Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

When Zeus drives Hector and the Trojans over the ditch and wall to the ships, Telamonian Ajax holds the line. He strides the decks with a long ship-pike, stabbing down at Trojans who bring fire; he rallies the Danaans with shouts that there is no behind them but the sea. Hector reaches the ship of Protesilaus and fights Ajax hand to hand for its stern; Ajax yields ground step by step but does not flee. Exhausted, his spear battered, Ajax finally calls on Zeus and falls back enough that fire touches the ship—the signal for Patroclus to beg Achilles for the Myrmidons. Ajax’s defense is the *Iliad*’s image of stubborn excellence without Achilles: the wall of flesh that almost holds until the beloved companion’s fatal entry.