AJAX OILEUS, or the Lesser Ajax, was a son of the King of Locri, whose subjects he led before Troy, contributing a contingent of forty ships. In boldness he was in the first rank among the Greeks there, equal to make a stand against Hector, and swift of foot next to Achilles. But, compared with the other leaders, he is impatient and overbearing. Like the Telamonian Ajax, he appears as an enemy of Ulysses, and as the victim of Athena’s vengeance. It was due to her influence that he, known for his speed, lost the race with Ulysses at the games in honour of Patroclus (Iliad, xxiii. 754-784); and again it was through her that on his return homeward his ship was wrecked upon the mythical Gyraean rock (Odyssey, iv. 499). As it stands in later story, he had drawn down Athena’s anger by his assault upon Cassandra at the image of the goddess. Ulysses charged him with this offence, and demanded that he should be stoned. But, according to another version of the legend, he had only carried her off to his tent without any harm, when Agamemnon took her from him, and spread a report that Athena would destroy the whole army unless Ajax were slain; upon which, thinking of the unjust verdict given against his namesake, he went to sea in a frail vessel and perished. The news was received in the camp with grief, a funeral pile was erected on the ship which had conveyed him to Troy, sacrifice was offered, and when the evening wind came on, the burning ship was cut adrift. (a. s. μ.)