ΕΥΔΟΞΑ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΑ ΚΑΤΑΓΕΛΑΣΤΑ
“True words are simple ones.”
‘ἁπλᾶ γάρ ἐστι τῆς ἀληθείας ἔπη’.
This is from the fragmentary lost play Judgment of the Arms which covers some of the same ground as Sophocles’ Ajax. The line, it seems, is posed against the trickier and more devious language of Odysseus. Simple words, as many know, can merely be a different rhetorical ploy…
“Recognizing that your suffering has been caused by no one else magnifies the pain”
τὸ γὰρ ἐσλεύσσειν οἰκεῖα πάθη,
μηδενὸς ἄλλου παραπράξαντος,
μεγάλας ὀδύνας ὑποτείνει.
But did Ajax really cause all of this pain for himself?
“For I see that we who live are nothing more than ghosts and empty darkness”
ὁρῶ γὰρ ἡμᾶς οὐδὲν ὄντας ἄλλο πλὴν
εἴδωλ᾽ ὅσοιπερ ζῶμεν ἢ κούφην σκιάν.
Ajax the son of Telamon was not a happy man.
“It is shameful for man to want a long life when he sees no evils change”
αἰσχρὸν γὰρ ἄνδρα τοῦ μακροῦ χρῄζειν βίου,
κακοῖσιν ὅστις μηδὲν ἐξαλλάσσεται.
Ajax was famous for saving Achilles’ body and killing himself