Ajax in Aegina

This chapter focuses on the reception of Ajax in ancient Aegina. The whole argument of the chapter rests on the assumption that Ajax was imbued with a strong political significance throughout the first half of the fifth century BCE in the context of overt Atheno-Aeginetan rivalry. On the one hand, Ajax was a particularly prominent figure on the island, since the Aeginetans believed that they, of all the Greeks, had primacy over the Aeacidae, because Aeacus, Ajax’s grandfather, was born there. The Athenians, on the other hand, laid claim over the hero too, notably by naming one of their own tribes after him. Ajax acquired particular significance during the Persian Wars, as the emblematic victory at Salamis, in 480 BCE, took place at the hero’s birthplace. This made any claim for primacy over him all the more significant and politically charged. The odes that Pindar and Bacchylides composed for Aeginetan patrons constitute the primary set of evidence regarding the reception of Ajax in Aegina. These are Isthmian 6, Isthmian 5, Nemean 7, Isthmian 4, Nemean 4, Nemean 3, Nemean 6, Olympian 8, Pythian 8, Nemean 8; and Bacchylides’ Ode 13. In addition to literary sources, iconographical witnesses include the pediments of the Aphaea temple on which several figures, one of whom is most probably Ajax, are seen fighting.