Ajax : (1) son of Oïleus & leader of the forces from Locris in the Trojan War hence called the Locrian Ajax or Ajax the Lesser. (2) Son of Telamon hence called Telamonian Ajax or, due to his size & reckless valour, Ajax the Greater.
... and it took ten whole years to gather the Greek army. Among those who joined were Odysseus, king of Ithaca, Achilles of Phthia, Nestor, king of Pylos; Diomedes, the hero of Aetolia, Ajax, the Telamonian, Ajax the Lorcian, Idas, king of Crete and Idomeneus. When the fleet was ready for the departure in the harbour of Aulis, the winds stopped blowing, and the ships could not move forward.... that must mean death. In Book 16, Patroclus, one of the most favoured friends of Achilles, wins his permission to lead Achilles' troops against Troy; Hector kills him, and in Book 17, Hector fights Ajax fiercely over the body of the slain Patroclus.In Book 18, Achilles, on hearing of the death of his beloved friend, Patroclus, resolves to fight, and in Book 19, he is reconciled with Agamemnon. Agamemnon... the city. At that moment, Paris, favoured by Apollo, aimed his fatal arrow at the hero's only weak point: his heel. Achilles fell, and a murderous battle ensued over his body. In the end, Odysseus and Ajax managed to carry it back to the camp. His body was cremated and a magnificent tomb was built. After the death of Achilles, there was such a great vacuum that the Greeks were gripped by despair ...
... seekest out Locrian Ajax, Turnest thy ear to the roar for the dangerous shout of Tydides; There, once heard, leaving all thou drivest, O stark in thy courage. Yet am I blest among women who tremble not, left in thy mansion, Quiet at old Anchises' feet when I see thee in vision Sole with the shafts hissing round thee and say to my quivering spirit, Now he is striking at Ajax, now he has met Diomedes... shall deny to the Locrian Ajax. Even though Pallas divine with her aegis counselling mercy Cumbered my path, I would push her aside to leap on my victims. Learn shall all men on that day how a warrior deals with his foemen." Page 426 Darting flames from his eyes the barbarian sate, and there rose up Frowning Tydeus' son, the Tirynthian, strong Diomedes. "Ajax Oileus, thy words are... astonished Reels from her shock to the Ocean. She is the panic and mellay, War is her paean, the chariots thunder of Penthesilea. Doom was her coming, it seems, to the men of the West and their legions; Ajax sleeps for ever, Meriones lies on the beaches. One by one they are falling before you, the great in Achaia. Ever the wounded are borne like the stream of the ants when they forage Past my ships, ...
... who by forged evidence got him executed for treason (Virgil, Aeneid ii. 81 If). Ajax expected to be awarded the arms of Achilles, which were supposed to pass, after their owner's death, to the next bravest of the Greeks; but the generals Agamemnon and Menelaus I awarded them to Odysseus. Ajax, in a fit of madness, killed some cattle in mistake for the persons j who had wronged him,... and Musaeus, 45 Hesiod 46 and Homer? I am willing to die ten times over if this account is true. It would be a specially interesting experience for me to join them there, to meet Palamedes 47 and Ajax 48 the son of Telamon and any other heroes of the old days who met their death through an unfair trial, and to compare my fortunes with theirs — it would be rather amusing, I think —; and above all ...
... forged evidence got him executed for treason (Virgil, Aeneid ii. 811f). 48 Ajax expected to be awarded the arms of Achilles, which were supposed to pass, after their owner's death, to the next bravest of the Greeks; but the generals Agamemnon and Menelaus awarded them to Odysseus. Ajax, in a fit of madness, killed some cattle in mistake for the persons who had wronged him, and later ...
... Andromache. "Love," she whispers to him, "thy stout heart will be thy death; nor hast thou pity of thy child or me who shall soon be a widow." Then he strides down the causeway to battle and (VII) engages Ajax, King of Salamis, in single combat. They fight bravely, and separate at nightfall with exchange of praise and gifts — a flower of courtesy floating on a sea of blood. (VIII) After a day of Trojan victories... and Diomed make a two-man sally upon the Trojan camp at night and slay a dozen chieftains. (XI) Agamemnon leads his army valiantly, is wounded, and retires. Odysseus, surrounded, fights like a lion; Ajax and Menelaus cleave a path to him and save him for a better life. (XII-XIII) When the Trojans advance to the walls that the Greeks have built about their camp (XIV), Hera is so disturbed that she resolves... as the Greeks fight desperately in a retreat that must mean death. (XVI) Patroclus, beloved of Achilles, wins his permission to lead Achilles' troops against Troy; Hector slays him, and (XVII) fights Ajax fiercely over the body of the youth. (VIII) Hearing of Patroclus' death, Achilles at last resolves to fight. His goddess-mother Thetis persuades the divine smithy, Page 49 Hephaestus, to ...
... Greece, he was murdered by his wife Clymnestra and her paramour Aegisthus; his death was avenged by his children. Agamemnon's funeral mask Ajax: son of Telamon, he was also called the Telamonian Ajax. He was the leader of the warriors of Salamis and is already slain by Penthesilea at the opening of Ilion. Amphitrite: one of the Nereids, queen of the sea, wife... god turned to a curse the gift of prophecy he had bestowed on her, causing her prophecies never to be believed. Centaurs: Fabulous creatures, for the Cassandra, being slaved by Ajax in Athena's temple. Apollo is seen behind. Page 112 most part of a wild and unruly nature, have the upper part of a human being and the lower part of a horse. Climene: ...
... For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men. In the speeches of both Penthesilea and Laocoön Ajax is spoken of as having been slain by Penthesilea. In some other passages there is a living Ajax. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that in the Trojan War there were two Ajaxes, the Great and the Small. The Great was the most famous fighter ...
... was conquered in battle! Know me armed with a spear that never has missed in the combat! There where my car-wheels run, good fruit gets the husbandman after. This thou knowest. Ajax has told thee, thy friend, in his dying. Has not Meriones' spirit come in thy dreams then to warn thee? Didst thou not number the Argives over ere I came to the battle? Number them ...
... death and the burning of Troy was filled with the achievements Page 53 of Memnon and Penthesilea, the treacherous killing of Achilles by Paris, the quarrel between Odysseus and Ajax, the killing of Paris with the bow of Philoctetes, and other episodes since commemorated in tragedy and heroic poetry. From the nine Books of Ilion now available it is difficult to ...
... which links him to Chaucer who also is a poet of outward character and act. There is the comic relief of "things like the burlesque life on Olympus, or Irus the beggar, or Ajax slipping in the offal"; 24 and there is the realism of Homer's humbler folk. Not that the later mind of Greece was divorced from laughter or from depiction ...
... them with sorrow. 1 The irony here is of personal life; an irony of martial interrelations strikes its note, both stern and tragic, in the vision of death's day-to-day events in a war: Ajax has bit at the dust; it is all he shall have of the Troad; Tall Meriones lies and measures his portion of booty. 2 Again and again, the drift of the least impulse, the lightest act, the ...
... as a smith in his smithy, But it was death and bale that he forged, not the bronze and the iron. Stark, like a fire obscured by its smoke, through the spear-casts he laboured Helping Ajax' war and the Theban and Phocian fighters. Zeus to his grandiose helper next, who proved and unmoving, Calm in her greatness waited the mighty command of her husband: "Hera, sister and ...
... woven shirt to shroud the body well when Priam bore him home. Then Achilles called the serving-women out: "Bathe and anoint the body — bear it aside first. Priam must not see his Achilles and Ajax playing a game of dice (black figure amphora by Exekias, 540530 BC) Page 39 son." He feared that, overwhelmed by the sight of Hector, wild with grief, Priam might let his anger flare ...
... of myself or thyself thou shalt capture. 104 In the Greek camp, Menelaus despairingly asks: "Who in the dreadful field can prevail against Penthesilea...?", while the Locrian swift-footed Ajax calls her "this hell-bitch armed by the furies". Zeus himself takes in his eternal gaze "the beauty of Penthesilea". And Book IX is mostly filled with the ambience of her prowess and personality. ...
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