Ajax by Sophocles

Ajax is another miserable fellow...not quite as miserable as Oedipus, but certainly ill-fated.


The goddess Athena is rooting for Odysseus and against Ajax, so she causes Ajax to think that a herd of cattle are enemy soldiers.  He proceeds to slaughter some and take others back to his tent to be tortured to death.  All the while, he is thinking he will gain favor with his allies, because of his dominance over the enemy.  Instead, everyone thinks he has lost his mind.


His wife Tecmessa has apparently developed affection for and loyalty to him, even though she was originally spoils of a previous battle.  They have a son together (Eurysaces), and she is, of course, concerned for his well-being and future.  When Ajax eventually comes to his senses, she is doubly grieved.  She explains that while he was living in a fantasy, at least he was happy, and only those who cared for him were sad.  Now that he realizes what he has done, he himself is grieved, and his friends are still grieved, so matters are worse than before.


Ajax decides that he must kill himself.  'Tis base for a man to crave the full term of life, who finds no varying in his woes.  What joy is there in day following day--now pushing us forward, now drawing us back, on the verge--of death?...One of the generous strain should nobly live, or forthwith nobly die...


Tecmessa pleads for her own sake and that of their son, that he not commit suicide.  Since he has ravaged her country, and her mother and father are dead, her welfare hangs on him.  ...have thought for me also:  a true man should cherish remembrance, if anywhere he reap a joy.... But whosoever suffers the memory of benefits, to slip from him, that man can no more rank as noble.


Eventually Ajax does kill himself.  An argument occurs regarding whether or not his corpse should be buried.  If you have read Antigone, that should sound familiar.


Interestingly, his enemy Odysseus intervenes and declares that he should be buried.  To me also this man was once the worst foe in the army...yet, for all that he was such toward me, never would I requite him with indignity....When a brave man is dead, 'tis not right to do him scathe--no, not even if thou hate him....His worth weighs with me far more than his enmity.


Interesting themes:
Tecmessa makes the point that suicide is a selfish act.  It is an easy out for the person who commits it.  It leaves his family and friends behind to grieve.  Is that "noble?"
Odysseus' feelings of hatred do not extend beyond the grave.  He takes the measure of the man's life.  Ajax was a worthy adversary, and so he is willing to honor him in death.


The chorus has the final word:  Many things shall mortals learn by seeing; but, before he sees, no man may read the future or his fate.


We human beings are stuck in one dimensional, one direction time.  The future is hidden.  Sometimes we think we would like to see it.  It's probably best that we don't.