Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis Amphiktyon
The Greeks did not only produce great philosophers, technologists, sculptors, poets, mathematicians, physicists, but also glorious gods. But they primarily produced great heroes who glorified the country. Thanks to them, it still remains free. The civil Trojan War highlighted heroic figures such as Achilles of the Achaeans and Hector of the Trojans, but two namesake leaders of the Greeks showed particular bravery and distinguished themselves in battles against the others. These were Ajax the Telamonian and Ajax the Locrian The father of Ajax, named Telamon, was the son of Actaeus and Glauce, daughter of Critheus, and a friend of Peleus. However, he is thought to be the son of Ajax and brother of Peleus, and he was also expelled from Aegina by Ajax, but was accepted by Cychreus, whom he succeeded on the throne. of Salamis. He took Periboia of Alcathos as his wife and they gave birth to Ajax. Then he came to the Troad with Heracles, took Hesione as his wife and gave birth to Teucer, brother of Ajax. He took part in the Calydonian Boar Gate and in the Argonaut expedition to Colchis. Ajax was an infant when Heracles came to the island, took him in his arms and covered him with the lion’s mane and that is why he was invulnerable.. It is said that he was vulnerable only in the neck or side. Then he gave him the lion’s mane to wear, and Ajax was called the Great Telamonian and Salaminian. He was more famous than Ajax of Locri. Both were suitors of Helen. Ajax Telamonian went to Troy with twelve ships and was the bravest of all the Heroes after Achilles. 1/ He was sent to the Thracian peninsula to bring food and forced Polymestor to hand over Polydorus, the son of Priam, and with him a lot of money, enough to feed the army for a year. 2/ He came to Phrygia and killed Teuthrantes in a duel, captured his city, a lot of loot and his daughter Tekmisan. 3/ He killed twenty-eight (28) Trojan officials. 4/ He fought a duel with Hector and after throwing the spears, he fought with huge stones. However, the gods separated them and Ajax emerged from the duel braver. Then they reconciled and exchanged gifts, and Hector gave Ajax a sword, and Ajax gave him a belt (telamon). However, these gifts proved disastrous for both, because with this belt Achilles dragged Hector dead from his chariot, and Ajax killed him with that sword. After the death of Achilles, he quarreled with Odysseus about his weapons, because he had saved them in the lopsided battle for the body of Achilles and brought him to the camp. Finally, they asked the Trojan prisoners who had harmed them more, and they answered that Odysseus with his cunning had done more harm than Ajax with his valor. Thus, Odysseus received the weapons. From this Ajax fell into melancholy and contempt, and abandoned virtue and threw it into vice. Finally, he became a maniac and slaughtered sheep thinking that he was slaughtering the Greeks. He tied the ram of the flock by the horns thinking that it was Odysseus and defiantly took it to his tent, whipping it. Sophocles wrote the tragedy “Ajax the Whipbearer” and says that he killed himself in a rage. Much is said about his death, that Agamemnon, Menelaus and Odysseus secretly killed him at night, or that Paris wounded him in battle and he died bleeding in his tent. The Trojans received an oracle to cover him with clay because he was invulnerable and were very afraid of his boldness and bravery. All Hellenism wept for his death and Odysseus, repenting, wept bitterly and placed Achilles’ weapons on his body. The Athenian Menestheus delivered the funeral oration. He was buried on the cape of Troas opposite the tomb of Achilles, and an epigraph was even found: “….Aias, on the tomb of the Achaeans, has a great burden of anger, like the Achaeans…”. Aias was large and tall, so that the other heroes could reach his shoulder. The Phrygians said that the sea washed away the bone spur of his knee, which was as big as a disk. He was broad-chested, black-haired, dark-skinned, loud-mouthed and brilliant-voiced, he had serious eyes and a beautiful beard, and finally his character was handsome, but when he was angry he was terrible. They say that he was angry, strict and indifferent to the gods (he was not a god-fearing person) and that his father Telamon advised him about it. He never He agreed to rob a murdered opponent. He said, “To kill the enemy is a man’s work, to seize his weapons is a robber’s work.” He was a close friend of Achilles and Palamides and was never envious of others. When he suffered a crisis and became manic, everyone helped him and asked for advice from the oracles. Proof of his worth are the many names they gave him: Aeacus, Arieus, Antitheus, Amymon, Autosphagis, Atarbetos, Varis, Bougaeus Daephron, Diogenes, Thrasys, Thurius, Karteros, Karterothymus, Megas, Megalitor, Omrimus, Pelorius, Sakesphorus, Telamonius, Trikoribus, Pheraspis. From Glauce the Trojan, he begat Eurysaces, while from Temes the Phrygian, he begat Aeacus. Eurysaces begat Philaeon, who came to Athens and became an Athenian citizen. He gave Salamis to the Athenians, and from him descended Miltiades and Alcibiades, who was also called Eurysaces. Ajax was honored by the Salamis as a god. There is also a flower in Salamis called Ajaxion and has the shape of “Aia”, and the city of Athens named a tribe of Attica “Aiantis” in his honor. The phenomenon of Ajax is often repeated in glorious Greeks who at the end of their lives destroy their glorious work. The hero of the 1940 war and winner of the Battle of Kalpakion, General Katsimitros Charalambos, commander of the VIII Division, later served as minister of the occupation government of Tsolakoglou (April 1941 until September of the same year). After the liberation on May 31, 1945, H. Katsimitros was sentenced by the special court of dosilogos, “in the form of a pardon” (kathirxi) to 5.5 years “for the facilitations” he provided to the Occupation forces as a minister of the occupation government and was demoted to the rank of soldier. However, on 5 Oct. 1949, by decree of King Paul, the remainder of his sentence was pardoned and in 1953 he was retroactively reinstated with the reinstatement of his rank, that of lieutenant general in retirement and all his decorations. Both were posthumously vindicated for their heroic exploits. Therefore, it is correct that “nothing before the end was blessed” that Solon said about Croesus (1/2/25)
* Amphiktyon is Konstantinos Konstantinidis
General of the Greek Army, Writer,
Member of the Society of Greek Writers
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