Ajax, 4

Menelaus arrives and decrees that the body should not be buried-- Ajax should be treated as an enemy with all the penalty that entails for his plan to murder the Greek leaders.  Further, his greater crime is insubordination against his superiors.  A city cannot thrive unless the citizens submit to authority and recognize their betters; an army cannot survive unless the soldiery submit absolutely to their commanders.  It was Ajax's great fault that he never did this.

Teucer angrily rebuts.  Ajax did not join the war as a soldier under Menelaus; Ajax was not even a subject under the region of Menelaus's kingdom.  Ajax always acted as a free man-- and his greatness in battle was a testament to this self-regard.  Rising anger as Menelaus and Teucer shout back-and-forth, each pleading his case:  Menelaus saying there must be penalty for his crime, Teucer retorting that no crime was actually committed-- except perhaps denying Ajax the prize that was deservedly his.  Menelaus slinks away looking for backup.

Teucer hastily begins the burial process, with the help of of Tecmessa and Eurysaces.  Instructs Eurysaces to cling to the body-- no intruder would dare separate the two of them.  Agamemnon arrives to tell of Teucer, with a much firmer and angrier tone than Menelaus.  He rightly claims authority as Ajax's general in battle-- so Teucer's previous arguments have less weight.  He also hurls personal insults about Ajax's questionable lineage (through his captive mother), putting him in his place as a subordinate to the great leaders around him.  But Teucer comes back even more directly and forthrightly than before-- reminding Agamemnon of Ajax's brave defense of the ships, of his eagerness to face off against Hector alone, and of Agamemnon's own questionable lineage through his father Atreus's evil actions.  It's ugly.

Odysseus arrives, and quickly (and calmly) says Ajax ought to be buried-- even offering to assist in the burial.  His reasons are many-- he recognizes Ajax's previous greatness, he recognizes the slight he experienced, he knows he has own enemies who could try to impose the same insult after his own death, and Agamemnon (like a politician looking to save face) can claim a spirit of generosity back among the men he leads.  Agamemnon, not happy about it, concedes.  Ultimately, Teucer takes on the burial himself, for he knows that Ajax and Odysseus were true enemies; Odysseus acquiesces and leaves.  The body is carried off.

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Teucer is awesome.  Two amazing speeches.  First, an exchange with Menelaus (1143-1158):

Menelaus: I observed a man once of fast and saucy speech
Who had pressed sailors to make a voyage in a storm;
When the weather got really rough, you couldn't hear
Him piping anywhere: he hid himself in his cloak,
And anybody aboard could step on him at will.
And very possibly you and your reckless speech--
If a big whistling storm should suddenly come
Out of a little cloud-- your clamorous uproar
Might be quenched in a  very similar fashion.

Teucer: And I once saw a man inflated with foolishness,
Who insulted the misfortunes of his neighbors.
And another man, closely resembling me,
Quite like me in temperament, gave him a straight look
And said to him, "Man, don't outrage the dead.
You certainly shall regret it if you do."
That was the advice he gave that worthless man.
I see him now, and he is, it seems to me,
You, and nobody else.  Am I speaking in riddles?

Then, he tells off Agamemnon in the most devastating way possible (1266-1314)

Alas!  How fugitive is the gratitude
Men owe the dead, how soon shown to deceive!
This man has no trifling remembrance,
Ajax, of you, though oftentimes for him
You risked your life and bore the stress of war.
All that is gone now, easily tossed away.
You, who just now spoke that long, foolish speech,
Can't you remember any more at all
How you were penned once close behind your picket,
And all but ruined in the rout of war
With flames licking the ships' quarter-decks
Already, and Hector high in the air, leaping
Over the fosse to board, but Ajax came,
Alone, to save you?  Who fended off that ruin?
Wasn't it he, the very man you now
Declare fought nowhere but where you fought too?
What do you say?  Did he deal fairly then?
And when that other time he closed alone
In single fight with Hector, not conscripted,
But chosen when each champion put his lot
Into the crested helmet-- Ajax then
Put in no shirking lot among the rest,
No clod of moist earth, no! but one to skip
Lightly, first and victorious, from the helm.
It was he that did those things, and I stood by him:
The slave, yes! the barbarian mother's son!
Wretched man, why do you light upon that taunt?
Aren't you aware that your own grandfather,
Old Pelops, was a barbarous Phrygian?  Or
That Atreus, yes, your actual father, set
Before his brother a most unholy dish
Of his own sons' flesh?  And you yourself
Had a Cretan for your mother, in whose bed
An interloping foreigner was discovered,
And she consigned, and by her parent's order,
To drown among the fishes of the deep.
These are your origins.  Can you censure mine?
Telamon was my father, and he won
My mother as his valorous prize of war.
She was a princess by her birth, the child
Of King Laomedon, and Heracles
Distinguished her to be my father's gift.
Two royal races gave me to the world.
How shall I shame my kin if I defend them
In their adversity, when you with shameless words
Would fling them out unburied?  Listen to this:
If you should venture to cast Ajax out,
You must cast out the three of us as well,
Together in one heap with him.  I make my choice
To stand in public and to die for him,
Rather than for your wife-- or was it your brother's wife?
So!  Think of your own case, and no merely mine;
For if you vex me, you may wish you had been
a coward, rather than too bold with me.

Love the references to the stuff I've already read.  It's working!

Ajax, 3

A messenger comes with news. Teucer arrived at the Greek camp and was scolded and abused over the rumors of Ajax's crime. The messenger brings the instruction that Ajax is to be kept in his tent for the remainder of the day. The seer Calchas has said that his raving lunacy is due to the influence of Athena, and is only temporary. It is punishment for Ajax's overconfidence and pride, first expressed to his father when he initially left for battle, and recently boasted to Athena herself when Ajax shunned her help and declared his self-sufficient strength. The news throws the Chorus and Tecmessa into a panic, and they split up into search parties to locate Ajax before tragedy strikes.

Ajax, alone by the beach, prepares his sword in the ground so that he may fall on it.  He makes his final peace and pleas with the gods.  To Zeus: that Teucer might find his body first and protect it from desecration.  To Hermes, that the death may be swift.  To the Furies, that they may ensure a similar end to Agamemnon and Menelaus.  To Helios, that he may shine on his homeland and parents.  His final farewell is to his home country.  Ajax slays himself.

The search parties reunite, and it is Tecmess who finds the body.  Wailing.  The Chorus sees that Ajax had fooled them with his farewell talk before.  They speak of revenge against the enemies in the Greek army who drove Ajax to do this, with special anger toward Athena and her favoritism of Odysseus.  None appreciated Ajax while he lived.

Teucer arrives and vows to protect the body.  He summons for Ajax's son and vows protection for him, too.  He laments his own inability to forestall this-- and dreads returning home and living under the quiet anger that will surely come from his father, Telamon.  He recognizes a singular irony: the great enemy warriors Hector and Ajax exchanged weapons and armor under friendly terms.  Hector was then done in when he was dragged from a chariot by Ajax's girdle; Ajax killed himself on Hector's sword.  There must be a plan of the gods guiding all these events.

The Chorus and Teucer hear an approach and swiftly hide the body.  Menelaus arrives.

Ajax, 2

Ajax emerges, now sane, but distraught, while the Chorus and Tecmessa look on, terrified.  He lashes out at all who have slighted him-- especially Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Menelaus.  He feels abandoned by the gods, disgusted by the war, unappreciated by the army, resentful of his hero father whose standard he can no longer fulfill.  He cannot return home in shame.  He considers going out in a blaze of glory on a suicide charge into the Trojans, but thinks that will give the sons of Atreus too much pleasure.  He is utterly broken.

Tecmessa attempts to bring him back from the brink.  Life surely has more in store-- look at her own improvement after her household had been destroyed!  He owes it to her, and to his mother and father, and his son, to push through the misery and pain.

Ajax calls for his son, to give him his final advice, and states his final testament.  He bestows his great shield, but says his other weaponry must be buried with him-- they will not be distributed among the Greeks, now his enemies.  His son Eurysaces will be raised by Ajax's brother, Teucer.  The business done, he shuts himself away.

The Chorus is in more of a panic than ever.  But Ajax emerges, and announces his next move.  The closeness of death has softened his edge, he says.  He does not want to die.  Let his weapons be buried, as asked.  Meanwhile, he will go to the sea to do penance to the gods.  He will submit to the Greek kings-- it is the honorable and dutiful thing to do.  He goes.  The Chorus is ecstatic.  Wisdom has prevailed.  They celebrate the turn in his behavior, and look forward only to positive outcomes ahead.

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Of course, we're only halfway through the play. Things are bound to get worse.

I was hoping to see Ajax go through the classic five stages of grief-- couldn't find it, though.  At least, no clear instance of Bargaining.

I was surprised to see the daddy issues crop up here.  But it reminded me of that other classic of the Western literary tradition:

Let's see.  Emilio Estevez as Ajax, Ally Sheedy as Tecmessa, Anthony Michael Hall as the Chorus, John Bender as Odysseus, and Principal Vernon as Agamemnon Menelaus.  With special guest Larry Lester's Buns as the slaughtered animals.  

I think I may have something here.

(Note for future reference: I actually just wanted the clip where Emilio Estevez starts crying about his old man telling him to be a winner.  That clip doesn't exist on YouTube.  This "Andy Tribute" montage is soooooo much better.)

Ajax, 1

Odysseus stealthily approaches Ajax's tent, investigating a bizarre crime.  It seems that Ajax has raided the Greeks' livestock pen, murdering its guards and slaughtering many animals, as well as bringing a few back to his tent for further torture and carnage.  Athena stops Odysseus and explains what really happened: in retaliation for being denied Achilleus's armor, Ajax meant to kill Odysseus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and many other officers, so Athena put him in a frenzy and directed him to the livestock instead.  Odysseus is taken aback even more than before, when he only thought he knew had happened.

The Chorus, made up of Ajax's men, approach in fear and horror, having heard terrible rumors about their leader.  They try to make excuses and otherwise explain away the behavior, anything to avoid the truth of what has happened.  Tecmessa (Ajax's wife through capture) emerges and tells them what she knows-- the terrible madness that consumed Ajax, and his singular mindset to slaughter the animals he slaughtered.  It appears, however, that he is emerging from the crazed state.  The men are glad to hear it, but Tecmessa explains that that makes things worse than before: whereas at least Ajax was pleased with himself in his frenzy, now he has fallen into misery with the rest.  He is now wailing in agony inside the tent.

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A very interesting narrative device: we get a picture of the action that has taken place from the perspective of five different characters-- Odysseus, Athena, Ajax, the Chorus, and Tecmessa-- none of whom really understand what has happened (except Athena, I suppose).  Instead, rumors are flying.  It's a frightening (in the sense of disorienting) introduction to the play.

To that end, this passage is a wonderful exploration of how rumors spread, and how political factions batten down the hatches to try to protect their own.  From the Chorus (148-182):

Such tales as these, whisperings and fabrications,
Odysseus is supplying to every ear.
And many believe him.  For as he speaks of you,
His words win credit, and each new hearer
More than the teller relishes his chance
To insult at your distress.
Strike at a great man, and you will not miss:
But if one should bend such slander at me,
None would believe him.  Envy stalks
After magnates of wealth and power...

Can it have been wild, bull-consorting Artemis
That stirred you, evil Tale...

Or was it Enyalios, the bronze-cased Lord of War
That blamed our lord's co-operant spear,
And spitefully paid him out in the night's error?
For never, son of Telamon, of your own heart's prompting
Would you so far have strayed...

Also of note: this is my first explanation of what was going on here, when Homer only hinted at the rivalry between Odysseus and Aias.  (And they seemed so chummy in the Iliad!)  It struck me how amazing it would have been to have all these tales and myths swirling around as the foundation of the common culture.  Here I am trying to re-read it all, but there is so much that is missing and lost.  Oh, well.

Sophocles

A bit of research shows that only seven of Sophocles' 123 plays have survived.  Somehow, I managed to collect the whole set.  Huzzah!

The first book contains Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes.  Translations are by John Moore, Michael Jameson, and David Greene-- all unknown to me, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I'm pretty sure I originally bought this for my freshman seminar, but it's possible that I got it for my Ancient Philosophy course at the University of Chicago, along with the Iliad.  In either case, I can't remember actually reading anything out of it.  Shame on me.

The second book contains the Theban plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone.  I picked this up at Half Price Books when I bought my Aeschylus.  Translations are by Paul Roche again.  Solid.

The overall chronology of authorship, it seems, is Ajax - Antigone - Women of Trachis - Oedipus the King - Electra - Philoctetes - Oedipus at Colonus, so that's the order I'm going in.  That means I'm reading the book with the Theban plays out of order, but they weren't written together anyway, so what's the dif?  We'll see what Roche's introduction has to say about it, though.

Incidentally, what I do remember from freshman seminar is watching a bizarre video  in the library on a crummy VHS and old tube TV starring Morgan Freeman in some sort of retelling of the Oedipus saga in a church or something.  (Which would seem to imply that I got the first Sophocles book there-- but that book doesn't have the Oedipus plays in it.  So now I don't know what happened.)  Anyway, I finally managed to track down what in the hell that was all about.  Feast your eyes on "The Gospel at Colonus" starring, indeed, Morgan Freeman.