Áyax o Ayante, hijo de Telamón y Peribea, rey de Salamina, es un legendario héroe de la mitología griega. Para distinguirlo de Áyax, hijo de Oileo se le llamaba Áyax el Grande, Gran Áyax o Áyax Telamonio. Su nombre viene, según la misma mitología, de la nominación de Hércules, amigo de Telamón, quien al ver que el águila (Aías) de Zeus, se posaba es su hombro le anunció: "Nacerá de ti, Telamón, el hijo que deseas y del nombre del ave que acaba de aparecérsenos le llamarán Ayax.
Fue un valeroso guerrero, el más fuerte después de su primo Aquiles que se embarcó a la mítica Guerra de Troya al mando de doce navíos de Salamina acompañado de su hermano Teucro. Hijos suyos fueron Eurísaces y Fileo, el primer ancestro de la familia ateniense de los Filaidas. Peleó en la guerra con coraje y destreza y se suicidó al enloquecer porque los griegos le negaron las armas de su amado primo, Aquiles. En la Ilíada de Homero se le describe como un guerrero de gran estatura y fuerza colosal, testarudo y de inmenso escudo que por sí mismo es un antemural de las falanges, segundo en destreza y valentía en la batalla únicamente por detrás de Aquiles. No fue herido en ninguna de las batallas relatadas en La Ilíada y es el único personaje de importancia en la obra que no recibió ayuda por parte de ninguno de los dioses griegos. Al igual que Aquiles fue entrenado por el centauro Quirón. Áyax era sin duda uno de los reyes más importantes en el campo de batalla, aunque no tan sabio como Néstor, Idomeneo o Menesteo, ni tan hábil como Diomedes, Odiseo o Palamedes. Mandaba su ejército llevando una gran hacha de guerra y un enorme escudo, acompañado siempre por su hermano Teucro. Durante la guerra de Troya Áyax luchó con Héctor en dos ocasiones. La primera fue en un duelo que duró durante todo un día sin que hubiera un vencedor. La segunda fue durante una incursión de los troyanos en el campamento de los aqueos donde ambos pelearon en los barcos griegos. Áyax casi mató a Héctor arrojándole una piedra mayor que el propio príncipe troyano. Ambos encuentros tuvieron lugar cuando Aquiles había abandonado el campo de batalla debido a su enfado con Agamenón. Cuando Patroclo murió a manos de Héctor, los troyanos intentaron hacerse con su cuerpo y alimentar con él a los perros pero Áyax luchó contra ellos protegiendo el cadáver y devolviéndolo al campamento griego y a Aquiles. Algo más tarde en la historia, cuando Aquiles muere tras ser alcanzado por una flecha de Paris, Áyax y Odiseo pelean por recuperar el cuerpo del héroe griego y enterrarlo junto al de su amigo Patroclo. Tras el funeral ambos héroes griegos reclaman la armadura de Aquiles como recompensa por sus esfuerzos. Tras una disputa de ingenio o tal vez porque Agamenón aborrecía el linaje de Éaco, Odiseo recibe la armadura y Áyax furioso cae al suelo exhausto. Cuando se levanta, lo hace loco de furia y en su delirio confunde un rebaño de ovejas con los líderes aqueos, Odiseo y Agamenón, matando a todos los animales. Cuando Áyax despierta de su locura se ve rodeado de sangre y decide quitarse la vida antes que vivir en la vergüenza y el deshonor. Para ello utiliza la espada de Héctor, que éste le había concedido como un regalo de honor tras su primer duelo.
Fue un valeroso guerrero, el más fuerte después de su primo Aquiles que se embarcó a la mítica Guerra de Troya al mando de doce navíos de Salamina acompañado de su hermano Teucro. Hijos suyos fueron Eurísaces y Fileo, el primer ancestro de la familia ateniense de los Filaidas. Peleó en la guerra con coraje y destreza y se suicidó al enloquecer porque los griegos le negaron las armas de su amado primo, Aquiles. En la Ilíada de Homero se le describe como un guerrero de gran estatura y fuerza colosal, testarudo y de inmenso escudo que por sí mismo es un antemural de las falanges, segundo en destreza y valentía en la batalla únicamente por detrás de Aquiles. No fue herido en ninguna de las batallas relatadas en La Ilíada y es el único personaje de importancia en la obra que no recibió ayuda por parte de ninguno de los dioses griegos. Al igual que Aquiles fue entrenado por el centauro Quirón. Áyax era sin duda uno de los reyes más importantes en el campo de batalla, aunque no tan sabio como Néstor, Idomeneo o Menesteo, ni tan hábil como Diomedes, Odiseo o Palamedes. Mandaba su ejército llevando una gran hacha de guerra y un enorme escudo, acompañado siempre por su hermano Teucro. Durante la guerra de Troya Áyax luchó con Héctor en dos ocasiones. La primera fue en un duelo que duró durante todo un día sin que hubiera un vencedor. La segunda fue durante una incursión de los troyanos en el campamento de los aqueos donde ambos pelearon en los barcos griegos. Áyax casi mató a Héctor arrojándole una piedra mayor que el propio príncipe troyano. Ambos encuentros tuvieron lugar cuando Aquiles había abandonado el campo de batalla debido a su enfado con Agamenón. Cuando Patroclo murió a manos de Héctor, los troyanos intentaron hacerse con su cuerpo y alimentar con él a los perros pero Áyax luchó contra ellos protegiendo el cadáver y devolviéndolo al campamento griego y a Aquiles. Algo más tarde en la historia, cuando Aquiles muere tras ser alcanzado por una flecha de Paris, Áyax y Odiseo pelean por recuperar el cuerpo del héroe griego y enterrarlo junto al de su amigo Patroclo. Tras el funeral ambos héroes griegos reclaman la armadura de Aquiles como recompensa por sus esfuerzos. Tras una disputa de ingenio o tal vez porque Agamenón aborrecía el linaje de Éaco, Odiseo recibe la armadura y Áyax furioso cae al suelo exhausto. Cuando se levanta, lo hace loco de furia y en su delirio confunde un rebaño de ovejas con los líderes aqueos, Odiseo y Agamenón, matando a todos los animales. Cuando Áyax despierta de su locura se ve rodeado de sangre y decide quitarse la vida antes que vivir en la vergüenza y el deshonor. Para ello utiliza la espada de Héctor, que éste le había concedido como un regalo de honor tras su primer duelo.
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Ajax or Aias was a mythological Greek hero, the son of Telamon and Periboea and king of Salamis. He plays an important role in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War. To distinguish him from Ajax, son of Oileus (Ajax the Lesser), he is called "Telamonian Ajax," "Greater Ajax," or "Ajax the Great". In Etruscan mythology, he is known as Aivas Tlamunus.
Death
Like most of the other Greek leaders, Ajax is alive and well as the Iliad comes to a close. Later, when Achilles dies, killed by Paris (with help from Apollo), Ajax and Odysseus are the heroes who fight against the Trojans to get the body and bury it next to his friend, Patroclus. Ajax, with his great shield and spear, manages to drive off the Trojans, while Odysseus pulls the body to his chariot, and rides away with it to safety. After the burial, both claim the armor for themselves, as recognition for their efforts. After several days of competition, Odysseus and Ajax are tied for the ownership of the magical armor which was forged on Mount Olympus by the god Hephaestus. It is then that a competition is held to determine who deserves the armor. Ajax argues that because of his strength and the fighting he has done for the Greeks, including saving the ships from Hector, and driving him off with a massive rock, he deserves the armor. However, Odysseus proves to be more eloquent, and the council gives him the armor. Ajax, "Unconquered," and furious, falls upon his own sword, "conquered by his sorrow".
In Sophocles' play Ajax, a famous retelling of Ajax's demise takes place - after the armor is awarded to Odysseus the hero Ajax falls to the ground, exhausted. When he wakes up, he is under the influence of a spell from Athena. He goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, and realizes what he has done, with diminished honor he decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than to live in shame. He does so with the same sword Hector gave him when they exchanged presents. From his blood sprang a red flower, as at the death of Hyacinthus, which bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name Ai, also expressive of lament. His ashes were deposited in a golden urn on the Rhoetean promontory at the entrance of the Hellespont.
In Pindar's Nemeans, 7, 8; Isthmian 4; and in Ovid's Metamorphoses, 13.1. Homer is somewhat vague about the precise manner of Ajax's death but does ascribe it to his loss in the dispute over Achilles's shield: when Odysseus visits Hades, he begs the soul of Ajax to speak to him, but Ajax, still resentful over the old quarrel, refuses and descends silently back into Erebus.
Like Achilles, he is represented (although not by Homer) as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube. Ajax, who in the post-Homeric legend is described as the grandson of Aeacus and the great-grandson of Zeus, was the tutelary hero of the island of Salamis, where he had a temple and an image, and where a festival called Aianteia was celebrated in his honour. At this festival a couch was set up, on which the panoply of the hero was placed, a practice which recalls the Roman Lectisternium. The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad (2.557-558), for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island. Ajax then became an Attic hero; he was worshipped at Athens, where he had a statue in the market-place, and the tribe Aiantis was named after him. Pausanias also relates that a gigantic skeleton, its kneecap 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter, appeared on the beach near Sigeion, on the Trojan coast; these bones were identified as those of Ajax.
Death
Like most of the other Greek leaders, Ajax is alive and well as the Iliad comes to a close. Later, when Achilles dies, killed by Paris (with help from Apollo), Ajax and Odysseus are the heroes who fight against the Trojans to get the body and bury it next to his friend, Patroclus. Ajax, with his great shield and spear, manages to drive off the Trojans, while Odysseus pulls the body to his chariot, and rides away with it to safety. After the burial, both claim the armor for themselves, as recognition for their efforts. After several days of competition, Odysseus and Ajax are tied for the ownership of the magical armor which was forged on Mount Olympus by the god Hephaestus. It is then that a competition is held to determine who deserves the armor. Ajax argues that because of his strength and the fighting he has done for the Greeks, including saving the ships from Hector, and driving him off with a massive rock, he deserves the armor. However, Odysseus proves to be more eloquent, and the council gives him the armor. Ajax, "Unconquered," and furious, falls upon his own sword, "conquered by his sorrow".
In Sophocles' play Ajax, a famous retelling of Ajax's demise takes place - after the armor is awarded to Odysseus the hero Ajax falls to the ground, exhausted. When he wakes up, he is under the influence of a spell from Athena. He goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, and realizes what he has done, with diminished honor he decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than to live in shame. He does so with the same sword Hector gave him when they exchanged presents. From his blood sprang a red flower, as at the death of Hyacinthus, which bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name Ai, also expressive of lament. His ashes were deposited in a golden urn on the Rhoetean promontory at the entrance of the Hellespont.
In Pindar's Nemeans, 7, 8; Isthmian 4; and in Ovid's Metamorphoses, 13.1. Homer is somewhat vague about the precise manner of Ajax's death but does ascribe it to his loss in the dispute over Achilles's shield: when Odysseus visits Hades, he begs the soul of Ajax to speak to him, but Ajax, still resentful over the old quarrel, refuses and descends silently back into Erebus.
Like Achilles, he is represented (although not by Homer) as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube. Ajax, who in the post-Homeric legend is described as the grandson of Aeacus and the great-grandson of Zeus, was the tutelary hero of the island of Salamis, where he had a temple and an image, and where a festival called Aianteia was celebrated in his honour. At this festival a couch was set up, on which the panoply of the hero was placed, a practice which recalls the Roman Lectisternium. The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad (2.557-558), for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island. Ajax then became an Attic hero; he was worshipped at Athens, where he had a statue in the market-place, and the tribe Aiantis was named after him. Pausanias also relates that a gigantic skeleton, its kneecap 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter, appeared on the beach near Sigeion, on the Trojan coast; these bones were identified as those of Ajax.
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