[20] It is interesting to inquire how far the influence of the
1
Art.poets can be traced in such works of Greek art as are concerned with the tragic end of Ajax. A favourite subject was the actual contest for the arms. Some red-figured vases, of the fifth century B.C., show Ajax and Odysseus vehemently disputing the possession of the prize,—ready, indeed, to rush at each other, while their friends on either side hold them back: Agamemnon, as judge, stands between them. This type seems to have been created, or at least developed, by the vase-painter
2
. But an earlier form of the same subject occurs on black-figured vases of the sixth century B.C. Here there are only the three principal figures,—Ajax, Odysseus, and Agamemnon,—and the
ἀγὼν
for the arms approaches still more nearly to the character of a fight. The competitors are advancing against each other with drawn swords, while Agamemnon tries to keep them apart
3
. The black-figured vases prove that the original literary source was not the
Ὅπλων κρίσις
of Aeschylus, —as the red-figured vases would have allowed us to suppose,— but some older poem. Other works of art represent the close of the contest. A relief on a sarcophagus found at Ostia
4
shows Odysseus seizing the arms which have just been awarded to him, while Ajax, escorted by indignant friends, is retiring, with visible fury in his eyes,—the
ὄμματα ἀστράπτοντα
of the
Iliupersis
5
. The same moment is depicted on a vase in the British Museum
6
: Athena herself presides over the court, indicating the artist's literal interpretation of the verse in the
Odyssey (11. 547
παῖδες δὲ Τρώων δίκασαν καὶ Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη
). On a stone in front of the goddess are seen the
ψῆφοι
by which the arms have just been adjudged to Odysseus,—a detail which recalls the language of Pindar and Sophocles, who both speak of the award as decided by ballot
7
.The painters Parrhasius and Timanthes (
c. 400 B.C.) are said to have competed at Samos in an
Tristia 2. 525 f.
ἀγὼν γραφικός
, the subject of their pictures being Ajax and Odysseus contending for the arms
8
. But the famous picture on this subject was by Timomachus of Byzantium
9
, whose work was directly inspired by Sophocles. It represented Ajax, as the poet describes him, sitting among the slaughtered cattle, and brooding on selfdestruction, in that gloomy despair which followed his frenzy
10
. An epigram in the
Anthology attests the vivid impression which this picture made on the beholder
11
. It was kindred in conception to another celebrated work of the same painter, Medea meditating the murder of her children. Both pictures were at Cyzicus in the early part of the first century B.C.; they were purchased by Julius Caesar, and placed in the temple of Venus Genetrix at Rome. Ovid in exile remembered both:—
Utque sedet vultu fassus Telamonius iram,
Inque oculis facinus barbara mater habet
The
Tabula Iliaca in the Capitoline Museum contains a small picture, inscribed
ΑΙΑΣ ΜΑΝΙΩΔΗΣ
, which probably shows the influence of Timomachus; Ajax is seated in an attitude of deep dejection, and near him lies the severed head of a ram,—a detail taken from the play of Sophocles (vv. 237 ff.)
12
. The hero's suicide is the subject of some Etruscan vase-paintings. One of these shows the sword planted in the ground, as Sophocles describes it (v. 815)
13
. Introduction to Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. 1900.
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