The text printed below is from a late copy (2nd-3rd c. AD) of a chorus that probably goes back to a tragedy of the classical era (perhaps originally produced not long after Sophocles' play).
The text breaks off at the end of the lines so we do not know quite how the tune works out. And the break leads to a near-rhyming effect that would not have been sought after at the end of the line.
Still the fragment is complete enough to give a feel for the tone and melody, and sense of the song:
'By self-slaying hand and sword ...
Son of Telamon, your own, Ajax ...
Because of Odysseus the guilty ...
By wounds, desiring [death?]...'
Click here for rough renditions: Flute Voice
Adapted from E. Pöhlmann / M. L. West, Documents of Ancient Greek Music, Oxford 2001
For more samples of Ancient Greek Music go to: