Epeisodion 5
Ajax
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.
845
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!
850
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
855
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.
860
The rest he will tell to the shades in Hades.
865
