How does ajax greet odysseus

With the appearance of the various heroes and lesser divinities, Book 11 gives the modern reader an extraordinary anthology of mythological lives. For the modern reader, they provide invaluable insight into early Greek mythology.

In even being allowed to enter Hades, Odysseus attains a privileged, transcendent status. Though he turns away somewhat from his warrior ethos, he still rejoices to hear that his son has become a great warrior.

Kleos has thus evolved from an accepted cultural value into a more complex and somewhat problematic principle. Anticleia recalls those pining away for Odysseus in Ithaca. Agamemnon and Achilles shift our thoughts back to Troy. The interruption is transparently used to break the long first-person narrative into smaller, more manageable chunks. Ace your assignments with our guide to The Odyssey!

SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why does Telemachus go to Pylos and Sparta? How does Odysseus escape Polyphemus?

Why does Odysseus kill the suitors? How does Penelope test Odysseus? What is happening at the beginning of The Odyssey? Odysseus, however, reacts negatively at line 74, and this triggers a stichomythic exchange in which Athena presents several arguments to convince him to give in 75— The first one is a reproach of cowardice, which can again be best understood by juxtaposing it with a part of the preceding dialogue:. Odysseus had presented himself, quite confidently, as the person the Greeks had charged with investigating the mysterious massacre, who then energetically took over this task cf.

Yet now, he rejects the occasion to complete his task. Odysseus, at least, stands his ground, to which Athena reacts with a rhetorical question, varying the cowardice argument, followed by another implicit rejection by Odysseus:. This can be clearly seen in the next exchange, which is best understood when presented in two separate juxtapositions:. Then, the exchange gets slightly more complicated: Athena brings forward a new argument, initiating a new stage of the conversation:.

Athena counters this by pointing out once more that Ajax will not see him, a claim of which Odysseus at first remains sceptical: how could he not see him if his eyes do see? However, even after Athena seems to finally have convinced Odysseus, he closes the encounter at line 88 by saying that he still would prefer not to see Ajax. Athena then speaks to the delusional Ajax, who triumphs in the middle of the carcasses of the cattle he thinks are his enemies, whilst cruelly mocking him in front of the onlooker Odysseus lines 89— Do you see , Odysseus, how great is the power of the gods?

What man was found to be more prudent than this one, or better at doing what was right? I know of none, and I pity him in his misery, though he is my enemy, not thinking of his fate, but my own; because I see that all of us who live are nothing but ghosts, or a fleeting shadow. In his answer, Odysseus acknowledges the awesome power of the gods. His reaction, however, is to pity his disgraced fellow human being Ajax. For he recognises that, from a human perspective, divine power means first and foremost human frailty.

He does not prove them false but points out what is relevant to him—again, the same pattern occurs that has been established in the first part of the prologue and has been discussed above. This becomes even clearer if one remembers that the qualities attributed to Ajax—prowess in counsel and action—are akin to traditional heroic virtues.

A major point has been established: Odysseus has, from his human perspective, found an adequate reaction to the thwarted hero Ajax. His reaction is based on the tragic notion of human frailty which he expresses in traditional terms already found in Pindar. Look , then, at such things, and never yourself utter an arrogant word against the gods, nor assume conceit because you outweigh another in strength or in profusion of great wealth.

Know that a single day brings down or raises up again all mortal things, and the gods love the prudent and hate the base. This answer contains, as said above, a new piece of information: if Athena calls on Odysseus not to say an arrogant word to the gods himself , we may infer that this is precisely what Ajax has done. This challenges the re-evaluation brought about by Odysseus: was Ajax out of character during his appearance after all?

Ajax, having just been rehabilitated, becomes problematic again. This time, however, Odysseus does not provide a more adequate reaction on stage. But how can they do so? The answer is clear: by watching the tragedy of Ajax that has just begun and that will provide them with a more comprehensive picture of its complex hero. This process of finding an adequate evaluation of the complex figure of Ajax that does justice both to his undeniable greatness and to his deeply problematic character starts with the prologue.

Whereas references to Aeschylus and Euripides and to other Sophoclean plays are beyond the scope of this paper, it can at least be said that the Ajax shows how the dialogic nature of the prologue is ingenuously used by the poet for great dramatic effect. At Trach. The prologue of the Ajax suggests a possible and genuinely tragic answer to these reproaches: maybe we humans just do not understand the gods—and vice versa. I would like to thank Gunther Martin, Federica Iurescia, and Giada Sorrentino for their comments on my paper, as well as the attendants of the conference in Zurich for the discussion.

In doing so, my paper is firmly anchored within the domain of pragmatics, since both communicative systems, the external and the internal one in the terms of Pfister 3—4 , are, for the fact of being communicative, open to a pragmatic analysis cf. Jucker and Locher in particular 1—2; an analysis of the external system inevitably shows overlaps with domains such as narratology and reception theory. This is even more the case since the paper does not analyse these two systems alongside each other if such a thing is possible but shows how understanding the external communicative system depends on a precise understanding of the internal one.

Du Bois , especially — Note the continued presence of the god -and-man theme in line It is, however, somewhat problematic in that it essentially reads the exchange of Athena and Odysseus from this line Budelmann — This is a rough picture, of course: there are dialogic prologues in Euripides e.

Trojan Women and Aeschylus sometimes has no prologues at all, e. The appearance of Heracles at the end of the Philoctetes is something very different; on gods on stage in Sophoclean drama, see Parker 11— Allan, R. Rijksbaron eds.

Bakhtin, M. Barker, E. Budelmann, F. Burian, P. Ormand ed. Clark, H. It's the great version of having your pants pulled down in the schoolyard--utter shame and humiliation--he made a fool of himself. And the Greek culture, in some ways like the Japanese culture that gives rise to Zen practice, is very much based on honor and shame. And Ajax, who is preoccupied with being a hero, cannot bear being shamed. And as a result he kills himself. He will not bear the shame of his public humiliation. Well, first there's the model of the hero who is preoccupied or proud of his own strength, his own effort, his own accomplishment.

And not only can we fall into that trap of pride, we can think that our practice is about making ourselves stronger, making ourselves more heroic, making ourselves more invincible. I think that is the basic fantasy of practice that everybody comes with one way or another - that we will become spiritually heroic, spiritually invincible - that whatever insecurity or doubt or anxiety that plagues us, that drives us to practice - we think practice will make us stronger, invincible, invulnerable to all those things.

And it does, up to a point. Does make us stronger, up to a point. But the real lesson of practice is not to become a spiritual hero, although believe me, lots of people like to stop at that stage, or wish they could. We then have to face much of what Ajax faced. Perhaps not having our experience or our talent recognized.

But more than that we have to face being subject to things that are completely out of our control. Like Ajax's madness, we will all be visited by the gods one way or another, inflicting upon us things that are outside of our control, whether it is simply aging, or illness, or our eventual death. I think that it's also the things that are inflicted upon us that are the source of shame that we particularly have to engage in our practice.

We have to face not just the fact of illness, but the illness that gives us disability and makes us lose our strength and our good looks and our ability. We have to face the possibility of things like dementia, of losing our mind, losing our memory, even in the case I would say of my old teacher losing some aspects of her character that made her who she was.

This is nobody's fault. This is what is visited on us. But now, since he has had pause and rest from the plague, [] he has been utterly subjected to lowly [ kakos ] anguish, and we similarly grieve no less than before. Surely, then, these are two sorrows [ kakos , plural], instead of one? Chorus Indeed, I agree, and so I fear that a blow sent by a god has hit him. How could it be otherwise, if his spirit is no lighter [] than when he was plagued, now that he is released?

Chorus In what way did the plague [ kakos ] first swoop down on him? Tell us who share your pain how it happened. Tecmessa You will hear all that took place, since you are involved. Then I admonished him and said, "What are you doing, Ajax? Why do you set out unsummoned on this expedition, [] neither called by messenger, nor warned by trumpet?

In fact the whole army is sleeping now. But he came in with his captives hobbled together--bulls, herding dogs, and his fleecy quarry. Some he beheaded; of some he cut the twisted throat or broke the spine; others [] he abused in their bonds as though they were men, though falling only upon cattle. At last he darted out through the door, and dragged up words to speak to some shadow--now against the Atreidae, now about Odysseus--with many a mocking boast of all the abuse [ hubris ] that in vengeance he had fully repaid them during his raid.

At first, and for a long while, he sat without a sound. But then he threatened me with those dreadful threats, if I did not declare all that had happened [ pathos ], and he demanded to know what on earth was the business he found himself in.

But he immediately groaned mournful groans, such as I had never heard from him before. For he had always taught that such wailing [] was for cowardly [ kakos ] and low-hearted men. He used to grieve quietly without the sound of loud weeping, but instead moaned low like a bull. And now, prostrate in such miserable [ kakos ] fortune, tasting no food, no drink, [] the man sits idly where he has fallen in the middle of the iron-slain cattle.

And plainly he plans to do something terrible. Somehow his words and his laments say as much. Ah, my friends [ philos , plural] --for it was my errand to ask you this--come in and help him, if in any way you can. Chorus Tecmessa, daughter of Teleutas, terrible is your news that our lord has been possessed by his sorrows [ kakos , plural]. Tecmessa Soon there will be more sorrow, it seems. Did you not hear [] Ajax, did you not hear his resounding howl? Chorus The man seems to be sick, or else to be still pained by the disease which was recently with him, since he sees its traces.

Tecmessa [] Ah, miserable me! Eurysaces, it is for you he calls! What can his purpose be? Where are you? I am miserable! Chorus He seems to be sane--open the door! Tecmessa There, it is open. Now you can look on this man's deeds, and his true condition. Ajax [] Ah, good sailors, you alone of my friends [] who alone still abide by the true bond of friendship, see how great a wave has just now crested over and broken around me, set on by a murderous storm!

Chorus Ah, lady, too true, it seems, was your testimony! Ajax [] Ah, you clan staunch in maritime skill, who embarked and stroked the oar-blade upon the brine, in you, in you alone [] I see a defense against suffering. Come, slay me on top of these! Chorus [] Hush! Speak words of better omen! Ajax Do you see the bold, the strong of heart, [] the dauntless in battles with the enemy--do you see me now, terrible in the force of my hands against beasts unformidable?

Oh, the mockery! How I have been violated [verb from hubris ]! Ajax Away with you! Will you not take yourself outside! Ah, me! Ajax My rotten fortune! Chorus Why grieve [verb from algos ] when the deed is past recall? These things can never be but as they are.

Ajax Ah, you who spy out all things, [] you ready tool of every crime [ kakos , plural], ah, son of Laertes, you filthiest sneak in all the army, I am sure you laugh loud and long for joy!

Ajax Yet if only I could see him, even shattered as I am! Chorus Make no big threats! Do you not see the trouble [ kakos ] you are in? Ajax O Zeus, forefather of my forebears, if only I might destroy that deep dissembler, that hateful [ kakos ] sneak, and [] the two brother-kings, and finally die myself, also!

Tecmessa When you make that prayer, pray at the same time for me that I, too, may die. What reason is there for me to live when you are dead? Ajax Ah, Darkness, my light! I am no longer worthy to look for help to the race of the gods, [] or for any good from men, creatures of a day.

No, the daughter of Zeus, the valiant goddess, abuses me to my destruction. Where, then, can a man flee? Where can I go to find rest? Tecmessa [] Ah, what misery for me that a valuable man should speak words of a sort which he would never before now have endured to speak!

Ajax Ah! You paths of the sounding sea, you tidal caves and wooded pastures by the shore, long, long, too long indeed [] have you detained me here at Troy. But no more will you hold me, no more so long as I have the breath of life.

Of that much let sane men be sure. O neighboring streams of Scamander, [] kindly to the Greeks, no more shall you look on Ajax, whose equal in the army--here I will boast-- [] Troy has never seen come from the land of Hellas.

But now deprived of honor I lie low here in the dust! Chorus In truth I do not know how to restrain you, nor how to let you speak further, when you have fallen on such harsh troubles [ kakos , plural]. Ajax [] Aiai! Who would ever have thought that my name would so descriptively suit my troubles [ kakos , plural]? For well now may Ajax cry "Aiai"--yes, twice and three times.

Such are the harsh troubles [ kakos , plural] with which I have met. And those men exult to have escaped me-- [] not that I wanted their escape.

But if a god sends harm, it is true that even the base [ kakos ] man can elude the worthier. And now what shall I do, when I am plainly hated by the gods, abhorred by the Greek forces and detested by all Troy and all these plains? And how shall I face my father Telamon, when I arrive? How will he bear to look on me, when I stand before him stripped, without that supreme prize of valor [] for which he himself won a great crown of fame?

No, I could not bear to do it! But then shall I go against the bulwark of the Trojans, attacking alone in single combats and doing some valuable service, and finally die? But, in so doing I might, I think, gladden the Atreidae. Some enterprise must be sought whereby I may prove to my aged father that in nature, at least, his son is not gutless. It is a stain upon a man to crave the full term of life, when he finds no variation from his ignominious troubles [ kakos , plural].

I would not buy at any price the man who feels the glow of empty hopes. You have heard all. Chorus No man shall say that you have spoken a bastard word, Ajax, or one not bred of your own heart.

Yet at least pause; dismiss these thoughts, and grant friends [ philos , plural] the power to rule your purpose. Tecmessa [] Ajax, my lord, the fortune that humans are compelled to endure is their gravest evil [ kakos ]. I was the daughter of a free-born father mighty in wealth, if any Phrygian was.

Now I am a slave, for somehow the gods so ordained, [] and even more so did your strong hand. Therefore, since I have come into your bed, I wish you well, and I do beg you, by the Zeus of our hearth, by your marriage-bed in which you coupled with me, do not condemn me to the cruel talk [] of your enemies [ ekhthros , plural], do not leave me to the hand of a stranger!

On whatever day you die and widow me by your death, on that same day, be sure, I shall also be seized forcibly by the Greeks and, with your son, shall obtain a slave's portion. See what menial tasks she tends to, in place of such an enviable existence! Show respect to your father, whom you abandon in miserable old age, and respect your mother with her share of many years, who often prays to the gods that you may come home alive.

Pity him the great sorrow [ kakos ] which at your death you will bequeath both to him and to me, if robbed of nurturing care he must spend his days apart from you, an orphan tended by guardians who are neither family nor friends [ philos , plural]. I have nothing left to which I can look, [] save you, and you are the reason.

Your spear ravaged my country to nothingness, and another fate has brought down my mother and father, giving them a home in Hades in their death. What homeland, then, could I have without you? What wealth? A true man should cherish remembrance, if anywhere he takes some pleasure. It is kindness that always begets kindness. But whoever lets the memory of benefits seep from him, he can no longer be a noble man. Chorus [] Ajax, I wish that pity touched your heart as it does mine.

Then you would approve her words. Ajax She will have approval as far as I am concerned, if only she takes heart and graciously does my bidding. Ajax Because of these troubles [ kakos , plural] of mine? Or what do you mean? Tecmessa My child, your father calls you. Bring him here, servant, whichever of you is guiding his steps.

Ajax [] Lift him; lift him up here. Doubtless he will not shrink to look on this newly-shed blood, if he is indeed my true-born son and heir to his father's manners. But he must at once be broken into his father's harsh ways and moulded to the likeness of my nature. Then you would not prove base [ kakos ]. Yet even now I may well envy you on this account, that you have no perception of these evils [ kakos , plural] about us. Yes, life is sweetest when one lacks sense, [for lack of sensation is a painless evil] [] that is, until one learns to know joy or pain.

But when you come to that knowledge, then you must be sure to prove among your father's enemies [ ekhthros , plural] of what mettle and of what lineage you are. So trusty is the guard, Teucer himself, whom I will leave at your gates. He will not falter in his care for you, although now he walks a far path, busied with the hunt of enemies.

On you as on him, I lay this shared task of love [ kharis ]: give my command to Teucer! Let him take this child to my home and set him before the face of Telamon, and of my mother, Eriboea, [] so that he may become the comfort of their age into eternity [until they come to the deep hollows of the god.

And order him that no commissioners of games, nor he who is my destroyer, should make my arms a prize for the Greeks. No, you take this for my sake, Son, my broad shield from which you have your name.

But the rest of my arms shall be my gravemates. Come, take the child right away, shut tight the doors and make no laments before the house.

Quick, close the house! It is not for a skilful [ sophos ] doctor to moan incantations over a wound that craves the knife. Chorus I am afraid when I hear this eager haste. Your tongue's sharp edge does not please me. Ajax Do not keep asking me, do not keep questioning. Tecmessa Ah, how I despair! Now, by your child, by the gods, I implore you, do not betray us! Ajax You annoy me too much. Do you not know [] that I no longer owe any service to the gods?

Ajax You have foolish hope, I think, [] if you plan so late to begin schooling my temper. Ajax is shut into the tent. Exit Tecmessa with Eurysaces.