Of Achaea: that is how Ulysses fights, that is why he is to be feared! So, by abandonment or death, he has drawn the strength The Greek cause, and uncovered gold, he had previously hidden, as evidence Too well the exposure of his own supposed madness, accused him of betraying Would have preferred to be left behind also: he would have been alive, orĪt least have died an irreproachable death: that man there, remembering all Heir to Hercules’s arrows, weakened by sicknessĪnd hunger, clothed and fed by the birds, employs the arrows, that fate intendedįor Troy, in firing at birds! Still, he is alive, because he did not accompany Hidden in the woodland caves, you move the stones, now, with your laments,Ĭurses that he deserves, and, if there are gods, do not curse in vain! Now,Īlas, he who was sworn to the same conflict as ourselves, one of our captains, Would not hold you, to our shame, Philoctetes, Shall he own all, who wanted none: shall I, who was the first to put myselfĪt risk, be denied honour, and my cousin’s gifts? if only his madness hadīeen real, or been believed, and this exhorter to crime had never been ourĬompanion against the Phrygian fortresses! Then Lemnos This cowardly spirit’s deceit, and dragged him to the weapons he shunned? Son of Nauplius, the shrewder man, uncovered Last, and shirked the fight with a pretence of madness, until Palamades, ‘Are the arms denied me because I took up arms first, and withoutīeing rooted out, and shall he seem the better man who seized his weapons Why are you, Ulysses, the son of Sisyphus, and similar to him in your capabilityįor fraud and trickery, involving an alien race in the affairs of the Aeacidae? Lofty Jupiter acknowledges Aeacus and confesses him to be his son: so AjaxĮven this ancestry would not further my cause, if I did not share it withĪeacus, were brothers: Achilles was my cousin, I ask for my cousin’s weapons! Where Sisyphus, son of Aeolus rolls his heavy stone.
Telamon’s father was Aeacus, who judges there, among the silent dead, Powerful argument, a son of Telamon, he who, under brave Hercules, captured the walls of Troy, and sailed in the ship from Pagasae, with the Argonauts, to Colchis. ‘As for me, if my courage were in doubt, my noble birth is a
He has already won the prize in this contest, since when he is defeated he There is nothing magnificentįor Ajax in it, however great the thing is, if Ulysses has aspired to it. Great: but my rival detracts from the honour of it. Witness, in which night is the only sharer! I confess the prize I seek is Since you have seen them: let Ulysses tell you of his that are conducted without That I need to mention my deeds to you, Pelasgians, I am as powerful in theįierce conflicts of the battle, as that man is in talk. Then, it is less risky to battle using lying words, than to fight with fists,Īnd I am not prompt to speak, as he is not to act. In front of these vessels I plead my cause, and Ulysses opposes me, by Jupiter! Yet heĭid not hesitate to give way before Hector’sīlazing torches, which I resisted, which I drove away from the boats. Of the seven-layered shield, leapt up, and, fired with indignation, he lookedĪnd the ships beached on the shore, and, pointing to them, he said: ‘It is When the captains were seated, and the rank and file were standing, Glaucus tells Scylla of his transformation.
The debate over the arms: Ulysses speaks.