AJAX by Sophocles

Ajax, begins in the city of Troy, which I've always heard about but never actually known where it is on the map. I tried looking on my globe and I couldn't find it, I was so confused, but then I thought to use the internet for some help. I searched on Oxford Reference Online and found some interesting facts about this place called Troy.

      "Turkey: ruins, the site now being called Hisarlík. The name is said to come from Troas,a legendary founder. He had three sons, one of which was Ilus from whom the city's alternative name came: in Greek Ilios or Ilion, and in Latin Ilium. Archaeological evidence has revealed nine main levels of habitation, sometimes misleadingly called cities, with Troy IX being the Ilium Novum of Hellenistic and Roman times." (O.R.O.)

 I wanna kinda go over who these characters are in the play and help you get a feel for who they are and why they are so important as to write a play about them before I get into too much detail.

Ajax: Also known as the "Lesser" Ajax who was shipwrecked by Athena for raping Cassandra (a prophet)

ATHENA : The Goddess of War, Wisdom, and Patroness
ODYSSEUS: King of Ithaca, also known from Homer's Odyssey 
CHORUS OF SALAMINIANS: The people who kinda of fill the audience in on what is going on in case someone doesn't know.
TECMESSA: concubine of AJAX: (Concubine: AKA Mistress.)
MESSENGER: ok if you dont get this one I'm sorry. he's a messenger...
TEUCER: half-brother of AJAX
MENELAUS: King of Sparta
AGAMEMNON: king of Mycenae , commander-in-chief of the Greek expedition against Troy
Mute Persons
EURYSACES: child of AJAX and TECMESSA
Attendants, Heralds, etc.

Summary of Play: 

.        So to fill you in from the very begining as with all Greek plays, there's a ton of them so the story kind goes like this... The Play is set near the end of the Trojan War, Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, lies dead after being shot by a Trojan arrow guided by Apollo mortally wounds him. Ajax, the second-greatest Greek warrior in battlefield, expects to get this amazing awesome prize of prizes, Achilles' armor. Which was made by the blacksmith god Hephaestus. Instead what happens is Agamemnon and Menelaus award it to Odysseus.
........Ajax then becomes so enraged that he plots the murder of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Menelaus at night. However,  Athena, decides totally destroy Ajax's plan. So to save him from Ajax, she casts a spell of insanity on Ajax. So Ajax has this wicked plan to totally destroy the three guys and instead kills a ton of sheep and then takes some captive to torture, not realizing too much that they are sheep...
........Now the play that I have starts with alittle bit of a (last time on Ajax) then continues with Sophocle's version. Ajax, who's still berserk from Athena's spell, is in his tent at Troy. His friends from Salamis enter with Tecmessa. As Ajax comes to his senses, he feels like a jerk, believing that he has ruined his reputation as a warrior and disgraced his family. 

        Before the chorus, he tells us how he wants to die (yada yada yada). Tecmessa and the Salamanians try to lessen his grief. When he addresses them, he seemingly lightens their fears. However, he then leaves the tent with the sword of Hector (some dead Trojan hero) and falls upon it, killing himself.Then  Agamemon and Menelaus want to leave his body un-buried  for animals to feed on, which in Greece leaving someone's body un-buried is like a slap in the face. But thankfully Odysses persaudes them to actually bury the body.   

Biboliography:

"Troy"  Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. John Everett-Heath. Oxford University Press 2010. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Central Washington University.  29 October 2010  http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t209.e7551