[1] Among the plays of Sophocles there were many, as titles and fragments show, of which the scene was laid at Troy, and of which the action was founded on the epics of the Trojan cycle. This series ranged over the whole course of the ten years' war, from its earliest incidents, as told in the
Cypria, down to the fall of the city, as told in the
Iliupersis. The
Philoctetes is connected with this series, but the
Ajax is the only remaining piece which actually belongs to it. The story is taken from sources later than the
Iliad, but the conception of the hero, though modified by that later legend, is fundamentally Homeric.
In the
Iliad, Ajax, the son of Telamon, comes to Troy
1
from Salamis with twelve ships, and is stationed on the extreme left of the army, at the east end of the camp,—as Achilles holds the corresponding post of honour on the right
2
. He is an independent chief,—subject only to the allegiance which all the chiefs owe to the Captain General, Agamemnon. There is no reference to his descent from Aeacus; nor is there anything that connects him especially with Athens
3
. He has a well-recognised rank as being, next to Achilles, the greatest warrior in the Greek army
4
. Gigantic in stature—taller by a head and shoulders than his fellows—and of a massive frame, he is emphatically the ‘bulwark’ of the Greek host
5
. In comeliness, too, he is second only to the son of Peleus
6
; but ‘huge Ares’ is the god to whom he is compared; and when he is described ‘with a smile on his grim face,’ it is in the joy of battle
7
. The Homeric poet illustrates the qualities of his valour—both impetuous and obstinate—by likening him, first, to a lion in his onset, and then, when he is forced back by superior numbers, to a stubborn ass, whom boys, with feeble but incessant blows, laboriously cudgel out of a cornfield
8
. Staunch and steadfast, he never fails his friends at need —whether it be some individual comrade, such as his half-brother Teucer, whom he protects
9
, or whether he comes to the rescue of the whole army at some crisis
10
. In the absence of Achilles, it is only Ajax who is a match for Hector
11
. The sevenfold shield
12
of Ajax is not only his characteristic attribute, but the symbol of his service,—great in attack, but especially signal in defence: and as the mighty shield is compared in the
Iliad to a tower, so its owner himself is elsewhere called ‘a tower of strength’ to the Achaeans
13
.
The Athena of Sophocles speaks of Ajax as pre-eminent not only for bravery but for prudence
15
. This is true to the picture of him in the
Iliad. Once, indeed, after he has uttered a defiant and menacing challenge, Hector calls him ‘a blunderer, a clumsy braggart
16
’; as, in Shakespeare, Thersites calls him a ‘beef-witted lord,’ and Ulysses, ‘the lubber Ajax
17
.’ In another place, however,—when he agrees, at the herald's suggestion, to break off his combat with Hector, though he was having the best of it,—his chivalrous opponent recognises Ajax as one to whom the gods have given, not only ‘stature and might,’ but ‘understanding
18
.’ His good sense is conspicuous in the embassy to Achilles, where he is the colleague of Odysseus and Phoenix. It is he who perceives when the moment has come for ceasing to press the inexorable hero. ‘Let us go hence; for I do not think that the end of our message can be gained by this mission.’ He points out to his companions that it seems hopeless to move Achilles at present: and then, turning to Achilles himself, he addresses him in words of frank reproach, but also of friendly appeal and of cordial good-will
19
.
One trait, however, marks an important difference between the Homeric and the later conception. In the play of Sophocles Ajax appears as one who has offended Athena by the presumptuous self-confidence with which he has rejected divine aid in war. There is no trace of this in the
Iliad. While he is arming for the combat with Hector, he exhorts the Greeks to pray that Zeus may help him
20
. In the battle at the ships, after splendid deeds of valour, he retreats when he perceives, with a thrill of awe, that, for the time, the gods are against him
21
. During the battle over the body of Patroclus, when a thick mist has fallen on the field, his prayer for light breathes reverent submission to the will of Zeus
22
.
Such is the Ajax of the
Iliad; a mighty champion of the Greeks in their sorest need; a man of good sense and good feeling, sparing of words, but able to speak wisely in season; loyal to his friends; straightforward and unselfish; frankly conscious of his strength, but placing his reliance on the help of the gods, and yielding, even in the fiercest struggle, to revelations of their mind.
A contest between Ajax and Odysseus for the arms of Achilles, resulting in the defeat and suicide of Ajax, is first mentioned in the
Odyssey
23
, where the sullen shade of the injured hero refuses to hold converse with the victor. It was the goddess Thetis who set her son's arms for a prize; ‘the judges were the children of the Trojans and Pallas Athena.’
Introduction to Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. 1900.
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