Metamorphoses

Ovid

Ovid. Metamorphoses. More, Brookes, translator. Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922.

  1. “Nor am I to be blamed, if Vulcan's isle
  2. of Lemnos has become the residence
  3. of Philoctetes. Greeks, defend yourselves,
  4. for you agreed to it! Yes, I admit
  5. I urged him to withdraw from toils of war
  6. and those of travel and attempt by rest
  7. to ease his cruel pain. He took my advice
  8. and lives! The advice was not alone well meant
  9. (that would have been enough) but it was wise.
  10. Because our prophets have declared, he must
  11. lead us, if we may still maintain our hope
  12. for Troy's destruction—therefore, you must not
  13. intrust that work to me. Much better, send
  14. the son of Telamon. His eloquence
  15. will overcome the hero's rage, most fierce
  16. from his disease and anger: or else his
  17. invention of some wile will skilfully
  18. deliver him to us.—The Simois
  19. will first flow backward, Ida stand without
  20. its foliage, and Achaia promise aid
  21. to Troy itself; ere, lacking aid from me,
  22. the craft of stupid Ajax will avail.
  23. “Though, Philoctetes, you should be enraged
  24. against your friends, against the king and me;
  25. although you curse and everlastingly
  26. devote my head to harm; although you wish,
  27. to ease your anguish, that I may be given
  28. into your power, that you may shed my blood;
  29. and though you wait your turn and chance at me;
  30. still I will undertake the quest and will
  31. try all my skill to bring you back with me.
  32. If my good fortune then will favor me,
  33. I shall obtain your arrows; as I made
  34. the Trojan seer my captive, as I learned
  35. the heavenly oracles and fate of Troy,
  36. and as I brought back through a host of foes
  37. Minerva's image from the citadel.
  38. “And is it possible, Ajax may now
  39. compare himself with me? Truly the Fates
  40. will hold Troy from our capture, if we leave
  41. the statue. Where is valiant Ajax now,
  42. where are the boasts of that tremendous man?
  43. Why are you trembling, while Ulysses dares
  44. to go beyond our guards and brave the night?
  45. In spite of hostile swords, he goes within
  46. not only the strong walls of Troy but even
  47. the citadel, lifts up the goddess from
  48. her shrine, and takes her through the enemy!
  49. If I had not done this, Telamon's son
  50. would bear his shield of seven bull hides in vain.
  51. That night I gained the victory over Troy—
  52. 'Twas then I won our war with Pergama,
  53. because I made it possible to win.
  54. “Stop hinting by your look and muttered words
  55. that Diomed was my partner in the deed.
  56. The praise he won is his. You, certainly
  57. fought not alone, when you held up your shield
  58. to save the allied fleet: a multitude
  59. was with you, but a single man gave me
  60. his valued help.
  61. “And if he did not know
  62. a fighting man can not gain victory
  63. so surely as the wise man, that the prize
  64. is given to something rarer than a brave right hand,
  65. he would himself be a contender now
  66. for these illustrious arms. Ajax the less
  67. would have come forward too, so would the fierce
  68. Eurypylus, so would Andraemon's son.
  69. Nor would Idomeneus withhold his claim,
  70. nor would his countryman Meriones.
  71. Yes, Menelaus too would seek the prize.
  72. All these brave men, my equals in the field,
  73. have yielded to my wisdom.
  74. “Your right hand
  75. is valuable in war, your temper stands
  76. in need of my direction. You have strength
  77. without intelligence; I look out for
  78. the future. You are able in the fight;
  79. I help our king to find the proper time.
  80. Your body may give service, and my mind
  81. must point the way: and just as much as he
  82. who guides the ship must be superior
  83. to him who rows it; and we all agree
  84. the general is greater than the soldier; so,
  85. do I excel you. In the body lives
  86. an intellect much rarer than a hand,
  87. by that we measure human excellence.
  88. “O chieftains, recompense my vigilance!
  89. For all these years of anxious care, award
  90. this honor to my many services.
  91. Our victory is in sight; I have removed
  92. the opposing fates and, opening wide the way
  93. to capture Pergama, have captured it.
  94. Now by our common hopes, by Troy's high walls
  95. already tottering and about to fall,
  96. and by the gods that I won from the foe,
  97. by what remains for wisdom to devise
  98. or what may call for bold and fearless deeds—
  99. if you think any hope is left for Troy,
  100. remember me! Or, if you do not give
  101. these arms to me, then give them all to her!”
  102. And he pointed to Minerva's fateful head.
  103. The assembled body of the chiefs was moved;
  104. and then, appeared the power of eloquence:
  105. the fluent man received, amid applause,
  106. the arms of the brave man. His rival, who
  107. so often when alone, stood firm against
  108. great Hector and the sword, and flames and Jove,
  109. stood not against a single passion, wrath.
  110. The unconquerable was conquered by his grief.
  111. He drew his sword, and said:—“This is at least
  112. my own; or will Ulysses also claim
  113. this, for himself. I must use this against
  114. myself—the blade which often has been wet,
  115. dripping with blood of Phrygians I have slain,.
  116. Will drip with his own master's:blood,
  117. lest any man but Ajax vanquish Ajax.”
  118. Saying this, he turned toward the vital spot
  119. in his own breast, which never had felt a wound,
  120. the fated sword and plunged it deeply in.
  121. though many sought to aid, no hand had strength
  122. to draw that steel—deep driven. The blood itself
  123. unaided drove it out. The ensanguined earth
  124. sprouted from her green turf that purple flower
  125. which grew of old from Hyacinthine blood.
  126. Its petals now are charged with double freight—
  127. the warrior's name, Apollo's cry of woe.