Aias the lesser - Revision history

Irlandos at 18:36, June 28, 2006

2006-06-28T18:36:57Z

Irlandos: /* References */

2006-04-30T19:53:47Z

References

Irlandos at 15:16, December 28, 2005

2005-12-28T15:16:07Z

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'''Ajax''' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: '''Αίας'''), a [[Greek mythology|Greek]] hero, son of [[Oileus]] the king of [[Locris]], called the "lesser" or [[Locrian Ajax]], to distinguish him from [[Ajax the great|Ajax]], son of [[Telamon]]. He was the leader of the Locrian contingent during the [[Trojan War]]. He is a significant figure in the ''[[Iliad]]'' and is mentioned in the ''[[Odyssey]]''.

[[Homer]] gives a favorable description of him as a warrior. In spite of his small stature, he held his own amongst the other heroes before Troy; he was brave, next to [[Achilles]] in swiftness of foot and famous for throwing the spear. But he was boastful, arrogant and quarrelsome; like the Telamonian Ajax, he was the enemy of [[Odysseus]], and in the end the victim of the vengeance of [[Poseidon]], who wrecked his ship on his homeward voyage ''([[Odyssey]]'', iv. 499).

A later story gives a more definite account of the offense of which he was guilty. It is said that, after the fall of Troy, he dragged [[Cassandra]] away by force from the statue of the goddess at which she had taken refuge as a suppliant, and raped her (Lycophron, 360, Quintus Smyrnaeus xiii. 422). For this, his ship was wrecked in a storm on the coast of [[Euboea]], and he himself was struck by lightning and impaled upon a rock. (Virgil, ''Aeneid'' I. 40-45).

He was said to have lived after his death in the island of [[Leuke]]. He was worshipped as a national hero by the Opuntian Locrians (on whose coins he appears), who always left a vacant place for him in the ranks of their army when drawn up in battle array. He was the subject of a lost tragedy by [[Sophocles]]. The rape of Cassandra by Ajax was frequently represented in [[ancient Greece|Greek]] works of art, for instance on the chest of [[Cypselus]] described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (v. 17) and in extant works.

==References==

[[Category:People who fought in the Trojan War]]

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 He was said to have lived after his death in the island of [[Leuke]].  He was worshipped as a national hero by the Opuntian Locrians (on whose coins he appears), who always left a vacant place for him in the ranks of their army when drawn up in battle array.  He was the subject of a lost tragedy by [[Sophocles]].  The rape of Cassandra by Ajax was frequently represented in [[ancient Greece|Greek]] works of art, for instance on the chest of [[Cypselus]] described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (v. 17) and in extant works.
-==References==
 [[Category:People who fought in the Trojan War]]