Ajax

Who He Is

Ajax, son of Telamon, of Salamis, is the best of the Achaeans in combat while Achilles is angry: the poem says so in these words at the end of the Catalogue of Ships. He carries a shield of seven oxhides and an eighth plate of bronze, which seems to him a tower, and he is the wall of flesh that the Achaeans set before Hector. Not to be confused with the other Ajax, son of Oileus, who fights at his side, chief of the Locrians, and who slips in the dung during the races at the games. The Telamonian appears as the man who stays where he is needed: on the towers, by the ships, on the decks, around the body of Patroclus.

Trajectory

In Book I, Ajax is one of the three whom Agamemnon threatens to take the prize from. In Book II, at the end of the Catalogue, the poet says that among the men who came from afar the best was Ajax Telamonian, while Achilles was angry, for Achilles was by far the strongest, and that he lay by the ships.

In Book III, Helen identifies him to Priam. In Book IV, he advances with the other Ajax and a cloud of infantry, and Agamemnon, reviewing the troops, says he has nothing to ask of them. Ajax kills the young Simoeisius, who fell like a poplar. In Book V, he kills Amphius, and in Book VI he is the first to break the Trojan phalanx and kills Acamas, the best of the Thracians.

In Book VII, Hector challenges the best of the Achaeans. Ajax is chosen by lot, the token everyone wanted, and he recognizes it and rejoices. He asks the others to pray to Zeus, in silence or aloud, while he puts on his armor, because no one will defeat him by force or skill, and he was neither born nor raised in Salamis as an ignorant man. He advances smiling, like Ares, and tells Hector that he will now see that there are champions among the Danaans after Achilles, who lies by the ships. Hector answers with the rule against striking in secret.

He exchanges spears with Hector, wounds his neck, and knocks him down with a larger stone, but Apollo lifts him up. The heralds interpose their scepters, and Ajax says that Hector, who issued the challenge, should be the first to stop, and he obeys at nightfall. He receives from the Trojan a sword with silver studs and gives in exchange a purple belt. Agamemnon honors him with the whole back ribs.

In Book IX, he is the only one who tells the embassy what it already knows: that this path will not accomplish the mission. He speaks to Achilles in a few words: the gods put an implacable spirit in him for the sake of a single girl, when now they offer him seven, and he asks him to respect the roof under which the visitors stand. Achilles answers that everything seems spoken according to his own spirit, but that his heart swells with anger.

In Book X, Ajax offers himself among those who want to go with Diomedes. In Book XI, Zeus puts fear in his breast: great Ajax withdraws slowly, reluctantly, like a lion driven from the sheepfold and a donkey that the children cannot drive from the field, fearing for the ships.

In Book XII, the two Ajaxes go along the towers encouraging the men, and Menestheus sends for the Telamonian to his tower when the Lycians climb the parapets. Ajax strikes down Epicles with a block of stone, and Teucer wounds Glaucus. Sarpedon breaks a gap in the parapet, and Ajax and Teucer aim at him together, but Zeus pulls his son away from the Keres. In Book XIII, the two Ajaxes form close phalanxes, shield against shield, which neither Ares nor Athena would have scorned, and Hector, who comes on like a rock, halts before them. Ajax advances with long strides and challenges Hector: the lash of Zeus has overpowered them, but their hands are ready to defend the ships. Hector replies that he would like to be a son of Zeus and of Hera.

In Book XIV, Hector throws first and strikes the spot where the baldrics cross, which protect Ajax. Ajax takes one of the stones that chock the ships, strikes Hector in the chest, above the rim of the shield, and sends him spinning like a top. He sees Protoenor fall beside him and hurls his spear at Polydamas, who dodges, and kills Archelochus, son of Antenor.

In Book XV, Ajax refuses to stay where the others stay: he climbs onto the decks with a naval pole of twenty-two cubits and passes from ship to ship, like a horseman who leaps between four horses. He kills Caletor, who was carrying fire, and orders Teucer to drop his broken bow and take up spear and shield. He shouts to the Achaeans to feel shame, and tells them that there is no city behind them, no wall, only their hands. Twelve Trojans lie before the ships.

In Book XVI, he yields under the darts and the will of Zeus: Hector cuts the shaft of his spear, and Ajax recognizes the work of a god, who wants victory for the Trojans.

In Book XVII, Menelaus goes to call him, and Ajax arrives with his shield like a tower and makes Hector withdraw. Ajax stands over the body of Patroclus like a lion over its cubs. When Zeus covers the battle in mist, he prays to Zeus: scatter the sky and give light, and in the light destroy us, since that is what pleases you. Zeus takes pity and scatters the mist. The two Ajaxes cover the withdrawal of the body like a headland that holds back the waters of a river.

In Book XVIII, three times the two Ajaxes repel Hector, who grabs the body of Patroclus by the feet.

In Book XXIII, at Patroclus's games, Ajax wrestles with Odysseus: they grip each other like two roof beams, and neither throws the other, and Achilles declares them both winners. In the armed contest, he faces Diomedes: Ajax pierces the shield without reaching the flesh, Diomedes aims at Ajax's neck over the shield, and the Achaeans, fearful for Ajax, order them to stop.

Themes Embodied

Ajax embodies War as steadfastness: the wall, the tower, the dike, the man who stays. He embodies Honor and Reputation in the rule of the duel, in which he insists that Hector stop first because he was the one who issued the challenge, and in the plea for light to Zeus, preferring to die in sight rather than die in mist. And Fate and Free Will appears in the times when he acknowledges that the will of a god is greater than his own, in Book XI and in Book XVI.

The Telamonian is the warrior of the poem who measures himself most by those who are absent: the best, while Achilles raged; the one who first tells the embassy that it will not accomplish the mission; the one who answers Hector that there are champions after Achilles. When Zeus puts fear in him, the poem does not call him a coward: it shows his reluctant withdrawal and the image of stubbornness. In Book XVII, his plea for light shows the same man asking for neither victory nor life, only sight.

Relationships

• Hector: the opponent in the duel of Book VII, whom he knocks down with a stone in Book XIV and whom he repels around the body of Patroclus.
• Achilles: the only one who surpasses him, whom he invokes when challenging Hector and to whom he speaks in the embassy.
• Odysseus: the companion of the embassy and the rival in the wrestling at the games.
• Menelaus: the ally who calls him to guard Patroclus's body.
• Diomedes: the rival in the armed contest.
• Zeus: the god who puts fear in him and to whom he prays for light.
• Agamemnon: the king who honors him with the back ribs in Book VII.
• Teucer: the archer brother who shoots from behind his shield.
• The other Ajax, son of Oileus: the companion who runs beside him on the towers and decks.