"If you still want this contest, Ulysses, let's go back to that same spot: we'll put the enemy in place again, your wound, and your accustomed cowardice; then you can huddle underneath my shield, a place most safe - and there we can compete!" -Ajax
"He, too, runs off. I saw you, Ajax, when you turned your back; I saw you - and I was ashamed. You rush to spread your faithless sails, as I cry out: 'What are you doing? Have your minds gone wild, to fall? If you sail off at this late date, what do you carry home, except disgrace?'" -Ulysses
I like the two speeches, they remind me of politicians or lawyers. And, like a good deal of trials or elections, the most eloquent man wins here.
This story of Polyxena & Hecuba struck me. Here, Hecuba finds that not only her last living daughter is taken by the Achilles and the Greeks, but her son Polydorus washes ashore as she moves to gather water to wash Polyxena's fatal wound. One line made a very distinct impression on me.
"'My child, your mother's final grief - what else is left for me to mourn? My child, you die: I see you die: I see your wound, my wound - another sign that none among my children ever met a death that was not cruel, violent...Even his buried ashes - from the grave - do not abate his savagery: he hates our race. My womb has served to bring him fruit.'"
This is the womb to grave cycle. All of the children Hecuba bore have died to the war. Not only died, but made someone else great in the process.
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