Metamorphoses · Chapter
Death of Ajax explained
Ajax, unable to bear his grief and rage after losing the contest for Achilles' armor to Ulysses, takes his own life with his sword.
What happens
Ajax, unable to bear his grief and rage after losing the contest for Achilles' armor to Ulysses, takes his own life with his sword. His blood transforms into a hyacinth flower, bearing markings that resemble his name and the cries of grief.
Themes in this chapter
Transformation and Metamorphosis
Ajax's blood transforms into a hyacinth flower, a direct metamorphosis marking his death.
Violence and Revenge
Ajax's suicide is an act of self-directed violence born from rage and wounded pride.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“He who could often, and alone, withstand / The foe, the fire, and Jove’s own partial hand, / Now cannot his unmaster’d grief sustain, / But yields to rage, to madness, and disdain”
Ajax, who had bravely faced enemies, fire, and even Jupiter's favor, is now overwhelmed by grief and gives in to fury and despair.
Highlights Ajax's fall from heroic resilience to suicidal madness.
“The fruitful blood produced a flower, which grew / On a green stem, and of a purple hue: / Like his, whom unaware Apollo slew: / Inscribed in both, the letters are the same, / But those express the grief, and these the name.”
Ajax's blood gives rise to a purple hyacinth, similar to the flower from the youth Apollo killed; both bear markings, one spelling out grief and the other Ajax's name.
Describes the metamorphosis of Ajax's blood into a flower with symbolic inscriptions.