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The Imagery of Sophocles: A Study of Ajax's Suicide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

David Cohen
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Extract

At the end of the first episodion of Sophocles' play, Ajax, having affirmed the immutability of his ἦθος, which leaves him no choice but to live nobly or to die nobly, retires into his tent to end his life. Overwhelmed by shame from his attempt to kill the Greek leaders, which resulted instead in his deluded slaying of sheep and cattle, he sees death as the only way to reassert his heroic stature and to prove to his noble father, Telamon, that his son is not ἄσπλαγχνος (472). Many critics have agreed that at this point the audience and Chorus consider him as good as dead and that consequently his reappearance in line 646 comes as a dramatic surprise. What has proved a source of continuing controversy, however, is the explanation for this reappearance, and thus the question inevitably suggests itself: why, indeed, is Ajax still alive when he emerges from his tent in line 646? This question provides the central focus for this paper, which seeks to provide an explanation based upon an analysis of interrelated patterns of imagery within the play, particularly those involving Ajax's sword.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , April 1978 , pp. 24 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1978

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References

NOTES

1. Cf. 479–80, 594–5. The speeches preceding these lines (457–80, 560–95), which will be discussed in detail below, indicate clearly his decision to die. Briefly, however, that he intends to kill himself in his tent after his exit in line 595 is evidenced by his speech to his son where he passes on his shield, expresses his desire to be buried with his other arms (575–7), says that his are ills whose remedy is the knife (581–2), and orders the tent doors to be made fast behind him (579). He further orders Tecmessa not to weep and adamantly refuses to repent or reconsider.

All line references to the Ajax are those of Pearson's Oxford Classical Text (1971) unless otherwise stated.

2. Cf. Gellie, G. H., Sophocles: A Reading (Melbourne, 1972), pp. 10–13, 281Google Scholar, n. 9, for a discussion of the evidence manifesting the expectation of Tecmessa, the Chorus, and the audience that Ajax's death will occur behind the closed tent doors. See also: Reinhardt, K., Sophokles (Frankfurt, 1947), pp. 30–1Google Scholar; Knox, B. M. W., ‘The Ajax of Sophocles’, HSCP 65 (1961), 1–37, 12, 33, n. 72Google Scholar; Stanford, W. B., Sophocles: Ajax (London, 1963), p. 136Google Scholar; Jebb, R. C., Sophocles: The Ajax (Cambridge, 1896), p. xxivGoogle Scholar; Parlavantza-Friedrich, U., Täuschungsszenen in den Tragödien des Sophokles (Berlin, 1969), pp. 16–19Google Scholar, who comments that when Ajax withdraws into the tent, ‘der Dichter setzt alles daran, die Mithandelnden und den Zuschauer den Selbstmord des Helden erwarten zu lassen. Gerade diese im Zuschauer erzeugte absolute Voreingenommenheit lässt inn die folgende Rede des Aias … überrascht und daher um so kritischer anhören, so dass er die Mehrdeutigkeit der Sprache des Aias erfassen muss’; Kamerbeek, J. C., The Plays of Sophocles: Part I. The Ajax (Leiden, 1953), p. 127Google Scholar; and Adams, S. M., ‘The Ajax of Sophocles’, Phoenix 9 (1955), 93–110, 103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Cf. Kamerbeek, , p. 134Google Scholar, who comments that if Tecmessa had not accompanied Ajax into the tent there would have been nothing to prevent his suicide; and von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, T., Die dramatische Technik des Sophokles (Berlin, 1917), pp. 55–6.Google ScholarGellie, , p. 281, n. 9Google Scholar, argues that Ajax must go into the tent alone, as do Linforth, I. M., Three Scenes in Sophocles' Ajax (Berkeley, 1954) p. 11 and Stanford p. 13.Google Scholar

4. Cf. Whitman, C. H., Sophocles: A Study of Heroic Humanism (Cambridge, 1951), pp. 74–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who says that the Chorus and Tecmessa have temporarily prevented Ajax from killing himself but does not explain how they have done so; Ronnet, G., Sophocle: poète tragique (Paris, 1969), p. 33Google Scholar; and Méautis, G., Sophocle: essai sur le héros tragique (Paris, 1957), pp. 36–7Google Scholar, whose explanation also falls into the category discussed in n. 8 below. Linforth, p. 19, comments that Ajax desires to go to a place where he can die ‘alone, unobserved, unhindered’. His interpretation thus should presumably be included within this category, although he does not explain who would observe or hinder Ajax, whom he regards as alone in the tent.

5. Gellie, , p. 281, n. 9; Knox, 12.Google Scholar

6. Knox, , 12Google Scholar, Méautis, , p. 36.Google Scholar

7. Ronnet, , p. 39Google Scholar, Stanford, , pp. 142, 286.Google Scholar

8. Méautis, , p. 36Google Scholar, Stanford, , pp. 142, 286.Google Scholar

9. Méautis, , p. 36.Google Scholar

10. Stanford, , pp. 142, 286.Google Scholar

11. Cf. Knox, , 10 ff.Google Scholar; Linforth, , pp. 10 ff.Google Scholar; Reinhardt, , pp. 32 ff.Google Scholar; Weinstock, H., Sophokles (Wuppertal, 1948), pp. 50 ff.Google Scholar; and Stanford, , pp. 281 ff.Google Scholar For the contrary view that Ajax is unchanged and uses the ‘deception speech’ to gain solitude, cf. Whitman, , pp. 74 ff.Google Scholar

12. Cf. Bowra, C. M., Sophoclean Tragedy (Oxford, 1944), pp. 39 ff.Google Scholar, and Stanford, , pp. 282 ff.Google Scholar

13. Kitto, H. D. F., Form and Meaning in Drama (London, 1969), pp. 194 ff.Google Scholar; Reinhardt, , pp. 32–4Google Scholar; Weinstock, , pp. 50 ff.Google Scholar; and Stanford, , pp. 282 ff.Google Scholar

14. Despite the fact that the play was sometimes known as the Ajax Mastigophoros, the discussion which follows will maintain that it is the sword whose presence is always felt, whereas the whip appears only briefly, as in lines 110 and 239 ff.

15. Bowra, , p. 45Google Scholar, and see his discussion of the sword, pp. 44–6, which he sees as ‘the means by which Athene makes Ajax kill himself, her instrument of vengeance’ (p. 45). This interpretation obviously differs greatly from the one presented here. Cf. Kitto, , p. 193.Google Scholar

16. Stanford, , p. 278 and n. 44.Google Scholar

17. Stanford gives detailed attention to the imagery of the sword, cf. pp. 273–8, and individual line references in the commentary, and Bowra discusses some of it, pp. 44–6. Musurillo, H., The Light and the Darkness (Leiden, 1967), pp. 12–15Google Scholar, comments on a few references to the sword but only in regard to the theme of ‘the disease which needs the knife’. Kitto, , pp. 193 ff.Google Scholar, deals with the sword as revealing the operation of Dike but does not discuss imagery. Cf. Kirkwood, C. M., A Study of Sophoclean Drama (Ithaca, 1958), pp. 222–3Google Scholar, who briefly discusses the sword imagery in the second half of the play.

18. Cf. Jebb, , p. 12Google Scholar, and Kamerbeek, , p. 21.Google ScholarStanford, , p. 54Google Scholar, offers a slightly different interpretation but one which none the less gives prominence to the slaughter of the beasts.

19. Linforth, , pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

20. Cf. Whitman, , pp. 59–60, 69–73.Google Scholar Whitman sees self-destructiveness and excess as among the most essential qualities of the Greek hero. He remarks that Athena only ‘confirms Ajax in his madness’ (p. 70) and that ‘The heroic assumption means precisely this—the possession of a standard which becomes a kind of fatal necessity that drives towards self-destruction’ (p. 73). Cf. Weinstock, , pp. 47 ff.Google Scholar; Méautis, , pp. 24 ff.Google Scholar; Musurillo, , p. 10Google Scholar; and Biggs, P., ‘The Disease Theme in Sophocies’, CP 61 (1966), 223–35, esp. 224–5.Google Scholar

21. Stanford, , p. 276.Google Scholar

22. Cf. Stanford, , pp. xxv, 286.Google ScholarMéautis, , p. 39Google Scholar, expresses the dark and light composition of Ajax's nature nicely in his ‘transcription en clair’ of the ‘deception speech’: ‘Non, je connais ma nature, je sais que je participe au rigueurs de l'hiver, à l'obscurité de la nuit, ête, au sommeil, frère de la mort…’

23. Stanford, 's translation, p. 276.Google Scholar

24. Cf. Kamerbeek, , p. 64Google Scholar, and Stanford, , p. 90.Google Scholar

25. See above, n. 11.

26. Knox, 's translation, 14.Google Scholar

27. Cf. Knox, , 15Google Scholar, who comments on Ajax's plan to bury the sword: ‘The words he uses, as we have seen, are heavy with the sound of death; they stem from the deepest springs of his heroic nature.’

28. Cf. Kamerbeek, , pp. 169–70Google Scholar: ‘The sword will bring him the benefit of death, will save him (σεσωμένον, 692).’

29. Méautis, , p. 43Google Scholar, comments on this personification that ‘il s'adresse à ce glaive comme à un être vivant, à un être animé …’

30. Cf. Stanford, , pp. 166–7Google Scholar, who comments on the epic colouring of some of the language and remarks that since the sword is Hector's, ‘in a sense Ajax is dying at the hands of an enemy; secondly (819–20), since the sword is held fast by “the hostile earth of Troy,” in this way, too, his death is being caused by his foes’.

31. Cf. Kitto, , p. 194Google Scholar, who comments that Sophocles intended the single combat between Hector and Ajax in Iliad 7 to be brought to mind and that Ajax's suicide is the completion of the duel begun there.

32. Cf. Méautis, , p. 45Google Scholar, for a discussion of the re-establishment of Ajax's heroic stature by his death; Knox, , 18, 27–8Google Scholar; Whitman, , pp. 75–8Google Scholar; Linforth, , pp. 27–8.Google Scholar

33. Cf. line 376, where Ajax refers to the dark blood of the cattle (ἐρεμνὸν α<24_inline1>α).

34. Tecmessa says she must conceal Ajax's body that no one might see the dark blood, as Ajax (658–9) said that he would hide his sword in the darkness of night and Hades so that no one would see it.

35. Linforth, , p. 28.Google Scholar

36. I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to Professor Eva Inoue, whose views on the Ajax, expressed in our many discussions, have greatly influenced my own interpretation of the play.