Figure 45 Attic black-figure amphora by Exekias, showing Ajax preparing to commit suicide; height of
vase 61 cm, ca. 530 BC. Boulogne-sur-mer, Château-Musée, 558.
Source: Photo © RMN-Grand Palais / Benoît Touchard.
The audience, then, knows the meaning of Ajax’s words, but the characters on stage to whom they are
addressed, Tecmessa and the chorus of soldiers, take them to mean something else entirely. This
technique, whereby the dramatist exploits the disparity between the audience’s knowledge and that of the
dramatic characters, is called “dramatic irony” and is particularly characteristic of Sophoclean tragedy.
Having convinced the chorus and Tecmessa to stay behind, Ajax goes off and the scene changes, unusually
for Attic tragedy. At an isolated location by the sea Ajax delivers a magnificent soliloquy, which he ends
with another allusion to the Underworld scene in the Odyssey, saying that Ajax will speak no more to the
living; his next words will be addressed to those in the land of the dead. Ajax then leaps upon the sword
whose hilt he has buried in the sand. At this point, only three-fifths of the play have taken place. The
remainder of the play is concerned with the discovery of Ajax’s body and a debate over whether Ajax
should receive proper burial or, since he has proved to be a traitor to the army, should suffer the
humiliation of being left unburied. Agamemnon and Menelaus, the authoritarian commanders of the army,
are eager to humiliate Ajax, which they were unable to do while he lived because of his superior strength
and value to the army. Odysseus, however, true to the character that he displays in the Odyssey, is more
flexible, and he eventually persuades Agamemnon and Menelaus to allow Ajax’s burial.
This last portion of the play highlights Ajax’s greatness as well as his isolation. There is a conspicuous