BIBLIOGRAPHY 1
Moore, Mary B. “Exekias and Telamonian Ajax.” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 84, no. 4, 1980, pp. 417–434.
Davidson, John. “Challenging Orthodoxy: The “Deception Speech” in Sophocles’ Ajax.” Classical Philology vol. 113, no. 4, October 2018. pp. 472-482.
This article sets forth a secondary view of the speech given by Ajax prior to his suicide. It challenges the view that he was attempting to deceive the chorus of his true suicidal intentions and instead sets forth the argument that at the time the speech was given, Ajax intended to truly repent, only to later change his mind under the influence of Athena’s wrath. The argument is that since Ajax has never been shown as a man capable and willing to commit deception, it is unlikely that he would begin to do so at that point. The claim is that while the speech given by Ajax is full of double meanings, foreshadowing, and irony, that this is an insertion by Sophocles for the purpose of entertaining the audience in a similar manner to a speech given by Oedipus, rather than the character of Ajax intending the words to come out that way. The evidence of the messenger stating that Athena’s wrath would follow Ajax if he left the tent also supports this thesis. This argument helps to crystallize the character of Ajax as a simple, honorable, straightforward man, not a big thinker, but more of a simple man of his word. He does not trick others or hide his emotions, but wears them on his sleeve. In the play it is the playwright putting irony and insight in his speech, and not the character of Ajax’s intentions. This solidifies a contrast between the wiliness of characters such as Odysseus and the trustworthiness of Ajax. Ajax, the simple and the strong, not Ajax the deceiver.
Mariscal, Lucia Romero. “Ajax and Achilles Playing a Board Game: Revisited from the Literary Tradition.” The Classical Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 2, 2011, pp. 394-401.
It is not clear where the literary tradition of Achilles and Ajax having played a board game of some sort arose. The first clear evidence of it can be found in a piece of pottery created by Exekias, a potter who made many works focused on Ajax. However, some have claimed that it perhaps hearkens back to a lost epic poem that told of this event that likely took place either before or during Achilles’s refusal to fight in the Trojan War. This paper adds the theory that it is perhaps a new scene not told in any poem, but that it does actually match with themes in the epic cycle. The game is said to have created by the Greek hero Palamedes, soon after who’s death Achilles withdrew from the fighting. In addition, some stories tell of Ajax also pulling back from the fight soon after his death. Here we see the two heroes who are said to have been close to Palamedes, both ignoring the fighting surrounding them and instead focusing on non-combat issues. Thus while the story itself may have been created from the imagination of Exekias, the themes behind it match those of the story as a whole and portray Ajax as not just a fighter and a killer, but a man capable of friendship and respect, and a man willing to honor his friends regardless of the circumstances. It also shows that perhaps his feelings of being slighted about the armor of Achilles may not have been so empty, considering he had already had issues with the Greek leadership and had a closer relationship with Achilles than most of the other Greek heroes seem to have had.
Trapp, Richard L. “Ajax in the ‘Iliad.’” The Classical Journal, vol. 56, no. 6, 1961, pp. 271–275.
Kane, Robert L. “Ajax and the Sword of Hector Sophocles, ‘Ajax’ 815-822.” Hermes, vol. 124, no. 1, 1996, pp. 17–28.
Simpson, Michael. “SOPHOCLES’ AJAX: HIS MADNESS AND TRANSFORMATION.” Arethusa, vol. 2, no. 1, 1969, pp. 88–103.
This paper’s main claim is that Sophocles’s Ajax is not a tale of madness and violence, but is instead the story of Ajax’s transformation as a man. It starts by claiming that Ajax’s madness has historically been misrepresented. Athena states that she clouded Ajax’s vision leading to his murder of the livestock rather than the Greek leaders; one would, using a modern understanding of the passage, understand that Ajax set out on his plan to kill the leaders while sane and only became insane when he viewed the livestock as human. However, the author claims that in ancient Greece vision and the mind were not as separated as they are in modern discourse, effectively that to the Greeks, clouding his vision, would be the same as driving him mad. This would mean that Athena’s curse drove him to kill the generals in the first place and not his own hubris. He may have had the impulse to kill them, but would not have acted on it without Athena’s touch. Upon the receding of his insanity, after decrying the horrors he had committed, Ajax gains clarity and gives his famous speech. Here is the beginning of his transformation from a warrior to a thinker. He walks through his actions and their consequences, how they affect those around him, and finds malignancy everywhere. He then sets out on his own in order to rethink his place in the world. The paper says that at some point Ajax realizes he does not fit into the world of heroism anymore and therefore chooses to remove himself from it rather than taint it. This paints a different picture of Ajax’s madness than is generally given, portraying him in a more positive light than that of a murderous, treacherous ally killer. Ajax is never portrayed as being someone to work in the shadows, he is honorable and fights face to face with his enemies, this interpretation of his madness allows for a more consistent characterization of Ajax, and explains that once he realized that he was a changed person who did not fit into his category in life, he chose to remove himself.