Ulysses' Speech
"If my prayers and yours had been answered,
Pelasgian lords, there would be no need
For us to be deciding who should now possess
The arms of Achilles. You would still have them,
Achilles, and we would still have you. But since
An unjust fate has denied him to me and to you"
(Here he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye),
"Who should better follow the great Achilles
Than the man whom the great Achilles followed
When he came to the Greeks? All I ask is that Ajax
Not profit from seeming to be, as indeed he is,
Slow of wit, and that I not be disadvantaged
Because I have always used my intelligence
To your benefit. And my eloquence, such as it is,
That now speaks for its owner but has often
Been deployed in the past on your behalf,
Should not be held against me. Rather, let each man
Acknowledge and use the gifts that he has.
Now, I do not count a noble lineage
As one's own accomplishment, but since Ajax
Tells us that he is the great-grandson of Jove,
I will say that Jove is my ancestor as well,
And at the same remove. For my father
Is Laertes and his was Arcesius,
And Arcesius was, in fact, Jupiter's son,
Nor is there in this bloodline of mine
Even one exiled criminal. On my mother's side
Our nobility is enhanced by Mercury's blood.
I am of divine descent through both my parents.
But it is not because my mother is nobly born
Nor my father innocent of his brother's blood
That I seek the armor that lies before us here.
Decide this case on merit alone.
It is not
Ajax's merit that Telamon and Peleus
Were brothers, and you should not consider
Bloodlines, only valor, in making this award.
Or if you wish to consider close relatives, Peleus
Is Achilles' father and Pyrrhus his son,
So ship the arms off to Phthia or Scyros.
And Teucer is as much Achilles' cousin
As Ajax is, but does he lay claim to the arms?
And if he did, would he get them? So then,
It comes down to a simple contest of deeds,
And I have done more than I could recount
Off the top of my head. But I'll start with the first.
Achilles' Nereid mother, Thetis, foreseeing
The d**h of her son, had disguised him as a girl
And dressed him so deceptively that everyone,
Including Ajax, was taken in. But I inserted
Among the women's paraphernalia some items
That would attract a man's eye. The hero
Was still disguised as a girl when his hand
Drifted to a spear and a shield, and I said to him,
'Son of Thetis, Troy is waiting to fall to you.
What are you waiting for?' And I laid my hand
On the warrior and sent him forth to brave deeds.
Therefore, all that he did after is due to me.
It was I who wounded Telephus and then
Healed his wound when he begged for aid. Thebes fell
To me; give me credit for Tenedos, Chrsye, and Cilla,
All cities of Apollo, and Scyros too.
Consider that I broke through Lyrnesus' walls
And threw them down. And I brought the man
Who k**ed, not to mention others, ferocious Hector.
Yes, it is through me that glorious Hector
Lies in his grave. I lay claim to these weapons
In return for those by which Achilles was found.
I gave the living arms, I ask them back after d**h.
When one man's grief came to all the Greeks
And a thousand ships were a**embled at Aulis,
The long awaited winds blew contrary
Or not all. Then a cruel oracle ordered Agamemnon
To sacrifice his innocent daughter
To heartless Diana. Agamemnon refused
And raged at the gods themselves, for although
He was king, he was still a father. With my words
I was the one who turned his father's kind heart
To what was best for his people. This was not
An easy case, I confess (and may Agamemnon
Forgive me as I confess), and before a judge
Who was hardly impartial. But the people's good,
His brother, and his responsibilities
As commander in chief persuaded him
To balance approbation with blood.
Then I was sent to Clytemnestra, the mother,
Who was not to be exhorted but to be conned.
If Ajax had gone, we would never have sailed,
And the ships would still be there, utterly becalmed.
I was also sent as a bold amba**ador
To Ilium's citadel and Troy's senate house,
When it was still full of heroes. Unafraid,
I pleaded for what had been entrusted to me,
The Greek common cause, denouncing Paris
And demanding both the return of Helen
And full restitution. I won over Priam
And Antenor with Priam, but Paris,
His brothers, and his marauding underlings
Could hardly restrain their impious hands
(You know this, Menelaus) from violence.
That was the first of all the dangerous days
I shared with you. It would take a long time
To tell all that I did for you both in council
And in battle. The war dragged on. The Trojans
Stayed within their walls after the first encounter
And there was no chance for open combat.
At last, in the tenth year, we fought again.
Where were you all that time? Sure, you can fight,
But what other service did you perform?
If you ask me what I was doing, I'll tell you.
I laid traps for the enemy, I surrounded
Our fortifications with a trench, I kept up
Our allies' morale in a long, tedious war,
I advised on supply lines and provisions,
And I was sent out on missions as needed.
And then Jove sent a lying dream in the night
To tell Agamemnon to abandon the war.
The king can defend the order he gave
On such authority. But what did Ajax do?
He could have halted the retreat, demanded
Troy be destroyed, started fighting, since that is all
He knows how to do. Why didn't he stop the men
From leaving, take up arms and give the mob
Someone to follow? Was this too much to ask
From someone who only speaks when he boasts?
But what about this? He himself ran! I saw you,
And I was ashamed to see you, turning your back
And getting ready to hoist your dishonorable sails.
'What are you doing?' I yelled. 'This is madness,
Abandoning Troy, which is already seized.
What are you taking home after ten years here
Except disgrace?'
Grief made me eloquent;
My words turned them around and brought them back.
Agamemnon a**embled all the troops,
Who were still agitated, and even then Ajax
Didn't open his mouth. But Thersites did,
And heckled the kings but, thanks to me,
Did not get offunpunished. I stood up and urged
My trembling comrades to take on the enemy,
And my words restored their faltering courage.
From that time on, whatever act of bravery
This man did is due to me, who halted his flight.
Finally, which of the Greeks wants to be your friend?
Diomedes does everything with me,
Approves of me and wants me to be at his side.
It is something to be chosen by Diomedes
Out of thousands of Greeks. And no one cast lots
When we went on a night raid and fell upon Dolon,
Who was on the same kind ofdangerous mission,
But I didn't k** him before I had forced out of him
All of Troy's treacherous plans. Once I learned that
I had no more need for espionage
And could have returned with honor. Instead,
I went to Rhesus' tents, k**ed the captain
And all his men, and then, all my prayers answered,
Came back victorious in a captured chariot
As if celebrating a triumph. Deny to me now
The arms of the man whose horses Hector
Had promised to Dolon for his work that night,
And you will let Ajax, with his specious proposal,
Begin to seem more generous than you.
Do I have to mention how I cut to ribbons
The ranks of Sarpedon? How I slaughtered
Coeran*s, the son of Iphitus? Alastor,
Chromius, Alcander, Halius, Noemon,
And Prytanis? k**ed Thoon and
Cheridamas,
Charops and Ennomos, all of them doomed?
And others less famous fell by my hand
Beneath their city's walls. I have wounds too,
My friends, all in the right place. No need to trust
Words in the air. Look!" He opened his tunic.
"Here is my chest and all it has been through
On your behalf. But the son of Telamon here
In all these years has lost not an ounce of blood
On behalf of his friends, has not even been scratched.
What is the point of his declaration
That he fought the Trojans and Jove himself?
I agree he did fight, since I do not discount
Meritorious action, but do not allow him
To lay sole claim to an honor that is shared,
And do insist that he show you some respect.
It was Patroclus, in the protective disguise
Of Achilles' armor, who pushed the Trojans
Back from the ships, which would have otherwise
Gone up in flames with their defender, Ajax.
And he thinks that he was the only one who dared
To face Hector in a duel, forgetting that the king,
The other captains and myself all volunteered.
He was the ninth to step forward then
And was only selected by the luck of the draw.
And what was the outcome, O mightiest hero?
Hector withdrew without receiving a wound.
And now I am forced to recall with sadness
That time when Achilles, Achaea's defense,
Fell in battle. Yet neither grief nor fear
Prevented me from lifting up his body
And carrying it upon these very shoulders
Along with all of the armor and weapons
That now I wish to carry again. I have the strength
To bear these arms, and the mind to appreciate
What an honor it is. Do you think that Thetis,
The sea goddess who was the hero's mother,
Wanted her heavenly gifts, the divine armor
That she gave her son, a work of heavenly art,
To grace the shoulders of an oaf like this?
He knows nothing of what is carved on this shield,
The sea, the lands, the stars in the deep sky,
The Pleiades, the Hyades, the Great Bear
That is aloof from the sea, and opposite her
Orion wheeling with his glittering sword.
He's asking for armor he can't understand.
He gives me a hard time for trying to shun
The trials of war and for coming to it late.
Doesn't he grasp that he is also censuring
The great Achilles? If pretending is a crime,
Well, we both pretended. If delay is wrong,
Of the two of us I arrived earlier.
A loving wife held me back, a loving mother
Detained Achilles. We spent our first time with them,
The rest with you. I hardly fear a charge,
Even if I cannot defend against it,
That I have in common with such a great man.
Ulysses Outwitted Achilles, but not Ajax Ulysses.
We should not wonder that his ignorant mouth
Spews out insults against me, when he even tries
To heap shame upon you. If it was dishonorable
For me to accuse Palamedes falsely,
Was it honorable for you to have condemned him?
But Palamedes was not able to clear himself
Ofa charge based on evidence so clear,
Nor did you just hear the charge; you saw the proof.
The patent bribe is what convicted him.
Nor should I be blamed because the island of
Lemnos Detains Philoctetes. Defend your own decision,
For you agreed to the plan. I will not deny
That I advised him to absent himself _
From the long journey and the toil of
And recuperate from his terrible pain.
He took the advice-and he is still alive.
Not only was the advice given in good faith,
It also worked out well, though it should be enough
That it was given in good faith. Now the seers say
That Troy will not fall unless he is brought back.
Don't give that job to me! The son of Telamon
Should be the one to go and calm the hero,
Raging mad and ill, with his eloquent speech,
Or bring him back to us by a clever trick.
The Simois will flow backward, Ida stand leafless,
And Greece will send foreign aid to Troy
Before Ajax's cunning could help the Greeks,
Should you be deprived of my good services.
You are a hard man, Philoctetes, and you hate
The Greeks, the kings, and me myself. Even so,
Although you heap endless curses on my head,
And you wish I were handed over to you
So you could drink my blood, wish that just as I
Had a shot at you, you could have a shot at me -
I would still go and try to bring you back,
And, with a little luck, I would get your arrows,
Just as I captured the Dardanian seer,
Just as I discovered the Trojan oracles,
Just as I stole the statue of Minerva
From her shrine deep in enemy territory.
And Ajax wants to be compared to me?
The Fates declared that we could not take Troy
Without this statue. Where does that leave Ajax,
The mighty hero, and all his big talk?
What's there to be afraid of at a time like that?
Why does Ulysses dare to entrust himself
To the darkness of night, go beyond the sentinels
Through enemy lines, not only break into
The walls of Troy, but steal the goddess from her shrine
And bear it away through a hostile force?
If I hadn't done this, the son of Telamon
Would bear his sevenfold ox-hide shield in vain.
That night I secured our victory over Troy,
Conquering it by making conquest possible.
And you can stop grumbling that Diomedes
Is my partner. He has his share of praise.
You had partners too when your shield defended
The Argive fleet, a crowd of them. I had one.
And if Diomedes did not know that a soldier
Is worth less than a strategist, and that this prize
Should not go to mere strength, or even
Indomitable strength, he would seek it himself.
So would the lesser Ajax, Eurypylus,
Thoas, Idomeneus, and his countryman,
Meriones, and Menelaus too. All of them
Are brave and strong and my match in battle,
But all of them have yielded to my counsels.
Your strong arms serve you well; it is your mind
That needs my guidance. You have brute strength
But no intelligence, whereas my concern
Is for what happens next. You fight well, it's true,
But I help Agamemnon choose when to fight.
Your total worth is all in your bulk, mine in my mind.
And as much as the pilot surpa**es the rower,
As much as the general exceeds the soldier,
So much greater am I than you. In our lives
The head counts for more than the hand,
And in our intelligence our existence lies.
Award, captains, the prize to your sentry,
And reward my long years of watchful service
With this fitting honor. My work has come to an end.
I have removed the fated obstructions
And by making it possible to take tall Troy
I have taken her. Now, by our common hopes,
By the walls of Troy doomed to fall, by the gods
That I have just now taken from our enemy,
And by any other hazardous mission
That remains to be done with wisdom and tact
(If you think Troy's fate requires still more)
Be mindful of me. Otherwise, give the arms to her!"