Ajax son of Telamon

Also known as: Ajax / Great Ajax / great Ajax / son of Telamon · Family: Achaeans · Role: warrior · First appears: BOOK I

🌐 Also appears in: Greek Mythology — A Family Orrery (as Ajax son of Telamon)

In Book I, Ajax son of Telamon is named among the chiefs who might command the Achaeans. While Achilles is angry, Ajax is foremost among the men, though Achilles excels him; in Book IV, Ajax kills Simoeisius with a spear. In Book VII, he challenges Hector to fight, but night ends their duel with both alive. They exchange gifts and part in friendship: Hector gives Ajax a silver-studded sword, and Ajax gives Hector a purple-dyed girdle.

In Book VIII, after Hector breaks Teucer’s arm, Ajax’s men carry Teucer back to the ships. In Book IX, Ajax goes with Phoenix and Ulysses to urge Achilles to return to battle; Achilles calls him “still dearest to me of the Achaeans.” In Book XII, Ajax kills Epicles with a stone, and in Book XIV he strikes Hector with a stone, knocking him down and stunning him. He also aims at Polydamas, but his spear instead kills Archelochus.

In Book XV, Hector’s assault forces Ajax to leave the raised deck of a ship and defend it from the oarsmen’s bench; in Book XVI, Hector cuts Ajax’s spear. During the fight over Patroclus’s body in Book XVII, Ajax kills Hippothous and Phorcys son of Phaenops, while Menelaus and Meriones carry Patroclus toward the ships under Ajax’s protection. In Book XXIII, Ajax and Ulysses are declared equal winners in wrestling because neither can defeat the other; later, Ajax fights Diomed in armed combat, but neither is injured, and Diomed receives the sword prize.