“The other spirits of the dead and departed stood there sorrowfully, each one of them asking about
friends and relatives. Only the spirit of Ajax, the son of Telamon, kept his distance in resentment at
the victory that I won over him beside the ships, when judgment was rendered concerning the arms
of Achilles. The revered mother of Achilles had offered them as a prize and the sons of the Trojans
along with Pallas Athena decided the issue. How I wish I had not won such a prize! What a great
man lies buried in the earth because of them!” (Homer, Odyssey 11.541–9, Odysseus describing his
visit to the Underworld)This is the background to the play, which opens with Ajax, who has now come to his senses, feeling still
greater torment and humiliation, since his murderous intentions have been revealed without his having
enjoyed at least the satisfaction of exacting vengeance. There is nothing left for Ajax but to do what
everyone in Sophocles’ audience knew he was going to do, commit suicide by falling on his sword (figure
45 ). In order to do so, Ajax requires solitude, something that is hard to find on the Greek tragic stage
because of the almost constant presence of the chorus, which in this play consists of soldiers under Ajax’s
command. What Ajax needs to do, therefore, is to persuade the chorus and his concubine Tecmessa that he
is going off by himself for some reason other than to kill himself. So he tells them that he is going down to
the seashore, where he will cleanse himself of the defilement that he has incurred and where he will “lay
to rest” the sword with which he has done such shameful deeds. He has now, he says, learned to be
sensible; he has come to realize that all things are subject to change and that “an enemy ought to be hated
only to the extent that he is likely some day to become a friend.” Tecmessa and the chorus are persuaded
that Ajax has been humbled by his experience and that he is willing to be reconciled with his former
enemies, Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Menelaus. But every member of the audience who recalls the
Odyssey – which is to say, every member of Sophocles’ audience – knows that this is not the case. In a
particularly memorable scene in the Odyssey, which was later to be memorably imitated by the Roman
poet Virgil, Odysseus travels while alive to the Underworld, where he encounters some of his deceased
companions from the Trojan War, including Ajax. Odysseus speaks gentle words to Ajax, praising his
valor and urging that the two of them forget their former animosity. Ajax walks away without saying a
word to Odysseus. Instead, he rejoins his companions in the land of the dead.