Tec. Woe, woe is me! From whom did he learn this?
Mess. From Thestor's son, the seer, who says this day,800
This very day, brings life or death to him.
Tec. Ah, friends, come help me in my low estate,
And hasten, some, to bring me Teucros here;
Some seek the western bays, and some the east;
Go ye, and search the wanderings of my lord,
So fraught with evil. Well I see it now,
My husband tricked me, and has cast me out
From all his old affection. Ah, my son!
What shall we do? We must not linger here,
But I will onward with all strength I have.810
On, hasten we; no time for loitering this,
[Wishing to save a man so bent on death.]
Chor. Full ready I, and not in words alone:
Swift action and swift feet shall go with them.
Aias is seen in the distance by the sea-shore, fixing his sword in the ground.
Aias. The slayer stands where sharpest it will pierce,—
If one had time to think of that,—the gift
Of Hector, whom of all men most I loathed,
And found most hostile. And in Troïa's soil,820
Soil of our foes, it stands with sharpened edge,
Fresh whetted with the stone that wears the steel;
And I have fixed it carefully and well
Where most it favours speedy death for him
Who standeth here. So far, so good: and first,
Ο Zeus, (for this is right,) be kind to me.
I ask but this, (no mighty boon, I trow,)
Send some one as a messenger to bear
The evil news to Teucros, that he first
May lift my corpse, by this sharp sword transfixed,
