Aias the Lokrians
Aias der Lokrer ( ancient Greek Αἴας Aías , Latin Aiax , in German Ajax ), son of the Lokrian king Oileus and also called Ajax the Little to distinguish himself from the Telamonians , was a Greek fighter before Troy and known as the second fastest runner (after Achilles ) and javelin thrower .
After Troy fell , he raped Kassandra , her priestess, in the sanctuary of Athenes . Athena then complained bitterly to her father Zeus , whereupon the latter gave her a thunderbolt freshly forged by Hephaestus , with which she pierced Aias' ship on his journey home. The Lokrian rowed with his bare hands to keep himself afloat, but Athena continued to torment him. Poseidon took pity on him and threw him onto a rock with a huge wave. Aias began to boast on the rock that he had escaped the sea in spite of the gods. This hubris angered Poseidon so much that he split the rock with his trident, whereby the half on which Aias was standing fell into the sea. As he went down, Poseidon hurled a hill at him. Little Aias was (symbolically) conquered by the earth and the gods at the same time.
literature
- C. Fleischer: Aias II . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, columns 133-139 ( digitized version ).
- Johannes Toepffer : Aias 4 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 936-940.
- Dimitri Liebsch: Aias. In: Maria Moog-Grünewald (Ed.): Mythenrezeption. The ancient mythology in literature, music and art from the beginnings to the present (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 5). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-02032-1 , pp. 33–40, here pp. 33, 38–40.
Web links
- Aias in the Greek Myth Index (English)