Athena Always, son of Laertes, have I observed you on the prowl to snatch some means of attack against your enemies. So now at the tent of Ajax by the ships where he has his post at the camp’s outer edge, I watch you for a long time as you hunt and scan his newly pressed tracks, in order to see whether he is inside or away. Your course leads you well to your goal, like that of a keen-scenting Laconian hound. For the man has just now gone in, with sweat dripping from his head and from his hands that have killed with the sword. There is no further need for you to peer inside these doors. Rather tell me what your goal is that you have shown such eagerness for, so that you may learn from her who holds the knowledge.
Odysseus Voice of Athena, dearest to me of the gods, how clearly, though you are unseen, do I hear your call and snatch its meaning in my mind, just as I would the bronze tongue of the Tyrrhenian trumpet! And now you have discerned correctly that I am circling my path on the track of a man who hates me, Ajax the shield-bearer. It is he and no other that I have been tracking so long. For tonight he has done us a deed beyond comprehension—if he is indeed the doer. We know nothing for certain, but drift in doubt. And so I of my own accord took up the burden of this search. For we recently found all the cattle, our plunder, dead—yes, slaughtered by human hand—and with them the guardians of the flocks. Now, all men lay responsibility for this crime to him. And further, a scout who had seen him bounding alone over the plain with a newly-wet sword reported to me and declared what he saw. Then immediately I rush upon his track, and sometimes I follow his signs, but sometimes I am bewildered, and cannot read whose they are. Your arrival is timely, for truly in all matters, both those of the past and those of the future, it is your hand that steers me.
Athena I know it, Odysseus, and some time ago I came on the path as a lookout friendly to your hunt.
Odysseus And so, dear mistress, do I toil to good effect?
Athena Know that that man is the doer of these deeds.
Odysseus Then to what end did he thrust his hand so senselessly?
Athena He was mad with anger over the arms of Achilles.
Odysseus Why, then, his onslaught upon the flocks?
Athena It was in your blood, he thought, that he was staining his hand.
Odysseus Then was this a plot aimed against the Greeks?
Athena Yes, and he would have accomplished it, too, had I not been attentive.
Odysseus And what reckless boldness was in his mind that he dared this?
Athena Under night’s cover he set out against you, by stealth and alone.
Odysseus And did he get near us? Did he reach his goal?
Athena He was already at the double doors of the two generals.
Odysseus How, then, did he restrain his hand when it was eager for murder?
Athena It was I who prevented him, by casting over his eyes oppressive notions of his fatal joy, and I who turned his fury aside on the flocks of sheep and the confused droves guarded by herdsmen, the spoil which you had not yet divided. Then he fell upon them and kept cutting out a slaughter of many horned beasts as he split their spines in a circle around him. At one time he thought that he was killing the two Atreidae, holding them in his very hand; at another time it was this commander, and at another that one which he attacked. And I, while the man ran about in diseased frenzy, I kept urging him on, kept hurling him into the snares of doom. Soon, when he rested from this toil, he bound together the living oxen along with all the sheep and brought them home, as though his quarry were men, not well-horned cattle. And now he abuses them, bound together, in the house. But to you also will I show this madness openly, so that when you have seen it you may proclaim it to all the Argives. Be of good courage and stand your ground, and do not regard the man as a cause of disaster for you. I will turn away the beams of his eyes and keep them from landing on your face. You there, you who bind back your captive’s arms, I am calling you, come here! I am calling Ajax! Come out in front of the house!
Odysseus What are you doing, Athena? Do not call him out.
Athena Hold your peace! Do not earn a reputation for cowardice!
Odysseus No, by the gods, let it content you that he stay inside.
Athena What is the danger? Was he not a man before?
Odysseus Yes, a man hostile to me in the past, and especially now.
Athena And is not the sweetest mockery the mockery of enemies?
Odysseus I am content that he stay within his tent.
Athena Do you fear to see a madman right before your eyes?
Odysseus I would not shrink from him in fear, if he were sane.
Athena But he will not see you now, even though you stand nearby.
Odysseus How could that be, if he still sees with the same eyes?
Athena I shall darken them, though their sight is keen.
Odysseus It is true: all is possible when a god contrives.
Athena Stand silent, then, and stay where you are.
Odysseus I must stay. But I would prefer to be far from here!
Athena You there, Ajax, once again I call you! Why do you show so little regard for your ally?
Ajax Welcome, Athena! Welcome, daughter sprung from Zeus! How well have you stood by me! I will crown you with trophies of pure gold in gratitude for this quarry!
Athena A fine pledge. But tell me this—have you dyed your sword well in the Greek army?
Ajax I can make that boast. I do not deny it.
Athena And have you launched your armed hand against the Atreidae?
Ajax Yes, so that never again will they dishonor Ajax.
Athena The men are dead, as I interpret your words.
Ajax Dead they are. Now let them rob me of my arms!
Athena I see. And the son of Laertes, how does his fortune with respect to you? Has he escaped you?
Ajax That blasted fox! You ask me where he is?
Athena Yes, I do. I mean Odysseus, your adversary.
Ajax My most pleasing prisoner, mistress, he sits inside. I do not wish him to die just yet.
Athena Until you do what? Or win what greater advantage?
Ajax Until he be bound to a pillar beneath my roof—
Athena What evil, then, will you inflict on the poor man?
Ajax —and have his back crimsoned by the lash, before he dies.
Athena Do not abuse the poor man so cruelly!
Ajax In all else, Athena, I bid you take your pleasure, but he will pay this penalty and no other.
Athena Well, then, since it delights you to do so, put your arm to use; spare no portion of your plan.
Ajax I go to my work. And I give you this commission: be always for me the close-standing ally that you have been for me today!
Athena Do you see, Odysseus, how great is the strength of the gods? Whom could you have found more prudent than this man, or better able to do what the situation demanded?
Odysseus I know of no one, but in his misery I pity him all the same, even though he hates me, because he is yoked beneath a ruinous delusion—I think of my own lot no less than his. For I see that all we who live are nothing more than phantoms or fleeting shadow.
Athena Therefore since you witness his fate, see that you yourself never utter an arrogant word against the gods, nor assume any swelling pride, if in the scales of fate you are weightier than another in strength of hand or in depth of ample wealth. For a day can press down all human things, and a day can raise them up. But the gods embrace men of sense and abhor the evil.
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