Walton provides an overview of Sophocles's play, identifying the major characters and plot motivations.

After the death of Achilles in the war against Troy, the Greek hero's arms were awarded to Odysseus rather than to Ajax who believed he had deserved them. Intent on revenge for the slight, Ajax is diverted from his purpose by the goddess Athena who drives him mad so that he kills and tortures sheep and cattle, seeing them as his Greek enemies. When he returns to sanity, shame at what he has done impels him to commit suicide. Odysseus pleads with Agamemnon and Menelaus for Ajax to be treated with the respect due to a hero and eventually wins his point.

Ajax is the only Sophocles play, with the arguable exception of Philoctetes, in which a god or goddess appears. Traditionally a devout man. Sophocles proposes a theological standpoint which is more...