Editing Ajax the Great (section)

====Death====
[[File:The Argument between Ajax and Odysseus over Achilles' armour, by Agostino Masucci.jpg|thumb|The Argument between Ajax and Odysseus over Achilles' armour, by Agostino Masucci]]
[[File:Ajax (Carstens).jpg|thumb|''Sorrowful Ajax'' (Asmus Jacob Carstens, c. 1791)]]
As the ''Iliad'' comes to a close, Ajax and the majority of other Greek warriors are alive and well. When Achilles dies, killed by [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] (with help from Apollo), Ajax and Odysseus are the heroes who fight against the Trojans to get the body and bury it with his companion, Patroclus.<ref>Homer, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+24.2 ''Odyssey''].</ref> Ajax, with his great shield and spear, manages to recover the body and carry it to the ships, while Odysseus fights off the Trojans.<ref>Arctinus Miletus, "Aethiopis"</ref> After the burial, each claims Achilles' magical armor, which had been forged on [[Mount Olympus]] by the smith-god [[Hephaestus]], for himself as recognition for his heroic efforts. A competition is held to determine who deserves the armor. Ajax argues that because of his strength and the fighting he has done for the Greeks, including saving the ships from Hector, and driving him off with a massive rock, he deserves this magical protection.<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', translated by Rolfe Humphries (Indianapolis: Indiana University, 1955), Book XIII, pp. 305–309</ref>  However, Odysseus proves to be more eloquent, and with the aid of Athena, the council gives him the armor. Ajax, distraught by this result and "conquered by his own grief", plunges his sword into his own chest, killing himself.<ref>''Metamorphoses'', trans. Humphries, p.&nbsp;318</ref> In the [[Little Iliad]], Ajax goes mad with rage at Odysseus' victory and slaughters the cattle of the Greeks. After returning to his senses, he kills himself out of shame.<ref>Lesches of Mitylene, "The Little Iliad (Ilias Mikra)"</ref>  
The [[Belvedere Torso]], a marble torso now in the Vatican Museums, is considered to depict Ajax "in the act of contemplating his [[Suicide of Ajax vase|suicide]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/MPCs/MPCs_Sala06_01.html|title=The Belvedere Torso; Cat. 1192|publisher=[[Vatican Museums]]|access-date=29 January 2015}}</ref>

In [[Sophocles]]' play ''[[Ajax (Sophocles)|Ajax]]'', a famous retelling of Ajax's demise, after the armor is awarded to Odysseus, Ajax feels so insulted that he wants to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena intervenes and clouds his mind and vision, and he goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, he realizes that what he has done has diminished his honor, and decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than live in shame. He does so with the same sword which Hector gave him when they exchanged presents.<ref>''[[Iliad]]'', 7.303</ref> From his blood sprang a red flower, as at the death of [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinthus]], which bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name ''Ai'', also expressive of lament.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] 1.35.4</ref> His ashes were deposited in a golden urn on the [[Rhoiteion#The Tomb of Ajax|Rhoetean]] promontory at the entrance of the [[Hellespont]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Ajax (son of Telamon)|display=Ajax |volume=1 |page=452}}</ref>

Ajax's half-brother Teucer stood trial before his father for not bringing Ajax's body or famous weapons back. Teucer was acquitted for responsibility but found guilty of negligence. He was disowned by his father and was not allowed to return to his home, the island of [[Salamis Island|Salamis]] off the coast of Athens.

Homer is somewhat vague about the precise manner of Ajax's death but does ascribe it to his loss in the dispute over Achilles' armor; when Odysseus visits [[Hades]], he begs the soul of Ajax to speak to him, but Ajax, still resentful over the old quarrel, refuses and descends silently back into [[Erebus]].

Like Achilles, he is represented (although not by Homer) as living after his death on the [[Snake Island (Black Sea)|island of Leuke]] at the mouth of the [[Danube]].<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''[http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias3B.html Description of Greece]'' iii. 19. § 13</ref> Ajax, who in the post-Homeric legend is described as the grandson of Aeacus and the great-grandson of Zeus, was the [[tutelary deity|tutelary hero]] of the island of Salamis, where he had a temple and an image, and where a festival called ''Aianteia'' was celebrated in his honour.<ref>Pausanias 1.35</ref> At this festival a couch was set up, on which the [[panoply]] of the hero was placed, a practice which recalls the Roman [[Lectisternium]]. The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion [[Solon]] is said to have inserted a line in the ''[[Iliad]]'' (2.557–558),<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=0AE5CEA2E5E28FE965FF802C44870114?doc=Hom.+Il.+2.557 2.557–258].</ref> for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island. Ajax then became an [[Attica|Attic]] hero; he was worshipped at Athens, where he had a statue in the market-place, and the tribe ''Aiantis'' was named after him.<ref name="EB1911"/> Pausanias also relates that a gigantic skeleton, its kneecap {{convert|5|in|cm}} in diameter, appeared on the beach near [[Sigeion]], on the Trojan coast; these bones were identified as those of Ajax.