Ajax MOR part 2 in response to Riess
I think that right now Tecmessa is just trying to get the best out of the situation. She realizes that she has no protection for her or her son apart from Ajax and knows that very bad things could happened to them both.
Tecmessa:
Doom me not to the cruel taunts of those
Who hate thee, left a bond-slave in strange hands.
For shouldst thou perish and forsake me in death,
That very day assuredly I to
Shall be seized by the Argives, with thy son
To endure henceforth the portion of a slave.
Then one of my new masters with barbed words
Shall wound me scoffing: "See the concubine
Of Ajax, who was mightiest of the host,
What servile tasks are hers who lived so daintily!"
Thus will men speak, embittering my hard lot,
But words of shame for thee and for thy race.
Nay, piety forbid thee to forsake
Thy father in his drear old age-thy mother
With her sad weight of years, who many a time
Prays to the gods that thou come home alive.
And pity, O king, thy son, who without thee
To foster his youth, must live the orphaned ward
Of loveless guardians. Think how great a sorrow
Dying thou wilt bequeath to him and me.
For I have nothing left to look to more
Save thee. By thy spear was my country ravaged;
And by another stroke did fate lay low
My mother and my sire to dwell with Hades.
Without thee then what fatherland were mine?
What wealth? On thee alone rests all my hope.
O take thought for me too. Do we not owe
Remembrance, where we have met with any joy?
For kindness begets kindness evermore
But he who from whose mind fades the memory
Of benefits, noble is he no more.
Plus, maybe Stockholm syndrome, who knows. She is obviously worried about what will happen to her and her family, since Ajax is the only family she has now, slave or not. I think that Ajax was just blinded and fooled by Athena who made him think she was on his side. He still seems to be under her spell when he talks to her. Maybe she was just trying to show off to Odysseus? I do wonder about the army though; do they know about this yet? It seems that Ajax is opting for an “honorable” death at this point, hoping that in his death he can find redemption for his actions. Do you think this is all Athena’s fault? Did she influence him and force him to attack his comrades in the first place? We know he has anger issues, but it seems at least in the past that he’s been able to control himself so far.
What do you think the army’s response is going to be when they find out that their ally tried to kill them? What will their response be to Athena “saving” them?
I think that right now Tecmessa is just trying to get the best out of the situation. She realizes that she has no protection for her or her son apart from Ajax and knows that very bad things could happened to them both.
Tecmessa:
Doom me not to the cruel taunts of those
Who hate thee, left a bond-slave in strange hands.
For shouldst thou perish and forsake me in death,
That very day assuredly I to
Shall be seized by the Argives, with thy son
To endure henceforth the portion of a slave.
Then one of my new masters with barbed words
Shall wound me scoffing: "See the concubine
Of Ajax, who was mightiest of the host,
What servile tasks are hers who lived so daintily!"
Thus will men speak, embittering my hard lot,
But words of shame for thee and for thy race.
Nay, piety forbid thee to forsake
Thy father in his drear old age-thy mother
With her sad weight of years, who many a time
Prays to the gods that thou come home alive.
And pity, O king, thy son, who without thee
To foster his youth, must live the orphaned ward
Of loveless guardians. Think how great a sorrow
Dying thou wilt bequeath to him and me.
For I have nothing left to look to more
Save thee. By thy spear was my country ravaged;
And by another stroke did fate lay low
My mother and my sire to dwell with Hades.
Without thee then what fatherland were mine?
What wealth? On thee alone rests all my hope.
O take thought for me too. Do we not owe
Remembrance, where we have met with any joy?
For kindness begets kindness evermore
But he who from whose mind fades the memory
Of benefits, noble is he no more.
Plus, maybe Stockholm syndrome, who knows. She is obviously worried about what will happen to her and her family, since Ajax is the only family she has now, slave or not. I think that Ajax was just blinded and fooled by Athena who made him think she was on his side. He still seems to be under her spell when he talks to her. Maybe she was just trying to show off to Odysseus? I do wonder about the army though; do they know about this yet? It seems that Ajax is opting for an “honorable” death at this point, hoping that in his death he can find redemption for his actions. Do you think this is all Athena’s fault? Did she influence him and force him to attack his comrades in the first place? We know he has anger issues, but it seems at least in the past that he’s been able to control himself so far.
What do you think the army’s response is going to be when they find out that their ally tried to kill them? What will their response be to Athena “saving” them?
Nov 30, 2019
ReplyDeleteAjax part 3 response to Aaliyah part 2
I don’t think that Athena gave Ajax this hate and murderous anger, because if she did, why did she save them all? Why would she put them all in danger, just to save them? The only reason is so that the army will hate Ajax. When the army does find out of his attempt, I think they will banish him, or kill him. Ajax has already killed himself, so there is nothing they can really do now. I guess they are safer now that he is gone. Tecmessa seems very distraught that Ajax killed himself, even though he did force her into marriage. You do put up a good point, Ajax and her son is Tecmessa’s only family now, so I guess she does have to feel some sort of connection with him and her son. If I was Tecmessa, I would still feel some hate towards Ajax, but not my child. Ajax almost seems like the bad guy in this play, even though he is on the good side with Odysseus and the Greeks. Going on to the suicide, why did Ajax even kill himself? Was it because he was so humiliated with himself and his actions towards the animals that he has to kill himself?
AJAX
The slayer stands so that his edge may cleave
Most surely (if there be leisure for such thought),
Being the gift of Hector, of all friends
Most unloved, and most hateful to my sight.
Then it is planted in Troy's hostile soil,
New-sharpened on the iron-biting whet.
And heedfully have I planted it, that so
With a swift death it prove to me most kind.
Thus have I made all ready. Next be thou
The first, O Zeus, to aid me, as is right.
It is no mighty boon that I shall crave.
Send some announcer of the evil news
To Teucer, that he first may lift me up,
When I have fallen upon this reeking sword,
Lest ere he come some enemy should espy me
And cast me forth to dogs and birds a prey.
This, O Zeus, I entreat thee, and likewise call
On Hermes, guide to the underworld, to lay me
Asleep without a struggle, at one swift bound,
When I have thrust my heart through with this sword.
Next I call on those maidens ever-living
And ever watchful of all human miseries,
The dread swift-striding Erinyes, that they mark
How by the Atreidae I have been destroyed:
And these vile men by a vile doom utterly
May they cut off, even as they see me here.
Come, O ye swift avenging Erinyes,
Spare not, touch with affliction the whole host.
And thou, whose chariot mounts up the steep sky,
Thou Sun, when on the land where I was born
Thou shalt look down, check thy gold-spangled rein,
And announce my disasters and my doom
To my aged sire and her who nurtured me.
She, woful woman, when she hears these tidings
Will wail out a loud dirge through all the town.
But I waste labour with this idle moan.
The act must now be done, and that with speed.
O Death, Death, come now and look upon me.-
No, 'tis there I shall meet and speak to thee.
But thee, bright daylight which I now behold,
And Helios in his chariot I accost
For this last time of all, and then no more.
O sunlight! O thou hallowed soil, my own
Salamis, stablished seat of my sire's hearth,
And famous Athens, with thy kindred race,
And you, ye springs and streams, and Trojan plains,
Farewell, all ye who have sustained my life.
This is the last word Ajax speaks to you.
All else in Hades to the dead will I say.
He falls on his sword. His body lies partially concealed by the underbrush. SEMI-CHORUS 1 enters.
What was the actual reason for him killing himself?