The Ego is Everything

Entry #4
Work: Ajax by Sophocles

Greek tragedy goes well with black coffee. I sat this morning, reading through the second Sophocles play for my Religion in Literature course. It's very difficult to reconcile the Greek state religions with my own non-theistic spiritual views.

In the interest of sparing the reader a summary, those visiting this page can find a fair job of it on Bastard Net . We have a character, driven by jealousy and scorn (the coveted weapons of Achilles have "democratically" been awarded to Odysseus rather than Ajax. Ajax, of course, feels he was the more deserving recipient).

Plenty of sexism exists in the play -- not surprising considering it was written in approximately 400 B.C. But, also, justifications of ego and attribution of actions to the gods seem at first odd, but upon reflection, I think things haven't changed all that much. We have a president standing at the podium (pulpit) decrying the ungodly enemy and swearing to lead them to the light. Okay, hyperbole on my part, I admit, but seventy-one percent of Americans agree at least to some extent.

Death before dishonor...that still exists in our military code, though mutiny (as Ajax's act, though thwarted by Athena) is still frowned upon. I don't know if mutiny is the proper term; Ajax is not leading a revolt, but rather staging his own personal and very final protest. So, let us just term it a one-man mutiny. He's brought consequences to his family, slave wife, son, and bastard half-brother by his actions. Or at least, he's willing for them to suffer the consequences. His parents also will suffer. His father, a curmudgeon to start, will be crushed, his mother, left alone. All for pride and ego. His slave wife laments, pleads with him to consider those very consequences: she will be called names, taken into servitude by another, her son will also fall into slavery, the pain and sorrow that will be visited upon his parents, and her absence of a country. She will belong no where. "Not to remember kindness is to be called no longer noble." Attempting to shame him is in vain. Ajax takes his own life with the sword given him by his enemy.

Then there is the issue with the prophet, Calchas, more or less a side issue of which we hear little. If Ajax lives, Calchas will be called a false prophet. If Jeanie Dixon lived in this time, her purse would no doubt be much lighter, and after a time, she would have no need of it. One wrong prediction and you're out, it seems. But, alas, we know that Ajax will die.

And is this play really about the death of Ajax? Or is it about something else? Odysseus, marked for death by Ajax before Athena's spell, is his arch enemy, the possessor of the coveted weapon of Achilles. It is Odysseus that prevents Agamemnon from following protocol and meting out proper posthumous punishment upon Ajax (tossing him out to become carrion for the birds as a symbol of the animals Ajax slaughtered). Odysseus argues for his proper burial and for the restoration of his reputation as a valiant warrior for the state. Some today would say that it was a wise political move. He is defending a man who denounced the need for intervention of the gods, preferring instead to serve himself instead. Blasphemy? Perhaps fearlessness instead. As we are told, "There is no law in a city where there is no fear, no order in any camp that is not fenced about with discipline and respect." It is implied that these orders, this means of governing, comes from the gods, and only a fool defies the gods. I'm not advocating force (not at all) as a means of expressing ones individuality, but anything counter to the state, even passive resistance, seems to be a crime not only against government but against the gods. Perhaps Ajax found his own god deep within himself.

I have many more thoughts, but I feel a re-reading is in order before those thoughts are expressed. Good play. Shake-my-head-in-wonder play.

Till later...