After the death of Achilles his arms were awarded not to Ajax, who thought them his due, but to Odysseus. Ajax nursed his injured pride and then went out by night to avenge himself upon Odysseus and the Atridae and all the Greeks who had insulted him. But Athena, the patron of Odysseus, sent a mad delusion upon him so that he wreaked his vengeance upon flocks and herds, taking animals for men. Some he killed, but the ram he thought to be Odysseus was reserved for torture. When he came to his senses and realized what he had done, he saw nothing for it but to take his own life. The Atridae then forbade him to be buried. Despite the protests of his brother Teucer, this inhuman decree would have been carried out, if it had not been for the generosity of Odysseus who secured his burial.

That, in broad outline, is the story told in the Ajax of Sophocles. It has its revolting aspects and the main character is, on the bare facts as stated, neither attractive nor laudable. If the grimness is offset by the pathos of Tecmessa, by the loyalty of Teucer perhaps, and certainly by the generosity of Odysseus, Ajax, on the other hand, seems to earn his disastrous fate by his own conduct. Towards the gods he is arrogant; towards men he is treacherous and cruel, going out by night to attack and kill the Greeks, torturing a ram in the belief that it was Odysseus. Yet the interpretation of the play and of its central figure is vexed.