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036 - Book 13 Part 1 · Metamorphoses

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  Speaker 1: Book thirteen, Part one of Avid's Metamorphoses. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox accordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to find out how you can volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Dennis Sayers. Metamorphoses
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  Speaker 1: by Publius Ovidius Nasso, translated by brooks More, Book thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. The chiefs were seated, and the soldiers form
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  Speaker 1: a circle round them. Then Ajax, the approved lord of
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  Speaker 1: the Sevenfold Shield, arose and spoke, impatient in his wrath.
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  Speaker 1: He looked with stern set features out over Scygian shores
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  Speaker 1: and over the fleet of ships upon the beach, and
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  Speaker 1: stretching out his hands, he said, we plead o Jupiter
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  Speaker 1: our cause before the ships ulysses vies with me. He
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  Speaker 1: did not shrink from giving way before the flames of Hector,
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  Speaker 1: when I withstood them and I saved the fleet. Tis
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  Speaker 1: safer then to fight with lying words than with his hands.
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  Speaker 1: I am not prompt to speak, nor he to act.
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  Speaker 1: I am as good in war and deadly battle as
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  Speaker 1: he is in talk. Palascians, I do not suppose my
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  Speaker 1: deeds must here be mention'd you have witness'd them. But
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  Speaker 1: let Ulysses tell of deeds which he performed without a witness,
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  Speaker 1: and which Knight alone is conscious of. I own. The
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  Speaker 1: prize we seek is great, but such a rival makes
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  Speaker 1: it small. To Ajax, there is no cause for pride
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  Speaker 1: in having any prize, however great, for which Ulysses hoped.
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  Speaker 1: But he has one reward enough already. He can boast,
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  Speaker 1: when vanquish'd that he strove with me. I, even if
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  Speaker 1: my merit were in doubt, should still excel in birth.
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  Speaker 1: I am the son of Telemann, who with Great Hercules
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  Speaker 1: brought low the power of Troy, and in the ship
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  Speaker 1: of Jason, voyaged even to Colchean shores. His father Eachus
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  Speaker 1: now is a judge among the silent shades, where Sissyphus
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  Speaker 1: toils and is mocked for ever with the stone. Great
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  Speaker 1: Jove himself calls Eachus his son. Thus Ajax is the
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  Speaker 1: third from Jupiter. But Greeks, let not this line of
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  Speaker 1: my descent avail me if I do not share it
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  Speaker 1: with my cousin Great Achilles. I demand these arms. Now
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  Speaker 1: do me as a cousin? Why should this one from
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  Speaker 1: the blood of Sisyphus, and like him for his stuffs
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  Speaker 1: and frauds intrude the name of that loathed family upon
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  Speaker 1: honored descendants of brave Euchus. Will you deny me arms
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  Speaker 1: because I took up arms earlier? No man prompting me,
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  Speaker 1: and call this man the better, who last of all
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  Speaker 1: took up arms, and, pretending he was mad, declin'd war
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  Speaker 1: till the son of Naplius, more shrewd than he, but
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  Speaker 1: to his future cost, discovered the contrivance of the fraud,
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  Speaker 1: and had the coward dragged forth to the arms he
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  Speaker 1: had avoided. And shall this man have the world's best
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  Speaker 1: arms who wanted none? Shall I lack honor and my
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  Speaker 1: cousin's gift because I faced the danger with the first?
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  Speaker 1: Would that his madness had been real or had been
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  Speaker 1: accepted as reality, that he never had attended us as
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  Speaker 1: our companion to the Phrygian towers, This counselor of evil, then,
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  Speaker 1: good son of poeas Limnus, would not hold you now
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  Speaker 1: exposed through guilt of ours, you, as men say, hidden
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  Speaker 1: in forest lairs, are moving with your groans the very
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  Speaker 1: rocks and asking for ulysses what he so well deserves.
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  Speaker 1: What if indeed there are still gods, you shall not
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  Speaker 1: ask in vain. And now one of our leaders, he
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  Speaker 1: that was sworn to the same arms with ourselves, by
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  Speaker 1: whom the arrows of Great Hercules are used as his successor,
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  Speaker 1: broken by disease and famine, cloaked with feathers now, must
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  Speaker 1: feed on birds and squander for his wretched fair the
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  Speaker 1: arrows destined for the wreck of Troy. At least he
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  Speaker 1: lives because he has not stayed too near Ulysses. Hapless
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  Speaker 1: Polymedes might wish that he too had been left behind.
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  Speaker 1: Then he would live, or would have met a death
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  Speaker 1: without dishonor. For this man, who well remembered the unfortunate
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  Speaker 1: discovery of his feigned madness, made a fraudulent attack on Palamedes,
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  Speaker 1: who he said betrayed the Grecian interest. He proved his
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  Speaker 1: false charge to the Greeks by showing them the gold
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  Speaker 1: which he himself hid in the ground. By exile or
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  Speaker 1: by death, he has decreased the true strength of the Greeks,
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  Speaker 1: and so he fights for such things. Men have cause
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  Speaker 1: to fear Ulysses. Should he excel the faithful nestor by
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  Speaker 1: his eloquence, I'd yet be well convinced the way he
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  Speaker 1: forsook Nestor was a crime. Old Nestor, who implored in
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  Speaker 1: vain his aid, when he was hindered by his wounded
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  Speaker 1: steed and wearied with the years of his old age,
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  Speaker 1: was then deserted by that scheming man. The charge that
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  Speaker 1: I have made is strictly true, and the son of
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  Speaker 1: Titius knows it all too well, for he at that
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  Speaker 1: time called him by his name, rebuked him, and upbraided
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  Speaker 1: his weak friend for coward flight. The gods above behold
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  Speaker 1: the affairs of men with justice. That same man who
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  Speaker 1: would not help a friend now calls for help. He
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  Speaker 1: who forsook a friend should be forsaken. The law he
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  Speaker 1: made returns upon himself. He called aloud on his companions.
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  Speaker 1: I came and saw him trembling, pale with fear, and
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  Speaker 1: shuddering at the thought of coming death. I held my
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  Speaker 1: shield above him where he lay, and that way saved
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  Speaker 1: the villain's dastard life, and little praise I have deserved
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  Speaker 1: for that. If you still wish to claim this armor,
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  Speaker 1: let us both return to that place and restore the
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  Speaker 1: enemy your wound and usual fear. There hide behind my shield,
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  Speaker 1: and under that contend with me. Yet when I faced
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  Speaker 1: the foe, he whom his wound had left no power
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  Speaker 1: to stand forgot the wound and took to headlong flight.
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  Speaker 1: Hector approached and brought the gods with him to battle.
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  Speaker 1: And wherever he rushed on. Not only this Ulysses was alarmed,
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  Speaker 1: but even the Valiant, for so great the fear he
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  Speaker 1: caused them. Hector proud in his success in blood and slaughter.
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  Speaker 1: I then dared to meet, and with a huge stone
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  Speaker 1: from a distance hurled I light him flat. When he
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  Speaker 1: demanded one to fight with, I engaged him quite alone.
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  Speaker 1: For you, my Greek friends, prayed the lot might fall
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  Speaker 1: upon me, and your prayers prevailed. If you should ask
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  Speaker 1: me of this fight, I will declare I was not
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  Speaker 1: vanquished there by him. Behold, the Trojans brought forth fire
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  Speaker 1: and sword and jove as well against the Grecian fleet.
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  Speaker 1: Where now has eloquent Ulysses gone. Truly I did protect
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  Speaker 1: a thousand ships with my breast, saving the hopes of
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  Speaker 1: your return. For all these many ships a ward me arms.
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  Speaker 1: But let me speak the truth. The arms will gain
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  Speaker 1: more fame than I, for they will share my glory,
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  Speaker 1: and they need Ajax Ajax needs not them. Let the
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  Speaker 1: Ithacan compare with deeds like mine, his sleeping Rhesus, his
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  Speaker 1: un warlike dolan Helenus, taken and payless gain'd by theft,
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  Speaker 1: all done by night, and all with Diomed. If you
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  Speaker 1: must give these arms for deeds so mean, then give
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  Speaker 1: the greater share to Diomed. Why give arms to Ulysses, who,
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  Speaker 1: by stealth and quite unarmed, as always done his work
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  Speaker 1: deceiving his unwary enemies by stratagems. This brilliant helmet, rich
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  Speaker 1: with sparkling gold, will certainly betray his plans, and will
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  Speaker 1: discover him when hid his soft Dulichian head beneath the
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  Speaker 1: helm of great Achilles will not bear the weight achilles
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  Speaker 1: heavy spear from Pelion must be burdensome for his unwarlike hands.
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  Speaker 1: Nor will the shield graven with the vasty world beseen
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  Speaker 1: a dastard left and smooth for theft. Why, Kate, will
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  Speaker 1: you beg them for a gift which will but weaken you?
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  Speaker 1: If by mistake the Grecian people should award you this,
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  Speaker 1: it would not fright the foe, but offers spoils and
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  Speaker 1: that swift flight in which alone you have excelled all
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  Speaker 1: others dastard wretch would soon grow laggard dragging such a weight.
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  Speaker 1: And that good shield of yours, which has but rarely
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  Speaker 1: felt a conflict, is unhurt. For mine a gape with
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  Speaker 1: wounds a thousand from swift striking darts, a new one
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  Speaker 1: must be found. In short, what need is there for words?
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  Speaker 1: Let us be tried in war. Let all the arms
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  Speaker 1: of brave Achilles now be thrown among the foe, Order
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  Speaker 1: them all to be retrieved, and decorate for war whoever
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  Speaker 1: brings them back a worthy prize. Ajax, the son of Tellaman,
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  Speaker 1: stopped speech and murmuring among the multitude followed his closing
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  Speaker 1: words until Ulysses, Laertian hero stood up there and fixed
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  Speaker 1: his eyes a short time on the ground, then raise
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  Speaker 1: them towards the chiefs, and with his opening words, which
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  Speaker 1: they awaited, the grace of his art was not found,
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  Speaker 1: wanting to his eloquence. End of Book thirteen, Part one.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, for LibriVox