Ajax Questions and Answers
by Sophocles

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• Ajax
  After the death of Ajax, the rest of Sophocles' play Ajax centers on the debate about whether to bury his body. Why does Odysseus defend Ajax and argue in favor of burial?
  In Sophocles' play Ajax, as in the Homeric epics, Odysseus is an intelligent and devious character, who has complex reasons for everything he does and says. Before Ajax's suicide, Odysseus has been...

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• Ajax
  In Sophocles' Ajax, why does the playwright focus so much on vision, perception, and eyes?
  Sophocles seems to have been drawn to the theme of literal versus spiritual vision. As many students have discovered, Sophocles' Oedipus the King deals with this theme as when, for example, the...

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• Ajax
  How does Sophocles explore heroism in the play Ajax?
  In Sophocles' Ajax, the playwright considers what happens when a hero's friends become his enemies. Ajax, thwarted in his efforts to acquire the armor of Achilles, tries to kill his fellow Greeks,...

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• Ajax
  To cause harm to one's enemies, and to help one's friends. Given your reading of Ajax which characters follow this moral code, which don't?
  This question appears to be prompted by a reading of Mary Blundell's book Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics. According to the traditional Greek code of...

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• Ajax
  Who were the great heroes of Sophocles' "Ajax"?  
  Ajax is considered great (though flawed) because he has proven himself time and again on the battlefield, but he is punished harshly by the gods when he disrespects them by spurning their help....

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• Ajax
  Why is Teucer despised for his birth despite seeming to have had impressive parents?
  Teucer was the half-brother of Ajax. Although they shared the same father, King Telamon of Salamis, they had different mother. The mother of Ajax was Telamon's first wife Periboea. The mother of...

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• Ajax
  If this play would have been part of a trilogy, are there any theories as to which part and what the other parts would have covered?  
  Kitto's Greek Tragedy is a really good starting point for this. Essentially, although tragedies were presented in groups of three, along with a satyr play, at the festival of Dionysius in Athens,...

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• Ajax
  Examine the message that Sophocles wanted to convey.
  Sophocles wants to communicate the dangers of hubris through Ajax' characterization. A strong warrior, it is pride that ends up ruining Ajax. He believes himself to be the best warrior, worthy of...

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