The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Ajax

AJAX (Greek, Aias), the name of two of the Grecian chiefs who fought against Troy, distinguished as Ajax Oileus and Ajax Telamonius. The former, the son of Oileus and Etiopas, a Locrian, was called the Less. When the Greeks had entered Troy, Cassandra fled to the temple of Pallas, whence she was forced and dragged along, bound as a captive. Some accounts add that he violated the prophetess in the temple of the goddess. Ulysses accused him of this crime, when he exculpated himself with an oath. But the anger of the goddess at last overtook him and he perished in the waves of the sea. The other Ajax was the son of Telamon, from Salamis, and a grandson of Æacus. He understood not how to speak, but how to act. After the death of Achilles, when his arms, which Ajax claimed on account of his courage and relationship, were awarded to Ulysses, he was filled with rage, and, driven to frenzy, threw himself on his sword, after having slaughtered the sheep of the Greek army, which he fancied were his enemies.