Odyssey 4.499 · Book 4, lines 499–503
Ajax against the gods
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Αἴας μὲν μετὰ νηυσὶ δάμη δολιχηρέτμοισι. Γυρῇσίν μιν πρῶτα Ποσειδάων ἐπέλασσεν πέτρῃσιν μεγάλῃσι καὶ ἐξεσάωσε θαλάσσης· καί νύ κεν ἔκφυγε κῆρα καὶ ἐχθόμενός περ Ἀθήνῃ, εἰ μὴ ὑπερφίαλον ἔπος ἔκβαλε καὶ μέγʼ ἀάσθη·
Ajax was slain among his long-oared ships. First Poseidon drove him onto the Gyrae, the great rocks, and saved him from the sea; and he would have escaped his doom, hated though he was by Athena, had he not hurled an arrogant word and was greatly blinded—
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The setting
Proteus names the first of the two who died on the return: Ajax son of Oïleus, the ‘lesser’ Ajax. Poseidon had already saved him from shipwreck, casting him up on the Gyraean rocks — and he would have lived, but for his own mouth.
A note on this passage
The first death. Ajax was wrecked among his ships, but Poseidon drove him safe onto the great rocks and pulled him from the sea. He should have survived, even hated as he was by Athena — except that he threw out a boast and was struck with ruin.
The undercurrent is the word ἀάσθη, ‘he was blinded’ — the mental blindness the Greeks called atē, a delusion the gods send or a man walks into. Poseidon had spared him; his own tongue undid the mercy. Against this the poem sets its hero: Ajax is loud and lost, Odysseus is silent and endures. Survival here turns on the mouth kept shut.
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