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ATH.
I knew thy doubts, Odysseus, and came forth
Zealous to guard thy perilous hunting-path.

OD.
Dear Queen! and am I labouring to an end?

ATH.
Thou schem’st not idly. This is Aias’ deed.

OD.
What can have roused him to a work so wild?

ATH.
His grievous anger for Achilles’ arms.

OD.
But wherefore on the flock this violent raid?

ATH.
He thought to imbrue his hands with your heart’s blood.

OD.
What? Was this planned against the Argives, then?

ATH.
Planned, and performed, had I kept careless guard.

OD.
What daring spirit, what hardihood, was here!

ATH.
Alone by night in craft he sought your tents.

OD.
How? Came he near them? Won he to his goal?

ATH.
He stood in darkness at the generals’ gates.

OD.
What then restrained his eager hand from murder?

ATH.
I turned him backward from his baleful joy,
And overswayed him with blind phantasies,
To swerve against the flocks and well-watched herd
Not yet divided from the public booty.
There plunging in he hewed the horned throng,
And with him Havoc ranged: while now he thought
To kill the Atreidae with hot hand, now this
Now that commander, as the fancy grew.
I, joining with the tumult of his mind,
Flung the wild victim on the fatal net.
Anon, this toil being overpast, he draws
The living oxen and the panting sheep
With cords to his home, not as a horned prey,
But as in triumph marshalling his foes:
Whom now he tortures in their bonds within.
Come, thou shalt see this madness in clear day,
And tell to the Argives all I show thee here
Only stand firm and shrink not, I will turn
His eyes askance, not to distinguish thee,
Fear nought–Ho! thou that bindest to thy will
The limbs of those thy captives, come thou forth!
Aias! advance before thy palace gate!

OD.
My Queen! what dost thou? Never call him forth.

ATH.
Hush, hush! Be not so timorous, but endure.

OD.
Nay, nay! Enough. He is there, and let him bide.

ATH.
What fear you? Dates his valour from to day?

OD.
He was and is my valiant enemy.

ATH.
Then is not laughter sweetest o’er a foe?

OD.
No more! I care not he should pass abroad.

ATH.
You flinch from seeing the madman in full view.

OD.
When sane, I ne’er had flinched before his face.

ATH.
Well, but even now he shall not know thee near.

OD.
How, if his eyes be not transformed or lost?

ATH.
I will confound his sense although he see.

OD.
Well, nothing is too hard for Deity.

ATH.
Stand still and keep thy place without a word.

OD.
I must. Would I were far away from here!

ATH.
Aias! Again I summon thee. Why pay
So scanty heed to her who fights for thee?

[Enter AIAS with a bloody scourge.]

AIAS.
Hail, offspring of the Highest! Pallas, hail!
Well hast thou stood by me. Triumphal gold
Shall crown thy temple for this lordly prey.