AJAX

( (Latin), ) Greek Aias, byname Ajax The Greater, in Greek legend, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, described in the Iliad as being of great stature and colossal frame, second only to the Greek hero Achilles in strength and bravery. He engaged Hector (the chief Trojan warrior) in single combat and, with the aid of the goddess Athena, rescued the body of Achilles from the hands of the Trojans. He competed with the Greek hero Odysseus for the armour of Achilles but lost, which so enraged him that it caused his death. According to a later story Ajax' disappointment drove him mad. On coming to his senses he slew himself with the sword that he had received as a present from Hector. The legend has it that from his blood sprang a red flower that bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name, AI, letters that are also expressive of lament. Ajax was the 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. ( (Latin), ) Greek Aias, byname Ajax The Lesser, in Greek legend, son of Oileus, king of Locris. In spite of his small stature, he held his own among the other heroes before Troy; but he was also boastful, arrogant, and quarrelsome. For his crime of dragging King Priam's daughter Cassandra from the statue of the goddess Athena and violating her, he barely escaped being stoned to death by his Greek allies. Voyaging homeward, his ship was wrecked, but Ajax was saved. Then, boasting of his escape, he was cast by Poseidon into the sea and drowned. Ajax was worshiped as a national hero by the Opuntian Locrians (who lived on the Malian Gulf in central Greece and on whose coins he appeared), who always left a vacant place for him in their battle line.