Character · Individual

Ajax

son of Telamon in the armour dispute

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name: Ajax
Disambiguator: son of Telamon in the armour dispute
Kind: Character
Scope: Individual
Editorial note: Kept distinct from both unresolved registered Ajax identities; current source uniquely bounds this Ajax as son of Telamon and participant in the armour dispute.

Aliases

son of Telamon

Descriptive reference · Remembered

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

house of Hades1 observation

·Remembered

Ajax son of Telamon came with Achilles in the house of Hades.

See evidence text

“‘As we two sat weeping and talking thus sadly with one another the ghost of Achilles came up to us with Patroclus, Antilochus, and Ajax who was the finest and goodliest man of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus. The fleet descendant of Aeacus knew me and spoke piteously, saying, ‘Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, what deed of daring will you undertake next, that you venture down to the house of Hades among us silly dead, who are but the ghosts of them that can labour no more?’ ”

Claims

·Remembered

Ajax is described as the finest and goodliest Danaan after Achilles.

See evidence text

“Ajax who was the finest and goodliest man of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus”

·Remembered

Ajax stands aloof, still angry over Achilles’s armour, and is remembered as second only to Achilles in stature and prowess.

See evidence text

“Ajax son of Telamon alone held aloof—still angry with me for having won the cause in our dispute about the armour of Achilles. Thetis had offered it as a prize, but the Trojan prisoners and Minerva were the judges. Would that I had never gained the day in such a contest, for it cost the life of Ajax, who was foremost of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus, alike in stature and prowess”

·Reported

Ulysses urges Ajax to master his proud anger over the armour judgment, lamenting him as an Argive tower of strength.

See evidence text

“must the judgement about that hateful armour still rankle with you? It cost us Argives dear enough to lose such a tower of strength as you were to us. We mourned you as much as we mourned Achilles son of Peleus himself, nor can the blame be laid on anything but on the spite which Jove bore against the Danaans, for it was this that made him counsel your destruction—come hither, therefore, bring your proud spirit into subjection”

·Remembered

Ajax refuses to answer Ulysses and turns away angrily toward Erebus and the other ghosts.

See evidence text

“He would not answer, but turned away to Erebus and to the other ghosts; nevertheless, I should have made him talk to me in spite of his being so angry”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

·Remembered

“Ajax who was the finest and goodliest man”

·Remembered

“Ajax son of Telamon”

·Direct

“Ajax, who was the finest and handsomest man of all the Danaans after the son of Peleus himself”