αντος (ὁ) [ᾱς] Ajax, n. de deux héros grecs : Ajax, fils d’Oïlée, IL. 2, 527, etc. ; Ajax (le grand Ajax) fils de Télamon, IL. ib. etc. ; νῆσος Αἴαντος, ESCHL. Pers. 307, l’île d’Ajax, càd. Salamine.

➳ Voc. Αἶαν, IL. 7, 234 ; Q. SM. 3, 246 ; LUC. D. mort. 29, 1 ; voc. att. Αἴας, SOPH. Aj. 525, etc. Duel Αἴαντε, IL. 6, 436 ; 18, 163. — Formes rares : nom. Αἶας [ᾰς] ALCM. 68. Acc. Αἶαν, PD. fr. 179 ; éol. Αἴαν, ALC. 48. Dat. pl. épq. Αἰάντεσσι, IL. 4, 273.

Étym. incert. ; sign. p.-ê. « le descendant d’Aia », cf. αἴα, la terre, ou p.-ê. dérivé de αἰόλος, vif, à rapprocher du myc. aiwa, nom d’un bœuf, avec le sens de « qui a force vitale ».

Proper name: AJAX (Αἴας), 1. A son of Telamon, king of Salamis, by Periboea or Eriboea (Apollod. iii. 12. §7 ; Paus. i. 42. §4 ; Pind. Isth. vi. 65; Diod. iv. 72), and a grandson of Aeacus. Homer calls him Ajax the Telamonian, Ajax the Great, or simply Ajax (Il. ii. 768, ix. 169, xiv. 410; comp. Pind. Isth. vi. 38), whereas the other Ajax, the son of Oïleus, is always distinguished from the former by some epithet. According to Homer Ajax joined the expedition of the Greeks against Troy, with his Salaminians, in twelve ships (//. ii. 557 ; comp. Strab. ix. p. 394), and was next to Achilles the most distinguished and the bravest among the Greeks, (ii. 768, xvii. 279, &c.) He is described as tall of stJitm'e, and his head and broad shoulders as rising above those of all the Greeks (iii. 226, &c.) ; in beauty he was inferior to none but Achilles. {Od. xi. 550, xxiv. 17 ; comp. Paus. i. 35. § 3.) When Hector challenged the bravest of the Greeks to single combat, Ajax came forward among several others. The people prayed that he might fight, and when the lot fell*^ to Ajax (//, vii. 179, &c), and he approached. Hector himself began to tremble. (215.) He wounded Hector and daslied him to the ground by a huge stone. The combatants were separatecj, and upon paiting they exchanged arms with one another as a token of mutmd esteem. (305, &c.) Ajax was also one of the ambassadors whom Agamemnon sent to conciliate Achilles, (ix. 169.) He fought several times besides with Hector, as in the battle near tlie ships of the Greeks (xiv. 409, &c. xv. 415, xvi. 114), and in protecting the body of Patroclus. (xvii. 128, 7 32.) In the games at the funeiul pile of Patroclus, Ajax fought with Odysseus, but without gaining any decided advantage over him (xxiii. 720, &c.), iind in like manner with ​Diomedes. In the contest about the armour of Achilles, he wtis conquered by Odysseus, and this, says Homer, becaiiic the cause of his death. {Od. xi. 541, &c.) Odysseus afterwards met his spirit in Hades, and endeavoured to appease it, but in vain. Thus far the story of Ajax, the Telamonian, is related in the Homeric poems. Later wxiters fur- nish us with various other traditions about his youth, but more especially about his death, which is so vjiguely alluded to by Homer. According to Apollodorus (iii. 12. § 7) and Pindar (hth. vi. 51, &c.), Ajax became invulnerable in conse- quence of a prayer whi^'h Heracles offered to Zeus, while he was on a visit in Salamis. The child was called Alfay from deroy, an eagle, which ap- peared imuiediately after the prayer as a favour- able omen. According to Lycophron (455 with the Schol.), Ajax was born before Heracles came to Telamon, and the hero made the child invubier- able by wrapping him up in his lion's skin. (Comp. Schol. ud II. xxiii. 841.) Ajax is also mentioned among the suitors of Helen. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 8; Hygin. Fob. 81.) During the war against Troy, Ajax, like Achilles, made excursions into neighbouring countries. The first of them was to the Thracian Chersonesus, where he took Poly- donis, the son of Priam, who had been entrusted to the care of king Polymnestor, together with rich booty. Thence, he went into Phn'gia, slew king Teuthras, or Teleutas, in single combat, and cai-ried off great spoils, and Tecmessa, the king's daughter, who became his mistress. (Diet. Cret. ii. 18; Soph. Aj. 210, 480, &c. ; Hor. Carm. ii. 4. 5.) In the contest about the armour of Achilles, Agamemnon, on the advice of Athena, awarded the prize to Odysseus. This discomfitiu-e threw Ajax into an awful state of madness. In the night he rushed from his tent, attacked the sheep of the Greek army, made great havoc among them, and d nigged dead and living animals into his tent, fancpng that they were his enemies. When, in the morning, he recovered his senses and beheld what he had done, shame and despair led him to destroy himself with the sword which Hector had once given him as a present. (Pind. Nem, vii. 36; Soph. Aj. 42, 277, 852; Ov. Met. xiii. 1, &c. ; Lycophr. /. c.) Less poetical traditions make Ajax die by the hands of others. (Diet. Cret. y. 15; Dar. Phryg. 35, and the Greek argu- ment to Soph. Ajax.) His step-brother Teucrus was charged by Telamon with the murder of Ajax, but succeeded in dealing himself from the accusa- tion. (Pans. i. 28. § 12.) A tradition mentioned by Pausanias (i. 35. § 3 ; comp. Ov. Met. xiii. 397, &c.) states, that from his blood there sprang up a purple flower which bore the letters al ou its leaves, which were at once the initiiils of his name and expressive of a sigh. According to Dictys, Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, deposited the ashes of the hero in a golden urn on mount Rhoe- teion ; and according to Sophocles, he was buried by his brother Teucrus against the will of the Atreidae. (Comp. Q. Snnmi. v. 500 ; Philostr. Her. xi. 3.) Pausanias (iii. 19. § 11) represents Ajax, like many other heroes, as living after his death in the island of Leuce. It is said that when, in the time of the emperor Hadrian, the sea had washed open the grave of Ajax, bones of superhuman size were found in it, which the emperor, however, ordered to be buried again. (Phiiostr. Her. i. 2 ; Paus. iii. 39. § 11.) Respecting the atate and wandering of his soul after his death, see Plato, De Re PuU. x. in fin. ; Flut. Sympos. ix. 5. Ajax was worshipped in Salamis as the tutelary hero of the island, and had a temple with a statue there, and was honoured with a festival, kiavrtta. {Diet, of Ant. s. v.) At Athens too he was wor- shipped, and was one of the eponymic heroes, one of the Attic tribes (Aeantis) being called after him. (Paus. i. 35. § 2 ; Plat. Si^mpos. i. 10.) Not far from the town Rhoeteion, on the promontory of the same name, there was likewise a sanctuary of Ajax, with a beautiful statue, which Antonius sent to Kgypt, but which was restored to its ori- ginal place by Augustus. (Strab, xiii. p. 595.) According to Dictys Cretensis (v, 16) the wife of Ajax was Glauca, by whom she had a son, Aean- tides ; by his beloved Tecmessa, he had a son, Eurysaces. (Soph. Aj. 333.) Several illustrious Athenians of the historical times, such as Miltiades, Ciraon, and Alcibiades, traced their pedigree to the Telamonian Ajax. (Paus ii. 29. § 4 ; Plut.Alcih. 1.) The traditions about this hero furnished plentiful materials, not only for poets, but also for sculptors and painters. His single combat with Hector was represented on the chest of Cypselus (Paus. V. 19. § 1); his statue formed a part of a large group at Olympia, the work of Lycius. ( Paus. V. 22. § 2; comp. Plin. H. N. xxxv. 10. § 36; Aelian, V. H. ix. 11.) A beautiful sculptured head, which is generally believed to be a head of Ajax, is still extant in the Egremont collection at Petworth. (Buttiger, Amaltlica, iii. p. 258.) 2. The son of Oïleus, king of the Locrians, who is also called the Lesser Ajax. (Horn. //. ii. 527.) His mother's name was Eriopis. According to Strabo (ix. p. 425) his birthplace was Naryx in Locris, whence Ovid {Met. xiv. 468) calls him Nan/eius lieros. According to the Iliad (ii. 527, &c.) be led his Locrians in forty ships (Hygin. Fab. 97, says twenty) against Troy. He is de- scribed as one of the great heroes among the Greeks, and acts frequently in conjunction with the Telamonian Ajax. He is small of stature and wears a linen cuirass {KivoQdpr}^), but is brave and intrepid, especially skilled in throwing the spear, and, next to Achilles, the most swift-footed among all the Greeks. (//. xiv. 520, &c., xxiiL 789, &c.) His principal exploits during the siege of Troy are mentioned in the following passages : xiii. 700, &c., xiv. 520, &c., xvi. 350, xvii. 256, 732, &c. In the funeral games at the pyre of Patroclus he contended with Odysseus and Anti- lochus for the prize in the footrace ; but Athena, who was hostile towards him and favoured (.)dys- seus, made him stumble and fall, so that he gained only the second prize, (xxiii. 754, &.c.) On his return from Troy his vessel was wrecked on the Whirling Rocks {VvpaX irerpat), but he him- self escaped upon a rock through the assistance of Poseidon, and would have been saved in spite uf Athena, but he used presumptuous words, and sjiid that he would escape the dangers of the sea in defiance of the immoi-tals. Hereupon Poseidon split the rock with his trident, and Ajax was swallowed up by the sea. {Od. iv. 499, &c.) In Later traditions this Ajax is called a sou of Oileus and the nymph Rhene, and is also men- tioned among the suitors of Helen. (Hygin. Fah. 81, 97 ; ApoUod. iii. 10. § 8.) According to a tradition in Philostratus {Her. viii. 1), Ajax had a tame dragon, five cubits in length, which ​followed him everywhere like a dog. After the taking of Troy, it is said, he rushed into the temple of Athena, where Cassandra had taken refuge, and was embracing the statue of the goddess as a sup- pliant. Ajax dragged her away with violence and led her to the other captives. (V^irg. Aen. ii. 403; Eurip. Trocul. 70, &c.; Diet. Cret. v. 12; Hygin. FaJ). 116.) According to some statements he even violated Cassandra in the temple of the god- dess (Tryphiod. 635 ; Q. Smj^m. xiii. 422 ; Lycophr. 360, with the Schol.); Odysseus at least accused him of this crime, and Ajax was to be stoned to death, but saved himself by establishing his innocence by an oath. (Paus. x. 26. § 1, 31. § 1.) The whole charge, is on the other hand, said to have been an invention of Agamemnon, who wanted to have Cassandra for himsel£ But whether true or not, Athena had sufficient reason for being indignant, as Ajax had dragged a sup- pliant from her temple. When on his voyage homeward he came to the Capharean rocks on the coast of Euboea, his ship was vTecked in a storm, he himself was killed by Athena with a flash of lightning, and his body was washed upon the rocks, which henceforth were called the rocks of Ajax. (Hygin. Fah. 116; comp. Virg. Aen. i. 40, &c., xi. 260.) For a different account of his death see Philostr. Her. viii. 3, and Schol. ad Lycophr. I. c. After his death his spirit dwelled in the island of Leuce. (Paus. iii. 19. § 11.) The Opuntian Locrians worshipped Ajax as their national hero, and so great was their faith in him, that when they drew up their army in battle array, they al- ways left ofte place open for him, believing that, although invisible to them, he was fighting for and among them. (Paus. /. c. ; Conon. Narrat. 18.) The story of Ajax was frequently made use of by ancient poets and artists, and the hero who ap- pears on some Locrian coins with the helmet, shield, and sword, is probably Ajax the son of Oileus. (Mionnet, No. 570, &c) (Wikisource | public domain)

s. LGPN

αντος, ὁ, Ajax, masc. pr. n., borne by two heroes, the Greater, son of Telamon, the Less, son of Oiïleus, Hom. ; — nom. Αἶας Alcm. 68; voc. Αἶαν Pi. Fr. 184, Aeol. Αἴαν Alc. 48 A; pl. Αἴαντες, of tragedies named after Ajax, Arist. Po. 1455b34. (S. derives it fancifully from αἰαῖ, Aj. 430.)