For the Marvel Comics character Ajax the Lesser, seeList of Eternals.
Ajax the Lesser byFrancesco Sabatelli, 1829Scene from the Trojan War:Cassandra clings to thePalladium, the wooden cult image of Athene, while Ajax the Lesser is about to drag her away in front of her fatherPriam (standing on the left). Fresco from the atrium of the Casa del Menandro (I 10, 4) in Pompeii.Ajax, 1820 painting byHenri Serrur
Ajax's mother's name wasEriopis.[4] According toStrabo, he was born inNaryx inLocris,[5] whereOvid calls himNarycius heros.[6] According to theIliad,[7] he led hisLocrians in forty ships againstTroy.[8] He is described as one of the great heroes among the Greeks. In battle, he wore alinencuirass (λινοθώραξ,linothorax), was brave and intrepid, especially skilled in throwing the spear and, next toAchilles, the swiftest of all the Greeks.[9][10] The chronicler Malalas portrayed him as "tall, strong, tawny, squinting, good nose, curly hair, black hair, thick beard, long face, daring warrior, magnanimous, a womanizer."[11]
In the funeral games at thepyre ofPatroclus, Ajax contended withOdysseus andAntilochus for the prize in the footrace; butAthena, who was hostile towards him and favored Odysseus, made him stumble and fall, so that he won only the second prize.[12]
In later traditions, this Ajax is called a son of Oileus and thenymph Rhene, and is also mentioned among the suitors of Helen.[13] After the taking of Troy, he rushed into the temple of Athena, whereCassandra had taken refuge, and was embracing the statue of the goddess insupplication. Ajax violently dragged her away to the other captives.[14] According to some writers, he raped Cassandra inside the temple.[15] Odysseus called for Ajax's death by stoning for this crime, but Ajax saved himself by claiming innocence with an oath to Athena, clutching her statue in supplication.[16]
Since Ajax dragged the supplicant from her temple, Athena had cause to be indignant. According to theBibliotheca, no one was aware that Ajax had raped Cassandra untilCalchas, the Greek seer, warned the Greeks that Athena was furious at the treatment of her priestess and she would destroy the Greek ships if they did not kill him immediately. Despite this, Ajax managed to hide at the altar of a deity where the Greeks, fearing divine retribution should they kill him and destroy the altar, allowed him to live. When the Greeks left without killing Ajax, despite their sacrifices, Athena became so angry that she persuadedZeus to send a storm that sank many of their ships.
As Ajax wasreturning from Troy, Athena hit his ship with a thunderbolt and the vessel was wrecked on the Whirling Rocks (Γυραὶ πέτραι). But he escaped with some of his men, managing to cling onto a rock through the assistance ofPoseidon. He would have been saved in spite of Athena, but he then audaciously declared that he would escape the dangers of the sea in defiance of the immortals. Offended by this presumption, Poseidon split the rock with histrident and Ajax was swallowed up by the sea.[17][10]Thetis buried him when the corpse washed up onMykonos.[18] Other versions depict a different death for Ajax, showing him dying when on his voyage home. In these versions, when Ajax came to the Capharean Rocks on the coast ofEuboea, his ship was wrecked in a fierce storm, he himself was lifted up in a whirlwind and impaled with a flash of rapid fire from Athena in his chest, and his body thrust upon sharp rocks, which afterwards were called the rocks of Ajax.[19]
After Ajax's death, his spirit dwelt in the island ofLeuce.[20] TheOpuntian Locrians worshipped Ajax as their national hero, and so great was their faith in him that when they drew up their army in battle, they always left one place open for him, believing that, although invisible to them, he was fighting for and among them.[21] The story of Ajax was frequently made use of by ancient poets and artists, and the hero who appears on some Locrian coins with the helmet, shield, and sword is probably this Ajax.[22]
The abduction of Cassandra by Ajax was frequently represented inGreek works of art, such as the chest ofCypselus described byPausanias and in extant works.[25][10]
^Tzetzes, John (2015).Allegories of the Iliad. Translated by Goldwyn, Adam; Kokkini, Dimitra. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. pp. 41, Prologue 43–44.ISBN978-0-674-96785-4.
^Apollodore, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Trzaskoma, and Hygin.Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007. 84–85. "5.24–6.6."
Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Tzetzes, John,Allegories of the Iliad translated by Goldwyn, Adam J. and Kokkini, Dimitra. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press, 2015.ISBN978-0-674-96785-4
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Ajax (2)".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ajax".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 452.
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