Ajax

One of Sophocles’ earliest surviving tragedies turns on a wound to a soldier’s pride. When the armor of the dead Achilles is awarded to Odysseus, the great warrior Ajax feels so dishonored that he sets out to kill the Greek commanders in their sleep. The goddess Athena deranges him, and he butchers a herd of captured animals instead, certain they are his enemies. Sanity brings unbearable shame, and he takes his own life; the drama’s second half becomes a bitter dispute over whether so proud a man deserves a proper burial. Sophocles studies honor, madness, and the limits of heroic values with real sympathy for a difficult man. Available as a free PDF and EPUB edition.