Ajax

Second only to Achilles and the army’s great defensive fighter — the towering shield, the duel with Hector ended by nightfall and exchanged gifts — Ajax broke when the dead Achilles’ armor was awarded to Odysseus by vote. Athena turned his night of vengeance onto the herds; waking in the slaughter, he chose the sword given him by Hector. Sophocles’ Ajax, in this library, plays out the madness, the deception speech, and the army’s divided verdict over his burial.