ng apparently to the local
mythology of the poet's birthplace. It also implies a later stage of
ethical reflection, and in this respect resembles the Philoctetes; it
depends more on lyrical and melodramatic effects, and allows more room
for collateral and subsidiary motives than any other of the seven. Yet
in its principal theme, the vindication or redemption of an
essentially noble spirit from the consequences of error, it repeats a
note which had been struck much earlier in the Aias with great force,
although with some crudities of treatment which are absent from the
later drama.

5. In one of the Epic poems which narrated the fall of Troy, the
figure of Aias was more prominent than in the Iliad. He alone and
unassisted was there said to have repulsed Hector from the ships, and
he had the chief share, although in this he was aided by Odysseus, in
rescuing the dead body of Achilles. Yet Achilles' arms were awarded by
the votes of the chieftains, as the prize of valour, not to Aias, but
to Odysseus. This, no doubt, meant that wisdom is better than
strength. But the wisdom of Odysseus in these later Epics was often
less nobly esteemed than in the Iliad and Odyssey, and was represented
as alloyed with cunning.

Aias has withdrawn with his Salaminians, in a rage, from the fight,
and after long brooding by the ships his wrath has broken forth into a
blaze which would have endangered the lives of Odysseus and the
Atridae, had not Athena in her care for them changed his anger into
madness. Hence, instead of slaying the generals, he makes havoc
amongst the flocks and herds, which as the result of various forays
were the common property of the whole army. The truth is discovered by
Odysseus with the help of Athena, and from being next to Achilles in
renown, Aias becomes the object of universal scorn and hatred. The
sequel of this hour of his downfall is the subject of the Aias of
Sophocles. After lamenting his fate, the hero eludes the vigilance of
his captive bride Tecmessa, and of his Salaminian mariners, and, in
complete solitude, falls upon his sword. He is found by Tecmessa and
by his half-brother Teucer, who has returned too late from a raid in
the Mysian highlands. The Atridae would prohibit Aias' funeral; but
Odysseus, who has been specially enlightened by Athena, advises
generous forbearance, and his counsel prevails. The part representing
the disgrace and death of Aias is more affecting to modern readers
than the r