Ajax

Ajax carrying the dead Achilles

Ajax was one of the great heroes of the Trojan War. He was the king of Salamis, near Athens. Homer says he was a very big and strong man. Only his cousin Achilles, who he had gone to school with, was a better fighter. When Achilles was killed, Ajax rescued his body.

But afterwards, Ajax thought he should get Achilles' armor. When the Greeks decided to give the armor to Odysseus instead, Ajax went crazy and killed a whole flock of sheep, thinking they were Greeks. He thought he was killing Odysseus and Agamemnon.

When he realized what he had done, he was so ashamed that he killed himself.

To find out more about Ajax, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

The Iliad of Homer (Oxford Myths and Legends), by Barbara Leonie Picard. A retelling of the story, for kids.

The Iliad (Penguin Classics) by Homer. Translated by Robert Fagles. A great translation!

Approaches to Teaching Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, by Kostas Myrsiades (1987).