Eating from the Tables of Others: Sophocles’ Ajax and the Greek Epic Cycle

Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistai remarks that “Sophocles took great pleasure in the Epic Cycle and composed whole dramas in which he followed the Cycle’s version of myths” [1] (ἔχαιρε δὲ Σοφοκλῆς τῷ ἐπικῷ κύκλῳ, ὡς καὶ ὅλα δράματα ποιῆσαι κατακολουθῶν τῇ ἐν τούτῳ μυθοποιίᾳ, Deipnosophistai 277c). [2] This statement is equally apposite for his Ajax Philoctetes, Oedipus (both Tyrannus and Coloneus) and Antigone. However, while examining in depth the plot and the construction of some of the characters in Sophoclean tragedy, one realizes that Sophocles, although indebted to the poets of the Epic Cycle for his plots, feasts at Homer’s table as well, reminding us of what Aeschylus said about his tragedies as being slices from Homer’s great dinner parties (τὸ τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ λαμπροῦ Αἰσχύλου, ὃς τὰς αὑτοῦ τραγῳδίας τεμάχη εἶναι ἔλεγεν τῶν Ὁμήρου μεγάλων δείπνων, Athenaeus Deipnosophistai 347e).

The second point I would like to make refers to a methodological principle. I subscribe to the view that a playwright of fifth c. BCE Athens not only “feasts” at the tables of others but freely transforms and adapts his borrowings to the new ideology of his genre and the social and political circumstances of his time. [3] In Sophocles’ time, there is the polis, with a value system that has evolved gradually but steadily, from the Homeric, through the archaic, down to the classical period. Moreover, Sophocles, as with all poets, had a particular style and personal preoccupations that characterize his work. [4]

In the present paper I shall try first to detect what Sophocles in his Ajax borrowed from where, and second, how he elaborated the old material to produce a play reflecting on the new ideological structures and the value system sustaining the polis.

Ajax

Ajax, the hero, is very brave; he is not the “best of the Achaeans”, but he is the second best after Achilles (ἀνδρῶν αὖ μέγ’ ἄριστος ἔην Τελαμώνιος Αἴας / ὄφρ’ Ἀχιλεὺς μήνιεν, Iliad 2.768–769). [5] Symbolically, in the deployment of the Greek camp, he holds the left end while Achilles holds the right. [6] And since Achilles eschews the battlefield for more than three quarters of the Homeric account of the Iliadic war (he returns to the battle in book 19 of the Iliad), it is Ajax who shoulders the burden of the defense of the Greek army; the Homeric formula for Ajax is ἕρκος Ἀχαιῶν, the bulwark of the Achaeans. And indeed, true to his Homeric characterization, he many times steadied the Greeks when their line was pressed by the advancing Trojans. Almost singlehandedly he tried to save the Greek ships from fire (book 15 of the Iliad). In book 17 of the Iliad, where there is a fierce struggle over the corpse of Patroclus, Ajax performs a great deed: he fights the rearguard action against the Trojans, allowing Menelaos and Meriones to bear the body to safety. Moving now to the Greek Epic Cycle, in the Aethiopis by Arctinus, [7] where the death of Achilles is recounted, it is Ajax who recovers, carries off and saves the body of the slain hero while Odysseus fights off the Trojans. This is an intriguing reversal of what happens in book 17 of the Iliad in the struggle over the corpse of Patroclus, which is a scene mirroring the scene evoked in Aethiopis.

This reversal could have been coincidental, insignificant or merely a narratological choice. However, it proves to be a very significant deviation from the Homeric scene. In the Ilias Parva by Lesches [8] we are told of the crucial moment in Ajax’s heroic career, which is the Judgment of Arms, the debate between Ajax and Odysseus over the arms of Achilles. In Proclus’ Chrestomatheia we learn that Lesches stated the following: a. according to Athena’s will (κατὰ βούλησιν Ἀθηνᾶς) the arms of Achilles are granted to Odysseus b. Ajax becomes enraged (ἐμμανής) and attacks the flocks of the Greek army, and c. he kills himself. We have no idea how Homer would have dealt with the Judgment of Arms; he gives us only the famous scene in the Nekyia where the soul of Ajax walks away from the apologetic Odysseus without uttering a word to him. There, in book 11 of the Odyssey, we learn that the Judgment was decided by the Trojans and Pallas Athena (παῖδες δὲ Τρώων δίκασαν καὶ Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη, 11.547). We learn nothing more. What was exactly the “judgment” of the Trojans? Who were these Trojans? Men or women? Was it a fair judgment? Was it a fair trial?

The two relevant works of the Epic Cycle (Aethiopis and Ilias Parva) provide some sparse information about the story. First, the Scholiast on the above passage of the Odyssey (11.547) reports that Agamemnon, unwilling to decide between the two rival heroes, asks some Trojan prisoners which of the two did them most harm. This version of the story might have been included in the Aethiopis. [9] The version of the Ilias Parva comes from the Scholiast on Aristophanes’ Knights (verse 1056), who reports that the Achaeans, following the suggestion of Nestor, sent spies to the walls of Troy to eavesdrop on the enemy. There, two maidens (parthenoi) debate the matter: one suggesting Ajax, who retrieved the body of Achilles as the braver (Αἴας μὲν γὰρ ἄειρε καὶ ἔκφερε δηϊοτῆτος / ἥρω Πηλεΐδην, οὐδ’ ἤθελε δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, F2^A Davies); the other, guided by Athena, challenges this as a lie (πῶς ἐπεφωνήσω; πῶς οὐ κατὰ κόσμον ἔειπες / ψεῦδος; F2^A Davies). The decisive argument concerning this version is provided by verse 1056 of Aristophanes’ Knights (on which the Scholiast is commenting) which states that even a woman can carry a burden, if ordained by a man, but she would not fight (καί κε γυνὴ φέροι ἄχθος, ἐπεί κεν ἀνὴρ ἀναθείη· / ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἂν μαχέσαιτο, Knights 1056–1057). Thus, it seems that the act of bravery described by Homer (a hero fighting off the enemy while another—considerably less brave—retrieves the body) is reversed in the Epic Cycle to render Ajax a lesser hero. Now, he is the one doing woman’s work, while Odysseus defies the enemy.

Would this demoted hero suit Sophocles’ purpose? At a first glance it seems that the playwright connects not with the Epic Cycle but with Homer and also with Pindar, since both poets support the heroic stature of Ajax, as does Sophocles. Pindar in his eighth Nemean Ode (c. 459 BCE) states that the secret vote of the Danaoi favored Odysseus (κρυφίαισι γὰρ ἐν ψάφοις Ὀδυσσῆ Δαναοὶ θεράπευσαν, verse 26). In connection with this tradition, Sophocles puts a similar accusation into the mouth of the half-brother of Ajax, Teucer, aimed at Menelaos in the fourth epeisodion of Ajax (1135–1136):

The cheating in the voting in Sophocles corresponds to the secret vote in Pindar that favors “deceiving lies” (μέγιστον δ’ αἰόλῳ ψεύ- / δει γέρας ἀντέτατα, Nemean Ode 8.25). In both cases there is an unfair trial, the moral responsibility for which lies with Ajax’s comrades in arms. There is no meddling by Athena, nor is the “tittle tattle” of the Trojans an important factor compromising the judgment. The same line of thought (a judgment decided by Ajax’ peers) might have been Aeschylus’ invention (or influence) in his tragedy (the first of a trilogy) The Judgment of Arms. [11] One may argue, of course, that this is a plausible alteration of the original story, [12] considering that we are in mid-fifth c. BCE when the legal system is fully developed in the Greek poleis and the administration of justice—at least in Athens—is done by large numbers of citizens. Thus, it seems that we are moving away from the Aethiopis, Ilias Parva and also the Odyssey.

However, the connection of the Sophoclean text with the Epic Cycle is more intricate than mere reflections in the details of the story. In Sophocles’ Ajax, it might be said, Athena does not falsify the results of the trial. She is not a petty goddess who intervenes in favor of Odysseus, and metes out injustice to Ajax; but, is this true?

In order to answer this question we need to think of the overall framework of Sophocles’ Ajax and to consider the intentions of the playwright. Sophocles explores a situation of crisis, just after the Judgment of Arms. He borrows the elements of his plot from the cyclic tradition but transforms them into a frame of thought and action that suits his purpose. The decision about the arms of Achilles is clearly the outcome of a trial decided by the leaders of the Greeks (νῦν δ’ αὔτ’ Ἀτρεῖδαι φωτὶ παντουργῷ φρένας / ἔπραξαν, ἀνδρὸς τοῦδ’ ἀπώσαντες κράτη·, Ajax 445–446); thus, the injustice lies with the hero’s comrades in arms. What then of Athena? In my opinion, the favoritism of the goddess and her “pettiness” towards Ajax are fully explored in the magnificent prologue of the play, where Athena shows herself vindictive, malicious, and bitterly ironic towards Ajax (Ajax 51–133). She gloats over the fallen hero and invites Odysseus to mock him when he is still deranged and humiliated: οὔκουν γέλως ἥδιστος εἰς ἐχθροὺς γελᾶν; (is not laughing at one’s enemies the most delightful kind of laughter? Ajαx 79). With what Sophoclean concept of the divine this picture of Athena fits, it is hard to say. [13] Up until the middle of the drama the spectator has the intense feeling of a goddess who must be respected out of fear. Even Odysseus is appalled and terrified by the malevolence of his beloved goddess when she invites him to witness the degradation of Ajax (Ajax 121–126):

(I pity him in his misery though he is my enemy, because he is bound fast by a cruel affliction, not thinking of his fate but my own; because I see that all of us who live are nothing but ghosts, or a fleeting shadow).

Here, Odysseus rises to the occasion, showing compassion and pity to the fallen hero, as he realizes the pervading frailty of the human condition.

Such divine cruelty on the part of Athena needs solid justification in the context of a tragic work; for this reason, two instances of downright hubristic behavior of the hero are constructed by the playwright. First, Ajax scolds his father for his advice that he rely on the aid of the gods for victory in battle; he replies “boastfully and stupidly” (ὑψικόμπως κἀφρόνως, Ajax 766) as follows (Ajax 767–769):

(Father, together with the gods, even one who amounts to nothing may win victory; but I am confident that I can grasp this glory even without them).

Secondly, he scorns Athena’s help when she appears to aid him in battle (Ajax 774–775):

(Queen, stand by the other Argives; where I am, the enemy shall never break through).

This behavior is clearly an invention of Sophocles. [14] A reader of Homer would have great trouble finding a single fault in Ajax’s behavior. A reader of the Epic Cycle could perhaps glean some clues to justify the arrogance and disrespect shown by the hero in the Sophoclean drama; but this is mere speculation, since we lack sufficient evidence to support this view. But definitely, the reader of Sophocles understands how the outspoken arrogance of Ajax stirs up the anger of Athena and precipitates his own downfall. A hero in epic poetry can be arrogant and self centered, as is Achilles, without attracting divine retribution. In tragedy, however, there is often a strong causal relation between hubris and a punishment inflicted by society or by offended god(s). [15] Thus, with this new component of arrogant boasting aiming at the gods is the hubris of Ajax fully developed and completed. However, regardless of the brashness of his arrogance, the appearance of the angry Athena in the opening scene of the tragedy is so violent and appalling as to produce terror both in Odysseus and the audience. Taking all this into consideration, I suggest that Athena’s constant intervention in favor of Odysseus and against Ajax, which is a consistent feature of the Epic Cycle, is taken up by Sophocles, transformed to fit the general plan of his tragic work, and imbues his text.

I will now go back to a point which I mentioned earlier in this paper as a feature of the Epic Cycle: the degradation of the heroic stature of Ajax. In the Ilias Parva it is Odysseus and not Ajax who fights off the Trojans in the battle over the corpse of Achilles; as a result of this action, one young Trojan woman (the “judges” of the dispute over the arms) equates Ajax with a woman. In Sophocles’ Ajax, however, the hero retains the heroic valor established by Homer. The hero in Sophocles is degraded not because he is not brave enough, but because he, with Athena’s intervention, loses his clarity of sight; he is crushed by a blindness of mind and directs his anger (a justified anger according to the Homeric heroic value system) towards animals instead of the Achaeans. This second humiliation is worse than the first because the hero becomes the laughing stock of his enemies (Ajax 367): Οἴμοι γέλωτος, οἷον ὑβρίσθην ἄρα (Ah the mockery! What an insult I have suffered!). (See also the following passages: κεῖνοι δ’ ἐπεγγελῶσιν ἐκπεφευγότες, and they have escaped and are laughing at me, Ajax 454; <τέκνον Λαρτίου> ἦ που πολὺν γέλωθ’ ὑφ’ ἡδονῆς ἄγεις, [son of Laertes] how you must be laughing in your own delight, Ajax 382.) This last offense is what leads Ajax to his suicide. The justification of the hero’s suicide is explored fully only by Sophocles. In Homer Ajax was angry (κεχολωμένος), in the Ilias Parva he is overtaken by mania (ἐμμανής). What happens in Sophocles?

The opening scene of the tragedy shows a hero in frenzy; he has killed several animals and captured others which he intends to torture before killing them. His act of vengeance is ruined by Athena, as we have seen; and when the confusion (κῦμα φοινίας ὑπὸ ζάλης, Ajax 352) is lifted from his mind, Ajax realizes his utter humiliation. In a sense, he becomes like the animals he has captured and killed, a victim of Athena’s hunting (the hunting metaphors of the opening speech of the goddess speaks eloquently for the case, Ajax 1–8). And in a poignant dramatic reversal, while he intended to torture Odysseus at the beginning of the play, it is he who is now tortured by Athena: ἀλλά μ’ ἁ Διός μ’ ἀλκίμα θεὸς ὀλέθριον αἰκίζει (but the daughter of Zeus, the mighty goddess, tortures me to death, Ajax 401–402). The word used by Ajax to describe Athena’s torture is aikizein, which is also the technical term to describe the maltreatment of the dead body of an enemy. In this context, the action of aikizein presupposes that you are dead, a lifeless body thrown as prey into the hands of the enemy, which is the most utter humiliation that a Homeric hero may dread (remember Hector at the hands of Achilles).

When Ajax realizes his situation, he wonders what path of action is left open to him. To the question: καὶ νῦν τί χρὴ δρᾶν; (and now what must I do? Ajax 457) Ajax gives two possible options: a. returning home without any spoils of war, thus disappointing his father with his heroic reputation in ruins; and b. assaulting the walls of Troy single handed, thus winning kleos but giving joy to the Atreidai by his death. The hero rejects both as unworthy of him. However, there is a third option that is implied in the final clause of his speech (Ajax 479–480):

(The noble man must live with honour or be honourably dead; you have heard all I have to say).

This last sentence brings us to the realization that we have come full circle back to Homer. Ajax, obedient to his own axiom, kills himself not because he is angry, or bitter, or deranged, but because his heroic timê is irreparably ruined. As we all know, Achilles in the Iliad chooses personal honor over long, ordinary life. Seen in this light, Ajax in Sophocles is the duplicate of Achilles in the Iliad. The similarities go far beyond the simple fact that Ajax takes over while Achilles has retired or that he is constantly described as the second best of the Achaeans. The most important point of convergence is that both heroes are self-centered and that personal honor and glory override the good of the community. [16] Both heroes, in their own personal and distinct stories, harm their friends and help their enemies. [17] The proemion of the Iliad clearly states that the anger of Achilles brought many afflictions upon the Achaeans (ἣ μυρί’ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε’ ἔθηκε, 1.2) by sending his fellow-warriors to Hades. [18] In Sophocles’ tragedy Ajax directs his anger against his fellow-Achaeans; both heroes are angry (κεχολωμένοι) and they represent a deviation from what should be expected from a proper hero; to be brave and supportive of his community, as were Ajax and Hector in the Iliad. [19] I think the following oxymoron epitomizes Ajax’s position and character in our tragedy: Ajax in Sophocles is more “Homeric” than in Homer.

To recap:

Sophocles had the choice of various versions of Ajax’s story. The details of the Judgment of Arms are drawn mainly from the Epic Cycle (Aethiopis and Ilias Parva), although the episode was not unknown to Homer. In the Epic Cycle we should note three important deviations from the Homeric Ajax: a. the abased heroic stature that is shown in the rescue of Achilles’ body b. the Judgment of Arms which is decided by Trojan captives or young parthenoi and c. the constant intervention of Athena in favor of Odysseus. In Homer, on the other hand, Ajax is a hero of elevated status, respected by his fellow-Achaeans, feared by the Trojans, protected by the gods. It seems that Sophocles moves between the two pictures of the hero by borrowing elements from both and adopting them to fit his purpose. I have suggested that the debased status of Ajax in the Epic Cycle and the favoritism of Athena are adopted by Sophocles and transformed into the fallen hero and the malevolence of Athena at the beginning of the play. But this is not the end of the story, since Sophocles goes back and “eats” from the table of Homer as well. This is done masterfully as Sophocles creates his own hero not on the pattern of the Homeric Ajax but on that of Achilles, thus giving us his Best of the Achaeans. [20] Sophocles constructs his own Achilles with elements implicit in the Homeric and cyclic tradition radically transforming them, however, to give us his own hero: a hero who is brave, proud, faithful to the value system he has been brought up in; but who is also intransigent, arrogant, disrespectful, unyielding and self-centered to the extent that he can no longer serve the good of the community.

These remarks bring us to the last consideration of the present paper. What did Sophocles want to convey to his audience by creating his own Ajax? Although trying to answer this question might be a wild goose chase, I will venture to suggest some lines of interpretation for Ajax and the Sophoclean tragedy as a whole. Sophocles was an intellectual who almost outlived the fifth c. BCE. At almost the middle of this century he produced Ajax. [21] Athens was at its zenith; the Peloponnesian war had yet to become a cloud on the horizon. What marked the Athenian life at that time was characterized by intense intellectual activity reflecting on all the issues related to the formation of the political system of a new democracy (in 462 BCE the reforms of the radical wing of the democratic party led by Ephialtes are dated). “Political” is a term which is used here not in its narrow modern sense but as a general term denoting what refers to and concerns the polis—i.e. the political structures of the city and the life of the citizens. [22] The Athenian democracy was a unique political system with the body politic both administering the system and creating its structures. [23] There was constant debate among intellectuals about everything concerning the activity of the citizens in war and in peace, as is well attested in Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, and the many works of the sophists, whose preoccupations were recorded later by Plato. This debate is also imprinted in the works of the Athenian tragic poets who reflect on contemporary issues while using old mythical material. Within this framework, Sophocles in Ajax feels free to borrow extensively from the earlier tradition in order to give us a study of the Homeric heroic system in extremis. This is why his Ajax is more “Homeric” than in Homer. Sophocles’ preoccupation includes also the political discourse articulated by Menelaos and Agamemnon in the second part of Ajax. The sons of Atreus represent a political ethos that is cruel and inconsiderate of the totality of the value system of their society. So, in Ajax we have the two extremes: on the one hand, a self-centered hero ignoring the good of the community, on the other, two political leaders ignoring the wider system of values of the community. In the middle, stands Odysseus attempting to reconcile the two extremes and representing the common sense of justice that dictates the following: a great hero, no matter how violent and destructive, deserves a proper burial, while a political leader should learn moderation and compassion. Only then, can a community of citizens enjoy prosperity and be at peace with itself. The old myth serves the new ideals and this is why Sophocles transforms the riches of the past into a new discourse (logos) that promotes communal instead of individual values.

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Footnotes