Department of Ancient Classics | Conference programme
Sophocles' Ajax deals with the suicide of the hero and his subsequent rehabilitation through an honourable burial.1 The play begins at a point when Ajax is mad and believes that he has taken revenge on the Greek commanders because they did not award him the Arms of Achilles. When Ajax regains his sanity and recognises the truth, he commits suicide as the only way to retain his honour. The suicide is motivated by two things; a) the defeat in the Contest for Achilles' Arms and, b) the unsuccessful attempt to take revenge on the Greek commanders. Dramatic attention is given almost exclusively to the latter reason because the events concerning the Contest for the Arms lie in a time before the beginning of the drama itself.2 This paper considers the significance of the Contest for the tragedy and argues that Sophocles manipulated the details about it in a way that suited his dramatic purpose. Initially the details concerning the contest are deliberately vague but a gradual revelation of information as the play progresses allows Sophocles to depict the Contest for Achilles' Arms in a way that ultimately complements the dramatic process of Ajax's rehabilitation. In particular, the paper is concerned with whether some fraud was perpetrated in the voting process of the Contest and the role of Athena. Firstly, it examines the Contest for Achilles' Arms in literature and vase painting before Sophocles' play; then it considers the references to the Contest in the play itself.
1. The Myth before Sophocles
The single reference to the Contest in Homer is the famous silence of Ajax when
Odysseus encounters his spirit in the underworld (Od. 11.541-62).
Odysseus states that the arms were set as a prize by Thetis and that the
children of the Trojans and Athena judged the contest (Od.
11.547). The H scholiast on this line elaborates on the detail about the
children of the Trojans. Agamemnon did not want to appear as favouring either
hero, so he asked some Trojan prisoners whether Ajax or Odysseus inflicted the
most damage on them.
Proclus' summary of the Little Iliad states that the Odysseus got the arms 'through the contriving of Athena'.3 A fragment may throw some light on the nature of this 'contriving' (fr. 2 Davies). Nestor had suggested to the Greeks that some men be sent to the walls of Troy to discover what the Trojans felt about relative merits of Odysseus and Ajax. These men overheard two girls arguing over the relative merits of Ajax and Odysseus. One said that Ajax was better because he rescued the body of Achilles from the battle and Odysseus did not. Her companion disagreed because a woman can carry a weight, but cannot fight. The implication appears to be that Odysseus was the better warrior because he fought off the Trojans during the retreat. The important aspect of their exchange is that this second girl, who denigrates the efforts of Ajax, was 'inspired by Athena'.4
There are three references to the Contest in Pindar and together they present a coherent account about what happened in it (Isthmian 4.35-36, Nemean 7.23-27, Nemean 8.23-27). They show that there was a formal debate between both heroes, in which they argued over their respective martial prowess, and that the Greeks decided the issue by choosing Odysseus after this debate. A debate between the two warriors had become an established feature of the contest by the fifth century.5 Pindar suggests that Ajax's superior martial skills were overshadowed by the rhetoric of Odysseus who was an inferior warrior. He castigates the Greeks for their gullibility and stresses that they were responsible for the subsequent suicide of Ajax. A further important detail about the Contest is mentioned in Nemean 8 when Pindar says that the Greeks favoured Odysseus with 'secret votes'. It is the first explicit literary evidence that the Greeks decided the contest themselves by a vote. These 'secret votes' have sometimes been understood as Pindar stating that there was corruption in the voting process6 but this is not the case. It simply shows that Greeks decided the issue through a secret ballot.7
Aeschylus wrote a trilogy on this story that consisted of the Hoplon Krisis, Thracian Women and Women of Salamis.8 Frr. 175 (90) and 176 (92) are from the Hoplon Krisis and appear to be evidence that a formal debate between Ajax and Odysseus was part of the tragedy.9 Fr. 176 (92) is attributed to Ajax who is contrasting his simply honesty with Odysseus' rhetorical skill. Fr. 175 (90), in which Ajax calls Odysseus the son of Sisyphus, is thought to be a part of the actual debate between the two heroes. It has sometimes been thought that fr. 174 (89) shows that a chorus of Nereids judged the contest10 but no certainty can be taken from this. The fragment appears to show that Thetis was addressed in the course of the play. Perhaps, in a manner reminiscent of Homer (Od. 11.546), Aeschylus had Thetis announce that Achilles' Arms are to be offered as a prize for valour. This need not obviate a role for Athena in the trilogy. The Thracian Women included the suicide of Ajax and fr. 83 (41) also shows that the Aeschylean Ajax was, in contrast to the Sophoclean hero, invulnerable except for one part of the body. This fragment also mentions the appearance of some deity to show Ajax the fatal part of his body. As the Greek has a feminine participle and indefinite pronoun, it shows that the deity was female but there is no further clue to her identity. The identity would probably have been clear to the original audience but all that is left now is conjecture. However, as Athena had an established role in the story, she is the most likely deity to be present.11
Three vases dated to the first quarter of the fifth century deal with the dispute between Odysseus and Ajax over Achilles' Arms in a similar manner to each other (Vienna 3695, New York L69 and London E69).12 There are two distinct scenes on each side of the vase.13 The first scene shows Ajax and Odysseus being restrained by other Greeks from fighting each other over the arms. The second depicts the Greeks voting over the issue. The latter scenes always show the vote going in favour of Odysseus and another noteworthy feature is the presence of Athena. Usually she has a central location and seems to be presiding over the vote. However, if the figure of Athena is to be retrieved from a lost section of one vase (New York L69), she is standing on the side close to Odysseus.14
It is possible to gauge a clear outline in the development of the Contest for Achilles' Arms in the myth before Sophocles' Ajax. For example, by the fifth century a debate between Odysseus and Ajax and the subsequent Greek vote over the issue had become established features of the myth. This is a significant change from the way the issue was decided in the Epic tradition where, although there is no precise agreement between Homer and Little Iliad, Athena always had an important role in assuring that Ajax was defeated. Pindar is unique in not attributing any role to the goddess in the defeat. Athena's intervention in the Contest to ensure victory for Odysseus in later sources may be reflected in her presence during the voting on vase painting. Undoubtedly, the most important influence on Sophocles was the trilogy of Aeschylus and it is a great pity that so few fragments remain. All that can be retrieved is a sketchy outline of the likely plot in each play of the trilogy. It is possible that the female deity of the fragment from Aeschylus' Thracian Women is to be identified as Athena. This could point to a role for her in the trilogy and her presence during the vote in Hoplon Krisis.15 Perhaps the Aeschylean trilogy reflected the Epic versions in which Athena had an important role.
2. Sophocles' Ajax
There are seven references in total to the Contest for Achilles' Arms in the
tragedy. The first two are in the prologue. Athena reveals to Odysseus that
Ajax was responsible for the slaughter of the cattle saying that he 'was stung
by anger on account of the arms of Achilles' (41).16 The goddess
explains how she foiled Ajax's attempt to kill the Greek commanders because the
decision went against him. Then she summons Ajax from his tent, who is still
under her spell of madness, to confirm the truth of the situation. As the
goddess leads Ajax on with her questions, the deluded hero reveals his belief
that he has killed the Atreidae for their failure to honour him properly
declaring; 'Let them deprive me of my arms, now that they are dead' (100).
Recently Erp Taalman Kip has felt that these references say nothing about how
Sophocles handles the Contest.17 Although these two lines say little about how
the Contest is handled in the play, they do create a very definite impression
on how it appears he is going to handle it. The discussion of the
mythology before Sophocles has shown that Athena almost always had an important
role in deciding the Contest. As the beginning of the tragedy presents the two
characters in myth who prevented Ajax receiving the Arms, it seems highly
probable that the audience would have taken as assumption about Athena into the
rest of the play. For example, they might have thought that this Athena is
intimately involved with Ajax's predicament and had a role in influencing the
result in the Contest.
The third reference to the contest of the arms is in the speech of Ajax before Tecmessa and the chorus when he has regained his sanity (430-484).18 The reference is placed in a context of military glory as Ajax relates how his father, Telamon, returned from Troy with the top prize from the army. Ajax claims to have performed equal feats but has been dishonoured by the Greeks (440). Then he states that this dishonour, which has come from the awarding of Achilles' Arms to Odysseus, was a result of a vote organised by the Atreidae (441-49):
Yet so much I think I well know, that if Achilles were alive and were to award the prize of valour in a contest for his own arms, no other would receive them but I. But now the sons of Atreus have made them over to an unscrupulous fellow, pushing aside this man's mighty deeds. And if my eye and mind had not been turned aside, swerving from my intention, they would not have lived to vote such a decision against another man.
This is the first specific reference in the play that Sophocles is following the fifth century version in which the Contest was decided by a vote among the Greeks (449). Stanford thought that the verb used in line 446 suggests the possibility of intrigue in the vote,19 but Erp Taalman Kip has argued for a neutral understanding of its use here because the audience 'cannot possibly guess what the Atreids may be guilty of.'20 Although the audience cannot guess all the details surrounding the vote, this is of little significance because the implication is clear: the Atreidae, as leaders of the army, are responsible for the vote - its fairness or otherwise. It is important that suspicion is immediately thrown on the actions of the Atreidae during the voting procedure. Naturally Ajax is biased, but the paradox of his speech is that the audience has every reason both to accept Ajax's opinion about the vote and to be sceptical of it. The immediate impression is important and other issues can only be resolved as the play develops.21
Ajax's next comments are about Athena (450-53) and they initiate a process which removes any further role for Athena in the play. Ajax had already shown from the moment of regaining sanity that he knew the role of Athena in his predicament (cf. 401-3). He recognises that the goddess was responsible for making him mad and directing his revenge attack on the cattle. He appreciates that the goddess is angry with him and this is accepted as a simple fact because of the shame which follows the unsuccessful attack.22 It is important that Ajax only associates the goddess with his madness and failed attack, and that there is no mention of any previous example of her animosity or intervention such as judging or influencing the Contest. The juxtaposition of these two points - the Greek vote in the Contest and Athena's role in frustrating Ajax - is the first indication that Sophocles is departing from the Epic versions of the story. This departure, particularly is relation to Athena, receives dramatic attention in the subsequent scenes. For example, when Ajax announces his intention to purify himself, he mentions Athena's anger but, once again, it is exclusively in the context of the failed attack (655-56).
This development is illustrated further just before the suicide. With Ajax off stage, a messenger reports the details of the prophecy of Calchas which highlights the role of Athena. The most significant aspect of this messenger speech is when he reports that 'the anger of divine Athena shall pursue him [Ajax] for this day only' (756-7). The messenger reveals that it is based upon two particular events, one of which is that Ajax insulted Athena by refusing her assistance on the battlefield at Troy. The single day anger of the goddess is strange. While it may retrospectively explain her hostility to Ajax in the prologue23, the evidence from earlier mythology has shown that this hostility, even without a specific context, may not have been strange to the audience. It is significant that Sophocles is announcing a reason and duration for Athena's anger at this point in the play and it must go beyond her attitude in the prologue - he wanted explicitly to remove any further involvement of Athena in the fate of Ajax.24 Athena's involvement in the prologue was not unusual, but it is now clear that her departure at the end of the prologue meant that the remainder of the action is acted out in the mortal sphere - divine intervention has ceased. This arrangement is crucial in the process of rehabilitation because it specifically removes any ambiguities over Athena's attitude towards Ajax. As argued earlier, Athena's involvement in simply restricted to frustrating Ajax's attempt to take revenge on the Atreidae. Her intervention is now explained as an anger which was motivated by Ajax's insult - an anger which has been sated. This interpretation of the single day anger throws further significance on an utterance of Athena at the end of the prologue when she said to Odysseus (130-31): 'Know that a single day brings down or raises up again all mortal things'. The play has depicted an Ajax who has been brought down, the remainder of the play will ensure that he is raised up. As the action moves towards a crisis in the mortal sphere, the words and actions of the Atreidae over the corpse complement the rehabilitation of the hero.25
The suicide of Ajax is, of course, dramatic climax in the play.26 Therefore, the hero's final speech must be given serious consideration in the overall meaning of the play. It is significant that here Ajax specifically attributes blame for his death to the Atreidae (838). He does not mention Odysseus who is simply included in the curse on the entire Greek army (843-44). This is, in fact, just another instance in a list of references throughout the play where Ajax's anger is directed first and foremost against the Atreidae.27 For example, it is present in the prologue when Athena says that Ajax approached the tent of the Atreidae to kill them first (49). Soon afterwards the mad Ajax declared that the Atreidae cannot deprive him of Achilles' Arms, as they are dead (100). On three later occasions Odysseus is mentioned with the Atreidae (387-91, 379-83, 955-59), but two of these references are concerned with Odysseus' supposed delight at Ajax's misfortune. This is in marked contrast to the prologue which presented an Odysseus who refused to take pleasure at Ajax's predicament despite divine encouragement (79-80). References about a hostile Odysseus actually increase after the suicide (cf. 971) but the audience is aware that these expectations are false. It remains to be seen how the Atreidae will behave towards Ajax.
The next reference to the Contest is by the chorus when they say over the corpse of Ajax (934-36); 'So that time was the beginning of great disasters, when the <golden> arms were made the prize in a contest of the greatest prowess'. This is an important emotional shift as one wonders why Ajax had to take his life and what will happened to his corpse. It is another indication in the play that Sophocles is following the usual version that the Contest was about being the best warrior (cf. 442-44). This shift takes on greater significance in the context, as outlined above, of the constant attention on the actions of the Atreidae. The play frequently points towards the responsibility of the Atreidae for the predicament.
The arguments over the corpse of Ajax complement the process of rehabilitation. This is achieved by suggesting that the Atreidae cheated Ajax out of the Arms as the hero himself had stated. This focus on the idea of a fraudulent vote is maintained in the exchange between Teucer and Menelaus - the fifth reference to the Contest. Here Teucer explicitly accuses Menelaus of fraud (1135): 'You were shown to have cheated in the voting'.28 Erp Taalman Kip complains that Teucer cannot make his accusation more explicit by mentioning details of the fraud and says that he is simply guessing because there is little substance to the accusation.29 However, much the same can be said for Menelaus' position. Why, if there was no hint of fraud, does Menelaus not simply counter the accusation with the facts? Instead, Menelaus does not even deny Teucer's accusations but blames it on the judges. When Teucer suggests that Menelaus may have deceived the judges, the latter can only reply with a threat of violence. Although the exchange is nominally inconclusive, it does not remove the possibility of corruption in the Greek vote. The failure of Menelaus to deal specifically with the accusation means that Teucer has hit close to the bone. Erp Taalman Kip is right to bring attention to the problem of truth in this instance. However, her apparent solution - that the spectator must decide between either the Ajax/Teucer opinion or Menelaus, and ought to choose Menelaus - is not the correct way to deal with issue. As neither side offers categorical proof about their view of the vote, there must be a dramatic purpose to this vagueness. It is strange that Erp Taalman Kip thinks that 'although Menelaus is a very unsympathetic character, this is no reason to question his denial' of the fraud.30 It is this very nastiness, combined both with the possibility of dishonesty and the hostility to Ajax's reputation, which assist the process of rehabilitation. A close examination of Menelaus' speech - it precedes Teucer's accusation - reveals several suspect attitudes. Firstly, he declares that a god - he does not say Athena but it can be no other - is responsible for Ajax's death and his body should remain unburied (1128-29). As argued above in respect of Athena's single day anger, Sophocles has taken care to remove any divine association with Ajax's suicide. Secondly, his supposed respect for authority is rendered specious by his acceptance of force and terror to keep people in their place (1159-60). His rhesis ends on a highly personal note and the subsequent exchange in stichomythia highlights these sinister aspects of Menelaus' position. Many scholars are distracted by his derogatory comments Teucer's skill as an archer, but his reference to superior skill in use of a shield (1122) is significant because Ajax is famous for his shield. Most importantly, Menelaus betrays a very personal motivation in his hostility to Ajax (1134) and this precedes the accusation of fraud which has been discussed earlier.
The sixth reference to the Contest is by Agamemnon. It is presented as if Agamemnon has come to specifically address the earlier accusation that there was some type of fraud in the Greek vote. He declares (1238-43):
We are likely to regret having announced a contest for the arms of Achilles if we are to be denounced as evil in everyway by Teucer, and even when you are defeated you will not bow to the decision of the majority of the judges.
However, Agamemnon's reference to the voting and its implication of fairness is not convincing. Teucer has already implied that there had been interference in the decision of the judges.31 As with Menelaus before him, Agamemnon does not offer any evidence or make a convincing defence that the vote was fair. Moreover, the declaration comes immediately after he has claimed that there was nothing exceptional about Ajax's fighting ability - this is simply not true. His later assertion that guile is better than physical strength points towards a personal judgement on the ability of Ajax (1250-52). Furthermore, his attempts to silence Teucer betray, as with Menelaus, the tendency to abuse a position of power.32 The speech of Teucer in reply is a significant counter, although he does not reiterate the idea of treachery in the vote. Garvie's expression of uneasiness about the Ajax/Teucer view of the vote at this point is wide of the mark.33 If the audience are still uncertain about the value of Ajax' reputation at this point, it seems that the intention of the drama - the championing of Ajax's reputation - has failed.
The final reference to the Contest is by Odysseus when he manages to persuade Agamemnon to reluctantly allow the burial of Ajax's body (1336-41):
For me too he was once my chief enemy in the army, ever since I became the owner of the arms of Achilles; but though he was such in regard to me, I would not so far fail to do him honour as to deny that he was the most valiant man among the Argives, except Achilles.
The intervention of Odysseus is essential for many reasons. It secures burial which has been the immediate crisis. Most importantly, it restores honour to Ajax, a loss which the hero had felt keenly, by once again determining that he was second only to Achilles. Notably Odysseus does not give specific details about the Contest for the Arms but keeps his remarks on a general level.34 His reticence poses a greater problem than that of Agamemnon. Odysseus implies that the judgement against Ajax was wrong but he does not state the vote was rigged. It is possible that the Atreidae alone were responsible for rigging the vote, but Odysseus did not want to give up the honour of receiving Achilles' Arms.35 Odysseus tacitly recognises the fraud but cannot bring himself to admit this fact publicly because he benefited from it.36 While the silence of Odysseus may imply that he had no part himself in the fraud, his words legitimate Ajax's attack on the Greeks because they show that the army had dishonoured him.37
Conclusion
The Contest is a subtle but vital part of the dramatic structure of the play
and has an important part in the rehabilitation of the hero. The play begins
with the two characters that had traditionally caused Ajax to take revenge on
the Greek army when he failed to win the Arms of Achilles. As there are no
specific details about the Contest in the prologue, it appears at first that
Sophocles is following the Epic version of the myth. The significance of the
Contest changes when Ajax complains that the Atreidae rigged the vote. The
accusation marks a distinct break from the Epic versions of the myth in favour
of contemporary ones. This is further developed when the explanation of
Athena's single day anger removes, inter alia, a role for the goddess in
Ajax's defeat in the Contest. Dramatic attention is then focused on the
relations between Ajax and the Greeks. The ever-increasing possibility that the
Atreidae manipulated the vote to cheat Ajax out of the Arms enhances the latter's moral
stature.38
It is problematic that Sophocles does not clarify details about the Contest. The evidence from the earlier mythology simply shows that by the time of Sophocles' play, it had become established that the Greeks decided the issue between Ajax and Odysseus by a vote. There is no explicit evidence before Sophocles that there was any cheating in this vote. The allusive treatment of the Contest in Ajax has prompted March to propose that Aeschylus first treated the fraud, but her arguments are not convincing.39 Kamerbeek supposing, incorrectly, that Pindar referred to cheating in the vote, thinks that both he and Sophocles may have had a common source which is now lost.40 This is probably as far as the problem can be taken, unless it is supposed that Sophocles innovated with an idea of cheating. Perhaps, the absence of certainty is not important. It is sufficient that the possibility of cheating is mentioned but never fully established or refuted. An assumption of this paper has been that the point of the drama is to rehabilitate the hero's reputation. This seems the most likely reaction for an Athenian audience to whom Ajax was one of the eponymous heroes. The rehabilitation, while receiving explicit treatment in the burial, is also achieved by highlighting the hero's martial prowess and providing extenuating circumstances for the attack on the Greeks - not only was he dishonoured but he was cheated. It is significant that the play also removes not only a role for Athena in Ajax's defeat in the Contest, but also any sense of eternal divine animosity towards him. The Contest for Achilles' Arms is the essential motif which brings these two important aspects of the tragedy together.
Department of Ancient Classics | Conference programme