Ajax the Lesser

For the Marvel Comics character Ajax the Lesser, see List of Eternals.
Ajax the Lesser by Francesco Sabatelli, 1829
Scene from the Trojan War: Cassandra clings to the Palladium, the wooden cult image of Athene, while Ajax the Lesser is about to drag her away in front of her father Priam (standing on the left). Fresco from the atrium of the Casa del Menandro (I 10, 4) in Pompeii.
Ajax, 1820 painting by Henri Serrur

Ajax (Ancient Greek: Αἴας Aias according to Graves means "of the earth".[1]) was a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris. He was called the "Ajax the Less", the "lesser" or "Locrian" Ajax,[2] to distinguish him from Ajax the Great, son of Telamon. He was the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War. He is a significant figure in Homer's Iliad and is also mentioned in the Odyssey,[3] in Virgil's Aeneid and in Euripides' The Trojan Women. In Etruscan legend, he was known as Aivas Vilates.

  1. ^ Graves, Robert (2017). The Greek Myths – The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. pp. Index s.v., standardly derived from Greek αΐαζω, lament. Ajax, Great. ISBN 978-0241983386.
  2. ^ Homer, Iliad 2.527
  3. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Ajax (2)", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 87–88, archived from the original on 2013-10-20, retrieved 2008-06-09