Table Of ContentARIS ἃ PHILLIPS CLASSICAL TEXTS
SOPHOCLES
Ajax
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY BY
A. F. Garvie
SOPHOCLES
AJAX
Board game between Achilles and Ajax. Black figure painting by
Exekias (Vat. 344)
Aris & PmrLıps CLASSICAL TEXTS
SOPHOCLES
Ajax
edited with an introduction, translation and commentary by
A. FE. Garvie
Aris & Phillips is an imprint of Oxbow Books
First published in the United Kingdom in 1998 by
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© The author A. F. Garvie
Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-0-85668-660-3
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Contents
Preface vi
INTRODUCTION
Bibliography
AJAX
Text and translation
COMMENTARY 123
Metrical Appendix 253
Index 259
Preface
This edition of Ajax is intended both for students who are reading the play in Greek
and for those who are studying it in English. For the benefit of the latter the
Commentary, as is normal in this series, is based not on the Greek text but on the
translation, and while help is given to the former category of reader with the
understanding οὗ the Greek, Greek words and phrases in the Commentary are
generally followed by an English translation. Discussion of the many textual
problems of the play has been kept to a minimum, and much that was present in
earlier drafts has been eliminated from the final one. As for the translation, in the
difficult task of trying to find the right balance between a literal rendering of the
Greek and one which bears some resemblance to modern idiomatic English, I have,
if anything, veered towards the former. It certainly makes no pretension to literary
merit. Where I have felt obliged to translate more freely, for the sake of the readers
who are trying to understand the Greek a more literal rendering is often included in
the Commentary.
My debt to earlier editions of Ajax will be obvious, particularly to the Oxford
Classical Text of H. Lloyd-Jones and N.G. Wilson. Unfortunately, their Sophocles:
second thoughts (Göttingen 1997) appeared too late for me to use. I am grateful to
many people: to Elizabeth Moignard for her help with vase-paintings, to Vayos
Liapis, with whom, while he was a research student at Glasgow, I spent many happy
hours discussing Ajax and other Sophoclean plays, to my wife for her patience and
encouragement, to my son David for his expertise in word-processing, to my
daughter Margaret for her comments on the Translation, and above all to Malcolm
Willcock, the General Editor of the Series, who read the whole of an earlier draft,
and who, by his wise suggestions, saved me from many errors and vastly improved
the whole book. Finally I must thank Adrian Phillips and Janet Davis of Aris &
Phillips for their never-failing advice and assistance and for their professional skill in
producing this book.
Glasgow February 1998
Introduction
The Myth
Ajax is a major character in Homer’s Hiad, in which he is regarded as the best
warrior on the Greek side after Achilles.! His qualities as a doughty and stubborn
fighter are revealed especially in the battles at the ships in the second part of the
poem, and it is he who rescues Odysseus when he is in difficulties at //. 11.473-88.
Though not as distinguished as Odysseus for intelligence and diplomacy, he
nevertheless is chosen for, and with his blunt speech plays an important part in, the
Embassy to Achilles in Book 9. Hector praises him for his understanding, as well as
for his physical strength, at 7.288. He is the only major hero who never directly
receives the help of a god.? It is as a defensive fighter that he stands out, and he is
rarely presented as an outright winner.? He has the better of the duel with Hector in
Book 7 and it ends honourably but inconclusively, as does his. wrestling-match with
Odysseus in the Funeral Games in Book 23.708-39, the first occasion on which these
two heroes compete with each other, but as yet in friendly fashion. In the same
Games Diomedes wins ‘on points’ in the fight in armour (23.811-25), and Ajax is
defeated by Polypoetes in the throwing of a mass of metal (23.826-49).
It is in the Odyssey that we find the earliest reference to the story with which
Sophocles is concerned in Ajax. After the death of Achilles his arms were awarded
to Odysseus, and not to Ajax. In a poignant scene at Od. 11.541-65 Odysseus
encounters his soul in the Underworld, when the angry Ajax refuses Odysseus’
attempt at a reconciliation and turns away without a word. The story is told so
allusively that one must suppose that it was already familiar to Homer’s audience.
Odysseus in his narrative says (11.547; the line was athetised, we do not know why,
by Aristarchus) that the judgement was made by the sons of the Trojans and by
Pallas Athena, but gives no clue as to how it was arranged. The part played by
Athena seems to foreshadow the role that the goddess plays in Sophocles’ play, but
in Sophocles there is no suggestion that she influenced the judgement of the arms.
We are not even explicitly told that Ajax commits suicide, though we may take it for
granted that he does so, in shame and anger at the loss of honour which he has
sustained. It is unlikely, but not impossible, that already, at this early stage of the
1 Il. 2.768-9, 7.227-8, 289, 17.279-80; cf. Od. 11.469-70 = 24.17-18, 11.550-1, Alcaeus
387 LP, Carm. Conviv. 898 and 899 PMG, P. Nem. 7.27,S. Aj. 423-6n.
2 See Scodel 12.
3 See Kirkwood (1965) 60, Sorum 364, E.A. Moignard, CA News 14 (1996) 2-3, and her
whole article, 2-4, on the black-figure amphora of c. 540-30 by Exekias (Vat.344; J.D.
Beazley, Attic black-figure vase-painters (Oxford 1956) 145.13), which shows Ajax
evidently losing to Achilles in a board-game.
2 INTRODUCTION
tradition, Ajax tried, as in Sophocles’ play, to take revenge on Agamemnon,
Menelaus, and Odysseus, and was prevented from doing so by Athena.
We know from fragments and from the summaries of the late writer Proclus
that the story was treated or referred to in several poems of the post-Homeric Epic
Cycle. The Aethiopis, ascribed to the probably seventh-century Arctinus of Miletus,*
having told how Achilles’ corpse was carried off the battlefield by Ajax while
Odysseus fought off the Trojans, ends in Proclus’ summary with the dispute between
them over the dead hero’s arms. Jebb (xv-xvi) argued that to the Aethiopis belongs
the account in Σ Od. 11.547 (cf. Eust. 1698) of how Agamemnon, not wishing to
show partiality to either hero, asked his Trojan prisoners which of them had caused
them more trouble, and they replied that it was Odysseus, so that he was judged to be
the better. According to & P. Isthm. 4.58 (fr. 1 Davies) Ajax committed suicide at
dawn, which, if correct, would mean that the poem continued after the judgement, or
at least referred to its consequences, but it is possible that & confuses this poem with
the Little Iliad,6 usually attributed to Lesches of Mytilene, which began with the
judgement. Greeks sent, on the advice of Nestor, to eavesdrop under the walls of
Troy overheartdwo Trojan girls arguing as to whether Ajax or Odysseus was the
greater warrior (fr. 2 Ὁ). The first girl pointed to Ajax’ carryingof Achilles’ corpse,’
but the second won the argument ‘by the forethought of Athena’. As far as we can
deduce, the judgement in both these versions was presented as fair, and there is no
suggestion of improper behaviour on the part of the judges. In this poém for the first
time we hear of Ajax’ madness and his attack on the booty (Proclus, p. 52 Davies),
which led to his suicide, but there is no indication that the madness was caused by
Athena, rather than by his natural anger, or that he returned to sanity before he killed
himself. Agamemnon, angry with Ajax, no doubt because of his attack on the booty,
refused him cremation, and his corpse had to be buried in a coffin (fr. 3 D; cf.
Apollod. Ep. 5.7), which was evidently a mark of humiliation. Sophocles maintains
the tradition that Agamemnon wished to humiliate Ajax in death, but he nowhere
4 For the possibility that this poem is pre-Homeric see J.T. Kakridis, Homeric researches
(Lund 1949) 89-90, J.A. Notopoulos, HSPh 68 (1964) 34-5, 40-1, K. Dowden, JHS 116
(1996) 47-61.
u Contra C. Robert, Bild und Lied (Berlin 1881) 221.
a See March 2. .
7 This seems to have been the normal version (cf. S Il. 17.719). But there was another in
which Ajax had the more difficult task of warding off the Trojans while. Odysseus
carried the corpse: Σ Od. 5.310, P.Oxy. 2510 (fourth century AD); ‘see J.T. Kakridis,
WS 20 (1986) 63-7.
8 See Holt (1992), who argues (against J. Bremmer, The early Greek concept of the soul
(Princeton 1983) 95-6, M. Davies, The Epic Cycle (Bristol 1989) 65) that Ajax’
interment was not originally humiliation, but goes back to predominant Mycenaean
practice, and that the explanation of Philostratus, Her. 35.15, that it was considered
wrong to cremate suicides, is Philostratus’ own innovation.
INTRODUCTION 3
suggests that burial was in any way inferior to cremation. Finally, we learn from fr.
1.8 D of the Sack of Του, ἃ poem which, like the Aethiopis, was ascribed to Arctinus
of Miletus, that the physician Podaleiriuwass the first to notice the anger of Ajax
from his flashing eyes and heaviness of spirit. It is unclear whether the flashing eyes
are a symptom of madness (so W. Kullmann, Die Quellen der Ilias (Wiesbaden
1960) 80), as in the Little Hiad, or whether (Jebb xiii-xiv) in this version the natural
anger of Ajax was followed immediately by his suicide.
From the seventh century onwards the story provided a popular subject ‘for
artists.? From about 700 BC the judgement of the arms is often represented, with
- Ajax and Odysseus vigorously confrontienacgh other,!° while representations of the
actual suicide may well have. influenced Sophocles.! A sixth-century black-figure
amphora by Exekias (Boulogne 558; LIMC 329.104, Beazley, Attic black-figure
vase-painters (Oxford 1956) 145.18, The Development of Attic black-figure (rev.
edn. Berkeley, Los Angeles 1986) 64, Pl. 32.1) shows Ajax heaping up a mound of
earth and fixing his sword, while an Attic lekythos of c. 460, perhaps by the
Alcimachus Painter (Basel Antikenmuseum (on loan from private collection); LIMC
329.105; K. Schefold, AK 19 (1976) 71-8; M.I. Davies, in ETAQAOTIOIIA (Rome
1985) 83-117), shows him kneeling in prayer before he kills himself. Sometimes he
falls on his sword, sometimes he thrusts it into himself with his hand. The covering
of the corpse by Tecmessa at Aj. 915-16 is evidently anticipated on the tondo of the
kylix attributed to the Brygos Painter (see n. 10; LIMC 332.140; Davies (1973);
Taplin (1978) Pl. 11), and on a lost black-figure Etruscan oinochoe attributed to the
Micali Painter (LIMC 330.115; Beazley, EVP 15, 139). In one version of the myth
Ajax was invulnerable except in his armpit or side, and this seems to.be reflected in a
bronze Etruscan statuette of c. 460 in Basel,!? which, unlike the usual representations
9 See J.D. Beazley, Etruscan vase-painting (Oxford 1947) 137-41; E. Kunze, Archaische
Schildbänder (= Olympische Forschungen 2 (1950)) 154-7, O. Touchefeu, in Lexicon
Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae I 1 (Zurich and Munich 1981) 325-32; March
4-7.
10 The voting by the Greek chieftains in the presence of Athena is shown, for example, on
one side of the exterior of a cup of c. 500-475 by the Brygos Painter from the Bareiss
Collection (New York Metropolitan Museum L 69.11.35; LIMC 325.72, 326.83;
Davies (1973) 67-9), while the other side presents the quarrel berween Ajax and
Odysseus.
11: The earliest is a proto-Corinthian aryballos (Berlin 3319; LIMC 330.118; K. Friis
Johansen, The Hiad in early Greek art (Copenhagen 1967) 30, fig. 4 on 33), which
shows Ajax throwing himself on his sword. Cf. also a steatite sealstone in New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art (42.1 1.13) of the second half of the seventh century (K.
Schefold, Myth and legend in early Greek art (tr. London 1966) Pl. 32 a, a metope (c.
570-50) from the Temple of Hera at Foce del Sele near Paestum (LIMC 331.128).
12 Antikenmuseum Ka 531; LIMC 331.133; Davies (1971) 148-56. Cf. also an Etruscan
mirror in Boston (99.494; LIMC 331.135, Beazley, EVP 140). On an Etruscan stamnos
