The tragic issue in Sophocles' Ajax

Summary

Though the Ajax is thought to be the earliest of Sophocles' surviving plays, it is certain that the dramatist had already reached the height of his creative powers when it was written. It is equally certain that this play, in the course of its action, exhibits all the distinctive features of Sophocles' particular conception of the tragic world-order. We shall understand this conception best if we start from precisely that part of the play which is most controversial, the famous speech, often called the ‘deception speech’, which comprises the whole second episode (646–92). Its central position corresponds to its inner significance as the tragedy's heart. One of the most beautiful passages in all Greek tragedy (thanks to its poetic form and imagery), it is, at the same time, one of the most enigmatic. Since Welcker, in 1829, first recognized the problems it presents, an endless controversy, in which many eminent scholars have participated, has raged about it. However, a few years ago it was rightly said that no one has yet satisfactorily explained why Ajax makes this superb, but ambiguous speech. This is still true today. Interpretation has made little progress. A new approach may, therefore, be justified.

Ajax' honor is deeply wounded by the decision of the Greeks to award the arms of Achilles not to him, as the best of the heroes after Achilles, but to Odysseus.