Ajax Carries Achilles’ Body from the Fight (*Aethiopis*)

Ajax Carries Achilles’ Body from the Fight (Aethiopis)

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/229-ajax-carries-achilles-body-aethiopis

Cycle: Trojan — Epic Cycle / *Aethiopis* / death of Achilles aftermath

Version line: Cyclic — Ajax bears the corpse while Odysseus covers the retreat

Sources: Proclus, summary of the *Aethiopis*; Apollodorus, *Epitome* 5.4; cf. *Odyssey* 5.308–312, 24.37–42 (Achilles’ fall remembered)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/229-ajax-carries-achilles-body-aethiopis.md

Characters

Ajax — dead; body contested
Ajax son of Telamon — carries Achilles’ body
Pallas — later sets the arms as prize
Spartans — try to seize the corpse
Telemachus — fights off Trojans during the recovery

Places

Achaean council — destination of the body
Assembly — Scaean Gates / battlefield

Themes

Narrative

When Paris and Apollo bring Achilles down at the Scaean Gates (or in the press before Troy), a fierce fight breaks out over the body and the god-made armor. In the cyclic summary Ajax Telamonius lifts Achilles’ corpse and carries it toward the ships while Odysseus holds back the Trojans. The Achaeans thus recover their greatest hero’s body for mourning; Thetis and the Nereids lament; the Muses sing; then Thetis offers the arms as prize, and the fatal contest between Ajax and Odysseus begins. The tableau—Ajax as bearer, Odysseus as fighter—prefigures the judgment that will destroy Ajax: the same pair who saved Achilles’ body will quarrel over Achilles’ panoply.