Ajax

Ajax is defined by size and endurance. In Book VII he duels Hector for a whole day and fights him to a draw, and the two men exchange gifts. In Books XI–XV, as the Trojans break through the wall, Ajax is the last line of defence, moving from ship to ship with his huge shield and holding back the enemy almost single-handedly. The poem repeatedly calls him a tower or a wall.

He is not a subtle speaker. When the embassy to Achilles fails in Book IX, Ajax says little and his bluntness is more telling than Odysseus’s rhetoric. He represents the older, physical code of the hero: stand your ground, protect your companions, do not yield.

The Iliad does not narrate his death. Later tradition, especially the Aethiopis and Sophocles’ Ajax, tells how the armour of Achilles was judged to Odysseus, and how Ajax, humiliated, killed himself. The Odyssey mentions his shade in the underworld, silent and angry, refusing to speak to Odysseus.

The later story sharpens what the Iliad already implies: Ajax’s virtue is acknowledged but not rewarded in the way the heroic code promises. He is the strongest defender of the army, and the army’s gratitude is measured in prizes that go to more articulate men.