.
OCLC: 25466584