According to some sources, particularly Greek poet Pindar (c. 522-c. 438 BCE) the Great Ajax was the first cousin of Achilles, since both men were grandsons of Aeacus, the first king of the island of Aegina. In historical times, Ajax’s tomb was believed to have been at Troy; he was worshiped at Byzantium (modern Istanbul in Turkey) and had a hero shrine on Salamis. There is also a record of the Greeks praying to him before the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE, when the Greek navy faced the mighty Persian fleet off the coast of the island. During the Greeks’ famous victory, they captured a Persian trireme (a ship with three banks of oars), which they dedicated to Ajax.
Below: A fifth-century-BCE Greek lekythos (oil flask) depicting the dispute over Achilles’ armor. Odysseus and the Great Ajax were the main rivals in this contest; when Ajax lost, he became mad with rage.
Funeral games of Patroclus, Achilles’ companion, had Athena not intervened. The goddess made him slip on a cow pie, and when he staggered in with a mouthful of manure, all the Greeks laughed at him. It appears that Athena’s action was inspired by the Lesser Ajax’s arrogance, another quality that distinguished him from the Great Ajax.
The most famous incident involving the Lesser Ajax occurred during the sacking of Troy, when he seized Cassandra, daughter of the Trojan king, Priam. Ajax pulled the girl away from the statue of Athena, which she was holding, and raped her, thus offending the goddess. The Greeks sentenced Ajax to death, but he took sanctuary in the Temple of Athena. The Greeks could not avenge the wrong against Athena without violating her sanctuary, and so they allowed Ajax to return home with them.
However, Athena was still angry and sent a great storm that sank many of the Greek ships on their journey back from Troy. Among those shipwrecked was the Lesser Ajax, who grasped a rock to prevent himself from drowning. Homer says that he would have lived “in spite of the anger of Athena” had he not boasted that he had saved himself in defiance of the gods. His boast caused the sea god Poseidon to split the rock and drown him.
The epic story of the Lesser Ajax and Cassandra lay behind one of the most unusual ancient Greek rituals. Every year, in penance for the crime of Ajax, the inhabitants of Locris sent two maidens across the Aegean Sea to serve Athena in her temple in Ilion, the Greek city that claimed to be the successor to the legendary Troy. The maidens, who came from the best families, were escorted by Locrian men. They landed on the shore of Ilion (in modern northwest Turkey) at night, where they encountered men from Ilion, armed with swords. However, as one source explains, there was no record of any maiden ever having been killed. It seems that they were greeted with a show of force and then made their way into the city. Once in Ilion their jewelry and fine clothing were taken from them, and they were forced to serve Athena for a year, until two new maidens arrived from Locris to replace them.
The Lesser Ajax was also the hero of the western Locrians, who lived in southern Italy. In the sixth century BCE, the western Locrians defeated the superior forces of the city of Croton in a battle at the Sagra River. According to one of the many colorful stories told about this event, the Locrians left a gap in their battle line in honor of Ajax; when the commander of the Croton forces attacked this spot he received an incurable wound. An oracle told the commander that the wound could only be healed by the one who had made it. He therefore went in search of the Lesser Ajax and found him on the White Island, a ghostly place in the Black Sea. The commander came back healed and told that he had seen both Ajaxes living on the island, beside other heroes such as Achilles and Helen, who were married.
James M. Redfield
Bibliography
Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Iliad. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Odyssey. New York: Penguin, 2009.
See ALSO: Achilles; Cassandra; Hector; Odysseus.
World History
