3–1
Tiresias
At that rate, I suppose you are equally incredulous when you hear of women being turned into birds or trees or beasts,— Aëdon for instance, or Daphne, or Callisto?
Menippus
If I fall in with any of these ladies, I will see what they have to say about it. But to return, friend, to your own case: were you a prophet even in the days of your femininity? or did manhood and prophecy come together?
Tiresias
Pooh, you know nothing of the matter. I once settled a dispute among the Gods, and was blinded by Hera for my pains; whereupon Zeus consoled me with the gift of prophecy.
Menippus
Ah, you love a lie still, Tiresias. But there, ’tis your trade. You prophets! There is no truth in you.
Agamemnon
If you went mad and wrought your own destruction, Ajax, in default of that you designed for us all, why put the blame on Odysseus? Why would you not vouchsafe him a look or a word, when he came to consult Tiresias that day? you stalked past your old comrade in arms as if he was beneath your notice.
Ajax
Had I not good reason? My madness lies at the door of my solitary rival for the arms.
Agamemnon
Did you expect to be unopposed, and carry it over us all without a contest?
Ajax
Surely, in such a matter. The armour was mine by natural right, seeing I was Achilles’s cousin. The rest of you, his undoubted superiors, refused to compete, recognizing my claim. It was the son of Laertes, he that I had rescued scores of times when he would have been cut to pieces by the Phrygians, who set up for a better man and a stronger claimant than I.
