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Ajax the Lesser
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=== Life === [[File:Attic red-figure cup with Ajax and Cassandra Louvre G 458.jpg|thumb|left|Ajax the Lesser and Cassandra]] Ajax's mother's name was [[Eriopis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=[[Tzetzes]]|first=John|title=Allegories of the Iliad|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library|year=2015|isbn=978-0-674-96785-4|location=Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England|pages=41, Prologue 43–44|translator-last=Goldwyn|translator-first=Adam|translator-last2=Kokkini|translator-first2=Dimitra}}</ref> According to [[Strabo]], he was born in [[Naryx]] in [[Locris]],<ref>[[Strabo]], 9. p. 425</ref> where [[Ovid]] calls him ''Narycius heros''.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 14.468</ref> According to the ''Iliad'',<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' 2.527</ref> he led his [[Locrians]] in forty ships against [[Troy]].<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' 97 gives the number of ships as twenty</ref> He is described as one of the great heroes among the Greeks. In battle, he wore a [[linen]] [[cuirass]] ({{lang|grc|λινοθώραξ}}, {{lang|grc-Latn|[[linothorax]]}}), was brave and intrepid, especially skilled in throwing the spear and, next to [[Achilles]], the swiftest of all the Greeks.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' 14.520 & 23.789</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The chronicler Malalas portrayed him as "tall, strong, tawny, squinting, good nose, curly hair, black hair, thick beard, long face, daring warrior, magnanimous, a womanizer."<ref>[[John Malalas|Malalas]], ''Chronography'' [https://topostext.org/work/793#5.104 5.104]</ref> In the funeral games at the [[pyre]] of [[Patroclus]], Ajax contended with [[Odysseus]] and [[Antilochus of Pylos|Antilochus]] for the prize in the footrace; but [[Athena]], who was hostile towards him and favored Odysseus, made him stumble and fall, so that he won only the second prize.<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' 23.754</ref> In later traditions, this Ajax is called a son of Oileus and the [[nymph]] Rhene, and is also mentioned among the suitors of Helen.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 3.10.8; Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 81 & 97</ref> After the taking of Troy, he rushed into the temple of Athena, where [[Cassandra]] had taken refuge, and was embracing the statue of the goddess in [[supplication]]. Ajax violently dragged her away to the other captives.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Tro.'' 70; [[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' 2.403; Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 116; [[Dictys Cretensis]], 5.12</ref> According to some writers, he raped Cassandra inside the temple.<ref>[[Tryphiodorus]], 635; [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], 13.422; [[Lycophron]], 360 with the [[Scholia|Scholion]]</ref> Odysseus called for Ajax's death by stoning for this crime, but Ajax saved himself by claiming innocence with an oath to Athena, clutching her statue in supplication.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], 10.26.1 & 10.31.1</ref>
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