“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 escaped The danger, for imperial Juno’s aid Preserved him. But when near Meleia’s heights About to land, a tempest seized and swept The hero thence across the fishy deep, Lamenting his hard lot, to that far cape Where once abode Thyestes, and where now His son Aegisthus dwelt. But when the gods Sent other winds, and safe at last appeared The voyage, they returned, and reached their home. With joy he stepped upon his native soil, And kissed the earth that bore him, while his tears At that most welcome sight flowed fast and warm.
Him from a lofty perch a spy beheld, Whom treacherous Aegisthus planted there, Bribed by two golden talents. He had watched The whole year through, lest, coming unobserved, The king might make his prowess felt. The spy Flew to the royal palace with the news, And instantly Aegisthus planned a snare.