Aias (Greek: 'Αίας': 'Of the Earth'), or Ajax, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, a legendary hero of ancient Greece. To distinguish him from Aias, son of Oileus, he was called Aias the Great or Telamonian Aias. In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature and colossal frame, second only to Achilles in strength and bravery, and the 'bulwark of the Achaeans'. He is the cousin of Achilles, the most remembered Greek warrior. And he too was trained by the centaur Chiron (who had also trained his father, Hercules, and Achilles' father Peleus), at the same time as Achilles was. Outshined only by his cousin, Ajax was the most valuable king in the battlefield, though not as smart as Nestor, Idomeneus, or, of course, Odysseus. He commanded his army wielding a great axe and a huge shield, always accompanied by the prince Teucer. He was indeed a great asset to king Agamemnon's army. He is not wounded in any of the battles described in the Iliad, and he is the only principal character on either side who does not receive personal assistance from any of the gods who take part in the battles. As such, he embodies the virtues of hard work and perseverance.

During the Trojan War, Ajax fought with Hector twice. The first time was in a duel, where nobody won, and lasted throughout a whole day, until they finished it, and exchanged presents. The second occasion happened when Hector broke into the Achaean camp, and fought Ajax in the ships, when he almost killed Hector, by throwing a rock bigger than the Trojan king at him. Later, Hector would regain his strength and make an assault that almost finished the war. Both of these encounters happened when Achilles wasn't on the battlefield, because he was angered with Agamemnon. He did manage to kill a lot of other Trojan lords, including Phorkys.

When Patroklos died, the Trojans tried to steal his body and feed him to the dogs, accusing him of being a liar. Ajax is the man who fought to protect the body, and take it back safely to the camp, back to Achilles, his best friend and lover. Ajax succeeds in fighting off the Trojans and taking the body back with his chariot; of course, the Trojans had already stolen the armor and left the body naked. Part of this success is because of Ajax's prayer to Zeus to remove the fog from the battle.

Later, when Achilles dies, killed by Paris, Ajax and Odysseus are the heroes that fight against the Trojans to get the body and bury it next to his lover, Patroklos. Ajax, with his great axe, manages to get the Trojans away, while Odysseus pulls the body towards his chariot, and rides away. Later, after the burial, both claim the armor for themselves, as recognition for their efforts. But in the end, after some discussion, Odysseus is given the armor. Ajax is furious about it, and falls to the ground, exhausted. When he wakes up, he becomes mad and goes to a group of sheep, and slaughters them, imagining they're the Trojan leaders, as well as Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, and realises what he did, he decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than to live in shame. He did it with the same sword Hector had given him when they exchanged presents. (Odyssey, xi. 541). From his blood sprang a red flower, as at the death of Hyacinthus, which bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name Ai, also expressive of lament (Pausanias i. 35. 4). His ashes were deposited in a golden urn on the Rhoetean promontory at the entrance of the Hellespont.

The foregoing account of his death is from the Ajax of Sophocles; in Pindar's "Nemea", 7; and in Ovid, Metamorphoses, xiii. 1. Homer is somewhat vague about the precise manner of Ajax's death but does ascribe it to his loss in the dispute over Achilles's armour: when Odysseus meets his soul in Hades, Ajax still refuses to speak to him.

Like Achilles, he is represented (although not by Homer) as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube (Pausanias iii. 19. 11). Aias, who in the post-Homeric legend is described as the grandson of Aeacus and the great-grandson of Zeus, was the tutelary hero of the island of Salamis, where he had a temple and an image, and where a festival called Aianteia was celebrated in his honour (Pausanias i. 35). At this festival a couch was set up, on which the panoply of the hero was placed, a practice which recalls the Roman lectisternium. The identification of Aias with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad (book ii. 557 or 558), for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island. Aias then became an Attic hero; he was worshipped at Athens, where he had a statue in the market-place, and the tribe Aiantis was called after his name.

Many illustrious Athenians -- Cimon, Miltiades, Alcibiades, the historian Thucydides -- traced their descent from Aias.

Homer. Iliad VII, 181-312; Homer. Odyssey XI, 543-67; Apollodorus. Epitome III , 11-V, 7; Ovid. Metamorphoses XII, 620-XIII, 398.

The laundry detergent brand Ajax's slogan is "Stronger than dirt", presumably in the mythological reference.