MESSENGER
Alas! Alas!
Then too late on this errand was I sped
By him who sent me; or I have proved too slow.
CHORUS
What urgent need has been neglected here?
MESSENGER
Teucer forbade that Aias should go forth
Outside his hut, till he himself should come.
CHORUS
Well, he is gone. To wisest purpose now
His mind is turned, to appease heaven's wrath.
MESSENGER
These words of thine are filled with utter folly,
If there was truth in Calchas' prophecy.
CHORUS
What prophecy? And what know you of this thing?
MESSENGER
Thus much I know, for by chance I was present.
Leaving the circle of consulting chiefs
Where sat the Atreidæ, Calchas went aside,
And with kind purpose grasping Teucer's hand
Enjoined him that by every artifice
He should restrain Aias within his tents
This whole day, and not leave him to himself,
If he wished ever to behold him alive.
For on this day alone, such were his words,
Would the wrath of divine Athena vex him.
For the overweening and unprofitable
Fall crushed by heaven-sent calamities,
(So the seer spoke,) whene'er one born a man
Has conceived thoughts too high for man's estate:
And this man, when he first set forth from home,
Showed himself foolish, when his father spoke to him
Wisely: "My son, seek victory by the spear;
33
