CHORUS
Oh, by the Gods, we pray thee, yield to wisdom's voice.
AIAS
Oh, wretch that I was to allow
Those cursfed foes to slip from my hands, and assaulting
Horned kine and goodly flocks, madly to spill
Their life in streams of dark blood!
CHORUS
Why still be afflicted, now the deed is done past cure?
Never can these things be as though they had not been.
AIAS
Thou áll-spýing knave, of áll deéds of shame
The prompt, easy tool, Odysseus the wise!
Villain, of all the camp the most foul and vile!
Huge laughter doubtless shakes thee now for sheer delight.
CHORUS
As God appoints, so every man laughs or laments.
AIAS
Would I might meet him, crushed and broken though I be.
Alas! Woe, woe!
CHORUS
Speak no proud words. Seest thou not to what woe thou art sunk?
AIAS
Zeus, of my fathers the sire,
Might I but kill that hateful and crafty dissembler,
Yea, and those two brother kings, partners in pride,
Then last myself too perish!
TECMESSA
If thus thou prayest, pray therewith for me, that I
Die with thee. Why, when thou art dead, should I live on?
21