“He spake. My heart was broken as I heard His bidding to recross the shadowy sea To Egypt, for the way was difficult And long; and yet I answered him and said:—
“ ‘Duly will I perform, O aged seer, What thou commandest. But I pray thee tell, And truly, whether all the sons of Greece Whom Nestor and myself, in setting sail, Left on the Trojan coast, have since returned Safe with their galleys, or have any died Untimely in their ships or in the arms Of their companions since the war was closed?’
“I spake; again he answered me and said:— ‘Why dost thou ask, Atrides, since to know Thou needest not, nor is it well to explore The secrets of my mind? Thou canst not, sure, Refrain from tears when thou shalt know the whole. Many are dead, and many left in Troy. Two leaders only of the well-armed Greeks Were slain returning; in that combat thou Didst bear a part; one, living yet, is kept, Far in the mighty main, from his return.
“ ‘Amid his well-oared galleys Ajax died. For Neptune first had driven him on the rocks Of Gyrae, yet had saved him from the sea; And he, though Pallas hated him, had yet Been rescued, but for uttering boastful words, Which drew his fate upon him. He had said That he, in spite of all the gods, would come Safe from those mountain waves. When Neptune heard The boaster’s challenge, instantly he laid His strong hand on the trident, smote the rock And cleft it to the base. Part stood erect, Part fell into the deep. There Ajax sat, And felt the shock, and with the falling mass Was carried headlong to the billowy depths Below, and drank the brine and perished there. Thy brother in his roomy ships