Ajax from Salamis

This chapter focuses on the representations of Telamonian Ajax in early Greek hexameter poetry and in archaic art. It broaches the question of the emergence of early Greek hexameter poetry and the way its various traditions relate to one another before focusing on Ajax per se. Various motifs pertaining to Ajax are analysed. First, elements are discussed which might have been inherited from Mycenaean times, such as his shield made of seven bulls’ hides (often identified as a tower shield), his connection with ancient Salamis, or the use of the formula Αἴαντε‎ to refer either to him and Locrian Ajax together or to him and his brother Teucer. The other elements of Ajax’s gesta that are closely examined comprise his genealogy, his supposed invulnerability, his role as ἕρκος Ἀχαιῶν‎ (‘bulwark of the Achaeans’), his conflictual relationship with the goddess Athena, the episode of the ὅπλων κρίσις‎, his madness, his suicide, and finally his connection with his homonym, Locrian Ajax. As a result, the chapter establishes the outline of what constituted the pre-Homeric myth(s) of Ajax, and discusses how the poet(s) of the Iliad received and adapted traditional material pertaining to the hero in the poem.