Ajax. Edited, with introduction, revised text, commentary, appendixes, indexes, and bibliography

377 Pages·1963·9.904 MB·English

by  Sophocles, WB Stanford (editor)

SOPHOCLES
AJAX
EDITED
With Introduction, Revised Text, Commentary,
Appendixes, Indexes and Bibliography
BY
W. B. STANFORD, M.A., Lrrr.D.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN
LONDON
MACMILLAN & CO LTD
NEW YORK *8T MARTIN’S PRESS
1963

Copyright (Ὁ by W. B. Stanford 1963
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PREFACE
Over sixty years have now passed since Jebb completed
his great work on the plays of Sophocles. Since then
only one noteworthy commentary on any of the plays
has appeared in the English-speaking countries—J. T.
Sheppard’s Oedipus Tyrannus (1920). The reason is
clear to all. Jebb’s knowledge, judgement and powers
of interpretation were superb. In many respects his
edition will never be out of date.
But a large amount of literature about Sophocles’s
life and work has accumulated since Jebb’s time, and
Opinions on dramatic technique, metre and style have
changed considerably. Translation, too, demands new
idioms from epoch to epoch. Perhaps, then, a new
edition of Ajaz, designed mainly to help teachers and
undergraduates, may be found useful.
One feature of it needs explanation: I have changed
the spelling of many Greek names to something less
latinized than the conventiona! English spellings: for
example, Hesychios, Herodotos, the Bacchai of Euripides,
and Azakos (for Aeacus). My reason is that I should
like to help the current effort to see Greek things more
directly and less through the Latin filter, and also to
prevent mispronunciation at times. On the other hand,
where letter-groups would still seem barbaric to many
(e.g. kh, km) and where full anglicization has been estab-
lished (as in Ajax, Teucer), I have kept closer to conven-
¥
vi SOPHOCLES: AJAX
tion even at the cost of inconsistency. I hope that
eventually all mere latinizations will disappear from our
books on Greece.
My debt to Jebb’s work is, of course, very large,
though I have ventured to disagree with him fairly often.
Acknowledgements to other scholars’ publications will be
offered later, but I must mention particularly the valu-
able editions of Radermacher and Kamerbeek. Many
scholars have helped me personally. Mr. A. D. Fitton
Brown most generously studied the introduction, notes
and appendixes with Aristarchean thoroughness. I owe
many improvements to his erudition and fine critical
sense. Others, too, have given valuable help in emending
the proofs, especially Mr. A. E. Hinds, Mr. J. V. Luce,
Professor J. J. Tierney, Professor L. J. D. Richardson
(who has helped me so often and so effectively before),
and Mr. R.G. Ussher. Professor H. D. Broadhead kindly
sent me emendations and comments. Mr. D. 8. Raven
advised me wisely on metrical matters. I am grateful
also to Professors Ὁ, L. Page, E. G. Turner, A. M.
Webster, T. B. L. Webster, and to Mr. J. T. Killen, for
various kinds of information. The Clarendon Press,
Oxford, generously gave permission to use Pearson’s
Oxford Text as the basis of mine. The staffs of Messrs.
Macmillan & Co, and Messrs. R. & R. Clark have helped
patiently in every stage of the work. And I am
especially indebted to my wife, who checked all the
proofs with unfaltering care.
W. B. Sranrorp
9 Termiry CoLLEGE
DUBLIN
June 1962
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE. . . . . . °
IyrrropucTion: §1 Ajax as a controversial hero.
8 2 The tradition before Sophocles. §3 Ajax’s
defeat in the contest forthe arms. § 4 Ajax in
Ajax. $5 Theaftermath of Ajax’sadeath. § 6
Other characters in Ajax. §7 Figures in the
background. § 8 The structure of the play .
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY . . . .
ADDENDA τὸ Norrs . . . .
APprpenDrixes: (A) The text. (B) Metre. (C)} Notes
on the style of Sophocles. (D) Ajax’s third
monologue (646-92). (IE) A note on suicide.
(F) Anger and similar feelings in Ajaz. (G)
The date of Ajax 239
297
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . : ‘ : . 307

INTRODUCTION
§1. AJAX AS A CONTROVERSIAL HERO
To the fifth-century Athenians Ajax was a great hero
in three ways. First, his statue stood in their Agora as
an eponymous hero of one of the ten tribes instituted
by Cleisthenes.1 Secondly, he and his father, Telamon,
had been specially invoked to help the Greeks before
the victory at Salamis; and afterwards the Greeks
dedicated a Phoenician trireme to him.? Thirdly, he was
one of the major heroes of the {τα and the Epic Cycle,
second only to Achilles as a champion of the Greeks.
So his fame was securely established at Athens in tribal
cults, military history and: epic poetry. Yet everyone
who knew the story of his life was conscious of perplexing
features in it. Why was so great a hero defeated by
1 Aiantie: see Herodotos 5, 66. Cult honours continued to
be paid to him in the time of Pausanias (1, 35, 3), who also records
that there was an altar dedicated to Ajax’s son, Eurysakes, in
Athens. Eminent Athenians, including Miltiadea, Cimon and
Alcibiades, claimed descent from Eurysakes or Philaios, Ajax’s
other son (both of which sons, according to a tradition recorded
in Plutarch, Solon 10, became Athenian citizens). A scholiast on
Pindar, Nemeans 2, 14 ff. says that the Athenian ephebot used ‘to
adorn a couch with a complete set of arms and armour [μετὰ
πανοπλίας] in honour of Ajax’, Ajax’s name recurs in Attic
drinking-songs: see Diehl 15, 16: ef. Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry
(Oxford, 1961), 379-80.
* Herodotos 8, 64 and 121. The tribe Afantts had held the
right wing at Marathon and it was also given the honour of offering
a special sacrifice after Plataea (Plutarch, Moral Essays 628 E-F).
Cf. on p. xvi.
ix
x SOPHOCLES: AJAX
Odysseus in the contest for the supreme prize of valour
after the death of Achilles? Why did he go mad and
attack the property of his own comrades-in-arms ? Why
did he, alone among the Greek heroes at Troy, commit
suicide ἢ
These questions had been asked and answered before
Sophocles wrote his Ajax®—by Pindar and Aeschylus,
for example. And after Sophocles many other famous
authors, like Ovid, Lucian and Shakespeare,* debated
the relative merits of Ajax and Odysseus. But in all
surviving literature no writer has created a better justi-
fication of Ajax than Sophocles. It is ali the more
effective because, unlike most of the other writers on
the controversy, he establishes the heroic greatness of
Ajax without vilifying Odysseus. In this, as in so many
other respects, Sophocles justifies his ancient title as
‘most Homeric’ of the Greek dramatists (App. C n. 16),
since Homer, even in the Odyssey where the resourceful
heroism of Odysseus is the central theme, gave Ajax a
moment of triumph in the face of his rival.
Since Sophocles in all probability had this famous
incident in mind when he was composing his Ajax, it
deserves special attention here. In the Land of Departed
Spirits (Odyssey 11, 541 ff.) Odysseus notices the ghost
of Ajax standing apart from the rest, still angry at his
defeat in the contest for the arms of Achilles (see § 3).
Odysseus addresses him with ‘honeyed words’ and with
profound respect. He tells him that the Greeks mourned
his death as greatly as that of Achilles. He attributes it
entirely to the wrath of the gods against the Greeks. He
appeals to Ajax to restrain his rage and haughty anger.®
* See further on pp. xx ff. below.
ὁ Their views are discussed in my Ulysses Theme, 138 ff., 116,
166 ff. 5 μένος καὶ ἀγήνορα θυμόν : see Appendix F,