Tecmessa monologue — Specimens of Greek Tragedy — Aeschylus and Sophocles

Ajax, my lord and master, man knows not Aught sadder than a bondsman's helplessness. I, that a freeman for my father had, First of the Phrygian race in wealth and power, Am now a slave. So have the gods decreed, And thy strong arm determined. Of thy bed Thus made the partner, I am true to thee, And do implore thee by our household Zeus, And by the couch which we together press, Be not so cruel as to leave thy mate In thraldom, and a prey to slanderous tongues. Know, when thou diest, thy protection gone, The Argives will that self-same day drag off Me and thy helpless child to slavery. Then will some slave-master speak bitter words, Voiding his bile on us: 'Behold the mate Of Ajax, once the hero of our host, Fallen from her pride of place to menial toil.' So will they say. For me, where fate may drive I drift; but shame will be on thee and thine. Think of thy father, in his drear old age Bereft of thee; think of thy mother, too, With her grey head, who puts up many a prayer That she may welcome home her son alive. Have pity on thy child, who will be left In infancy, uncherished, and the ward Of unkind guardians; lay to heart the woes Which loss of thee would bring on him and me. For I have nothing left to which to look But thee; thy spear has laid my city low, While, by another doom, my parents both Have gone to dwell in the abodes of death. What country can Tecmessa have but thee? What staff of life? thou art my all in all. Be mindful of thy mate; to taste love's joy Is to owe something to the claim of love. Affection still should be affection's meed; When kindness leaves no trace upon the soul, That soul is void of true nobility.