Editing Ajax the Lesser (section)

=== Death ===
Since Ajax dragged the supplicant from her temple, Athena had cause to be indignant. According to the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'', no one was aware that Ajax had raped Cassandra until [[Calchas]], the Greek seer, warned the Greeks that Athena was furious at the treatment of her priestess and she would destroy the Greek ships if they did not kill him immediately. Despite this, Ajax managed to hide at the altar of a deity where the Greeks, fearing divine retribution should they kill him and destroy the altar, allowed him to live. When the Greeks left without killing Ajax, despite their sacrifices, Athena became so angry that she persuaded [[Zeus]] to send a storm that sank many of their ships.

[[File:Ajax slain by Poseidon - Bonaventura Genelli.png|thumb|Poseidon killing Ajax the Lesser, drawing by [[Bonaventura Genelli]]]]

As Ajax was [[Returns from Troy|returning from Troy]], Athena hit his ship with a thunderbolt and the vessel was wrecked on the Whirling Rocks ({{lang|grc|Γυραὶ πέτραι}}). But he escaped with some of his men, managing to cling onto a rock through the assistance of [[Poseidon]]. He would have been saved in spite of Athena, but he then audaciously declared that he would escape the dangers of the sea in defiance of the immortals. Offended by this presumption, Poseidon split the rock with his [[trident]] and Ajax was swallowed up by the sea.<ref>Homer, ''[[Odyssey]]'' 4.499</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} [[Thetis]] buried him when the corpse washed up on [[Mykonos]].<ref>Apollodore, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Trzaskoma, and Hygin. ''Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology'', Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007. 84–85. "5.24–6.6."</ref> Other versions depict a different death for Ajax, showing him dying when on his voyage home. In these versions, when Ajax came to the Capharean Rocks on the coast of [[Euboea]], his ship was wrecked in a fierce storm, he himself was lifted up in a whirlwind and impaled with a flash of rapid fire from Athena in his chest, and his body thrust upon sharp rocks, which afterwards were called the rocks of Ajax.<ref name="ReferenceA">Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 1.40 & 11.260; Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 116</ref>

After Ajax's death, his spirit dwelt in the island of [[Leuce (island)|Leuce]].<ref name="paus319">Pausanias, 3.19.13</ref> The [[Opuntian Locris|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, they always left one place open for him, believing that, although invisible to them, he was fighting for and among them.<ref>[[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]], ''Narrations'' 18; Pausanias, 3.19.13</ref>  The story of Ajax was frequently made use of by ancient poets and artists, and the hero who appears on some Locrian coins with the helmet, shield, and sword is probably this Ajax.<ref>Théodore Edme Mionnet, No. 570, &c.</ref>

Other accounts of Ajax's death are offered by [[Philostratus]], [[Euripides]], and the [[scholiast]] on [[Lycophron]].<ref>[[Philostratus]], ''Her.'' 31.6–9; [[Euripides]], Tro. 90; [[Scholiast]] on [[Lycophron]]</ref>