Ajax

The final section of the tragedy is made up of debates over whether Ajax should be buried. They transpire between Menelaus and Teucer, Agamemnon and Teucer, and Agamemnon and Odysseus. The decision to allow Ajax to be buried contrasts with events in Sophocles Antigone, believed to have been stage in or before 441, in which a hero is refused burial, with tragic consequences for all involved.

Menelaus and Agamemnon essentially argue for the importance of projecting strength. Leaders must inspire a degree of fear, thus the importance of punishing Ajax for his shocking act of murder. Teucer rejects the idea that Menelaus is in a position to decide whether Ajax can be buried since he came to Troy as an equal to Agamemnon and Menelaus. The oath that Teucer refers to was taken by all suitors of Helen, Ajax among them. Thus, Ajax’s loyalty is to the oath he made to the gods, not to the brothers specifically. Teucer’s argument can be understood to defend the piety of Ajax in upholding his oath.

Menelaus leaves to fetch Agamemnon, who argues his brother’s point as the leader of the Greek expedition. He attempts to dismiss Teucer as a slave, since his mother, the Trojan princess Hesione, was enslaved by his father when he sacked Troy with Heracles. Teucer presents a different interpretation, noting that both his parents have noble blood, and points out that Agamemnon’s ancestral line is cursed by impiety and outrage. These points of debate may reflect debates in Sophocles’s historical Athens about who should be granted citizenship. At some points, citizenship, which was only granted to men, was dependent on the father’s status while, at other times, it was restricted to men whose fathers were citizens and whose mothers were daughters of citizens.

Odysseus argues on a separate line that Ajax should be permitted burial because of the greatness of his deeds, two of which Teucer enumerates in his debate with Agamemnon. Ajax was the army’s bulwark, volunteering himself to face one-on-one combat to the death against Hector (which would have ended the war) and protecting their ships from being destroyed when Hector threatened them with destruction. Like Achilles and Ajax, Agamemnon seems to align with the image of the inflexible hero, who makes tragic mistakes because he cannot adapt to change. In Homer, he tends to compare himself to Zeus, reminiscent of Sophocles’s Ajax calling Athena his ally rather than accepting that mortals are not equal to the gods and must align their intentions with divine will.

Here, Sophocles portrays Agamemnon conceding to Odysseus but also refusing to take responsibility for allowing Ajax to be buried. In Homer, Agamemnon is also known for repeatedly making poor judgments, both at Troy and when he returns home to Mycenae, while Odysseus is adaptable and has foresight, enabling him to make good judgments (not always, but generally). These characterizations are reflected in Agamemnon’s preoccupation with appearing strong and Odysseus’s with appearing just, which is manifested through the decisions one makes.