Theirs in effect; but since he draws his line
From Jove, and seems to plead a right divine;
From Jove, like him, I claim my pedigree,
And am descended in the same degree.
My sire Laertes was Arcesius’ heir;
Arcesius was the son of Jupiter:
No parricide, no banish’d man is known,
In all my line: let him excuse his own.
Hermes ennobles too my mother’s side,
By both my parents to the gods allied.
But not because that on the female part
My blood is better, dare I claim desert,
Or that my sire from parricide is free;
But judge by merit between him and me:
The prize be to the best; provided yet
That Ajax for a while his kin forget,
And his great sire, and greater uncle’s name,
To fortify by them his feeble claim;
Be kindred and relation laid aside,
And honour’s cause by laws of honour tried:
For if he plead proximity of blood;
That empty title is with ease withstood.
Peleus, the hero’s sire, more nigh than he,
And Pyrrhus, his undoubted progeny,
Inherit first these trophies of the field;
To Scyros, or to Phthia, send the shield:
And Teucer has an uncle’s right; yet he
Waves his pretensions, nor contends with me.
Then since the cause on pure desert is placed,
Whence shall I take my rise, what reckon last?
I not presume on every act to dwell,
But take these few, in order as they fell.
Thetis, who knew the fates, applied her care
To keep Achilles in disguise from war;
And till the threatening influence was past,
A woman’s habit on the hero cast:
All eyes were cozen’d by the borrow’d vest,
And Ajax (never wiser than the rest)
Found no Pelides there: at length I came
With proffer’d wares to this pretended dame;
She, not discover’d by her mien or voice,
Betray’d her manhood by her manly choice;
And while on female toys her fellows look,
Grasp’d in her warlike hand, a javelin shook:
Whom, by this act reveal’d, I thus bespoke:
‘Oh goddess born! resist not Heaven’s decree,
The fall of Ilium is reserved for thee.’
Then seized him, and produced in open light,
Sent blushing to the field the fatal knight.
Mine then are all his actions of the war;
Great Telephus was conquer’d by my spear,
And after cured: to me the Theban’s owe,
Lesbos, and Tenedos, their overthrow;
Scyros and Cylla: not on all to dwell,
By me Lyrnessus and strong Chrysa fell:
And since I sent the man who Hector slew,
To me the noble Hector’s death is due:
Those arms I put into his living hand,
Those arms, Pelides dead, I now demand.
“When Greece was injured in the Spartan prince,
And met at Aulis to avenge the offence,
’Twas a dead calm, or adverse blasts, that reign’d,
And in the port the wind-bound fleet detain’d:
Bad signs were seen, and oracles severe
Were daily thunder’d in our general’s ear;
That by his daughter’s blood we must appease
Diana’s kindled wrath, and free the seas.
Affection, interest, fame, his heart assail’d;
But soon the father o’er the king prevail’d:
Bold, on himself he took the pious crime,
As angry with the gods as they with him.
No subject could sustain their sovereign’s look,
Till this hard enterprise I undertook:
I only durst the imperial power control,
And undermined the parent in his soul:
Forced him to exert the king for common good,
And pay our ransom with his daughter’s blood.
Never was cause more difficult to plead,
Than where the judge against himself decreed:
Yet this I won by dint of argument;
The wrongs his injured brother underwent,
And his own office, shamed him to consent.
“ ’Twas harder yet to move the mother’s mind,
And to this heavy task was I design’d:
Reasons against her love I knew were vain;
I circumvented whom I could not gain:
Had Ajax been employ’d, our slacken’d sails
Had still at Aulis waited happy gales.
“Arrived at Troy, your choice was fix’d on me
A fearless envoy, fit for a bold embassy:
Secure, I enter’d through the hostile court,
Glittering with steel, and crowded with resort:
There, in the midst of arms, I plead our cause,
Urge the foul rape, and violated laws;
Accuse the foes, as authors of the strife,
Reproach the ravisher, demand the wife.
Priam, Antenor, and the wiser few,
I moved; but Paris and his lawless crew
Scarce held their hands and lifted swords; but stood
In act to quench their impious thirst of blood:
This Menelaus knows; exposed to share
With me the rough preludium of war.
“Endless it were to tell what I have done
In arms, or council, since the siege begun:
The first encounter’s pass’d, the foe repell’d,
They skulk’d within the town, we kept the field.
War seem’d asleep for nine long years; at length
Both sides resolved to push, we tried our strength.
Now what did Ajax, while our arms took breath.
Versed only in the gross mechanic trade of death?
If you require my deeds, with ambush’d arms
I trapp’d the foe, or tired with false alarms;
Secured the ships, drew lines along the plain,
The fainting cheer’d, chastised the rebel train.
Provided forage, our spent arms renew’d;
Employ’d at home, or sent abroad, the common cause pursued.
“The king, deluded in a dream by Jove,
Despair’d to take the town, and order’d to remove.
What subject durst arraign the power supreme?
Producing Jove to justify his dream.
Ajax might wish the soldiers to retain
From shameful flight, but wishes were in vain:
As wanting of effect had been his words,
Such as of course his thundering tongue affords.
But did this boaster threaten, did he pray,
Or by his own example urge their stay?
None, none of these; but ran himself away.
I saw him run, and was ashamed to see;
Who plied his feet so fast to get aboard as he?
Then speeding through the place, I made a stand,
And loudly cried, ‘Oh, base degenerate band,
To leave a town already in your hand!
After so long expense of blood for fame,
To bring home nothing but perpetual shame!’
These words, or what I have forgotten since,
(For grief inspired me then with eloquence,)
Reduced their minds; they leave the crowded port,
And to their late forsaken camp resort:
Dismay’d the council met: this man was there,
But mute, and not recover’d of his fear:
Thersites tax’d the king, and loudly rail’d,
But his wide-opening mouth with blows I seal’d.
Then, rising, I excite their souls to fame,
And kindle sleeping virtue into flame.
From thence, whatever he perform’d in fight
Is justly mine, who drew him back from flight.
“Which of the Grecian chiefs consorts with thee?
But Diomed desires my company,
And still communicates his praise
