[19] An
Αἴας μαινόμενος
is ascribed to Astydamas (
c. 360 B.C.),
1
the younger of two tragic poets who bore that name
2
. The title suggests a play similar in general scope to that of Sophocles; but nothing is known of it. The
Αἴας
of Carcinus (
c. 375 B.C.?) is equally unknown
3
. The
Αἴας
of Theodectes (
c. 330 B.C.) appears to have been more on the lines of Aeschylus;
i.e., it contained the
Ὅπλων κρίσις
, with speeches by Ajax and Odysseus
4
. That contest appears as a theme for rhetorical prose in the harangues for the two heroes which are ascribed to Antisthenes (
c. 380 B.C.), and which in any case date probably from the fourth century B.C.
5
The earliest author of Latin tragedy, the Greek freedman Livius Andronicus, wrote an
Aiax Mastigophorus, doubtless founded, as the title indicates, on Sophocles. These words occurred in it:—
Praestatur laus virtuti, sed multo ocius Verno gelu tabescit
6
:
an echo, probably, of the words in the
Ajax (vv. 1266 f.),
φεῦ· τοῦ θανόντος ὡς ταχεῖά τις βροτοῖς χάρις διαρρεῖ
.The metaphor of the melting frost (scarcely a happy image for evanescent praise) may have been suggested by
διαρρεῖ
. Nothing is known as to the
Aiax of Ennius, but one of the two verses which remain from it recalls a passage in the
Ajax of Sophocles
7
. If we may suppose that Ennius, like Livius Andronicus, based his treatment of the subject wholly or mainly on Sophocles, then there is significance in the fact that the later dramatists, Pacuvius and Attius, each wrote an
Armorum Iudicium
8
; a title which suggests that the desire to vary from their Latin predecessors sent them back to the
Ὅπλων κρίσις
of Aeschylus, and possibly to the play of Theodectes. A fragment from the
Armorum Iudicium of Attius belongs to the speech in which Odysseus urged his claim to the arms. The verse which Attius has paraphrased from the
Ajax (vv. 550 f.),Virtuti sis par, dispar fortunis patris, suggests, however, that he may have imitated Sophocles in other details also; perhaps seeking, by such eclecticism of treatment, to distinguish his work from the earlier
Armorum Iudicium of Pacuvius. The rhetorical capabilities of the subject are illustrated by Ovid, whose powers of brilliant and ingenious declamation are seen to considerable advantage in the speeches of Ajax and Odysseus
9
. His spirited and pointed verse presents a striking contrast to the tame and mechanical treatment of the same episode in the Greek epic of Quintus Smyrnaeus
10
.
The earliest reference in modern literature to the
Ajax of Sophocles is of sufficient interest to deserve a passing mention here; it occurs in the first scene of
Titus Andronicus, v. 379:—
The Greeks upon advice did bury Ajax That slew himself; and wise Laertes' son Did graciously plead for his funerals.
As Steevens saw, these lines must have been written (or prompted) by some one who knew the
Ajax itself; for no translation of Sophocles existed in the sixteenth century, and the mediation of Odysseus is not mentioned elsewhere. Modern criticism doubts, and with good reason, whether Shakespeare had any part in the
Titus Andronicus
11
, though Meres, in 1598, included it among his plays: and in this passage, at all events, we seem to see the work of a playwright who had been at one of the Universities.
Introduction to Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. 1900.
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