Ajax the Hero

Swift, Laura (2019). Ajax the Hero. In: Stuttard, David ed. Looking at Ajax. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 29–41.

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Abstract

This chapter explores how Sophocles' Ajax presents the concept of the hero. It discusses the play's interrogation of Homeric values, and how it reworks the traditional conflict between the desire for glory and duty to a wider community and adapts it for a fifth century Athenian audience. It examines the different models of heroism that Sophocles presents, contrasting Ajax and Odysseus. Finally, it explores how heroic values relate to hero cult, and the prominence that this is given in the play’s ending.

Item Type:

Book Section

ISBN:

1-350-07230-3, 978-1-350-07230-5

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