Ares hath lifted horror and anguish from our eyes.
Io, Io! Now again,
Now, Zeus, can the bright and blithe
Glory of happier days return
To our swift-voyaging ships, for now
Hath Aias wholly forgot his grief,
And all rites due to the gods he now
Fain would meetly perform with loyal worship.
Mighty is time to dwindle all things.
Nought would I call too strange for belief, when Aias thus beyond hope
Hath learnt to repent his proud feuds,
And lay aside anger against the Atreidæ.
[Enter Messenger.]
MESSENGER
My friends, these tidings I would tell you first:
Teucer is present, from the Mysian heights
But now returned, and in the central camp
By all the Greeks at once is being reviled.
As he drew near they knew him from afar,
Then gathering around him one and all
With taunts assailed him from this side and that,
Calling him kinsman of that maniac.
That plotter against the host, saying that nought
Should save him; stoned and mangled he must die.
And so they had come to such a pitch that swords
Plucked from their sheaths stood naked in men's hands.
Yet when the strife ran highest, it was stayed
By words from the elders and so reconciled.
But where is Aias? I must speak with him.
He whom it most concerns must be told all.
CHORUS
He is not within, but has just now gone forth
With a new purpose yoked to a new mood.
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