Ajax the Lesser Ajax ( ) was a Greek mythological hero , son of Oileus , the king of Locris . He was called the " lesser " or " Locrian " Ajax , to distinguish him from Ajax the Great , son of Telamon . He was the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War . He is a significant figure in Homer ' s " Iliad " and is also mentioned in the " Odyssey " and Virgil ' s " Aeneid " . In Etruscan legend , he was known as " Aivas Vilates " . Mythology . His mother ' s name was Eriopis . According to Strabo , he was born in Naryx in Locris , where Ovid calls him " Narycius Heroes " . According to the " Iliad " , he led his Locrians in forty ships against Troy . He is described as one of the great heroes among the Greeks . When the grammatical dual form of Ajax is used in the " Iliad " , it was once believed that it indicated the lesser Ajax fighting side - by - side with Telamonian Ajax , but now it is generally thought that that usage refers to the Greater Ajax and his brother Teucer . In battle , he wore a linen cuirass ( ) , was brave and intrepid , especially skilled in throwing the spear and , next to Achilles , the swiftest of all the Greeks . In the funeral games at the pyre of Patroclus , he contended with Odysseus and Antilochus for the prize in the footrace ; but Athena , who was hostile towards him and favored Odysseus , made him stumble and fall , so that he won only the second prize . On his return from Troy , his vessel was wrecked on the Whirling Rocks ( ) , but he himself escaped upon a rock through the assistance of Poseidon and would have been saved in spite of Athena , but he said that he would escape the dangers of the sea in defiance of the immortals . In punishment for this presumption , Poseidon split the rock with his trident and Ajax was swallowed up by the sea . In later traditions , this Ajax is called a son of Oileus and the nymph Rhene and is also mentioned among the suitors of Helen . After the taking of Troy , it is said he rushed into the temple of Athena , where Cassandra had taken refuge , and was embracing the statue of the goddess in supplication . Ajax violently dragged her away to the other captives . According to some writers , he even raped Cassandra inside the temple . Odysseus , at least , accused him of this crime and Ajax was to be stoned to death , but saved himself by establishing his innocence with an oath . The whole charge was sometimes said to have been an invention of Agamemnon , who wanted to have Cassandra for himself . Death . Whether true or not , Athena still had cause to be indignant , as Ajax had dragged a supplicant from her temple . According to the " Bibliotheca " , no one had realised that Ajax had raped Cassandra until Calchas , the Greek seer , warned the Greeks that Athena was furious at the treatment of her priestess and she would destroy the Greek ships if they didn ' t kill him immediately . Despite this , Ajax managed to hide in the altar of an unnamed deity where the Greeks , fearing divine retribution should they kill him and destroy the altar , allowed him to live . When the Greeks left without killing Ajax , despite their sacrifices Athena became so angry that she persuaded Zeus to send a storm that sank many of their ships . When Ajax finally left Troy , Athena hit his ship with a thunderbolt , but Ajax still survived , managing to cling onto a rock . He boasted that even the gods could not kill him and Poseidon , upon hearing this , split the rock with his trident , causing Ajax to eventually drown . Thetis buried him when the corpse washed up on Myconos . Other versions depict a different death for Ajax , showing him dying when on his voyage home . In these versions , when Ajax came to the Capharean Rocks on the coast of Euboea , his ship was wrecked in a fierce storm , he himself was lifted up in a whirlwind and impaled with a flash of rapid fire from Athena in his chest , and his body thrust upon sharp rocks , which afterwards were called the rocks of Ajax . After his death his spirit dwelt in the island of Leuce . The Opuntian Locrians worshiped Ajax as their national hero , and so great was their faith in him that when they drew up their army in battle , they always left one place open for him , believing that , although invisible to them , he was fighting for and among them . The story of Ajax was frequently made use of by ancient poets and artists , and the hero who appears on some Locrian coins with the helmet , shield , and sword is probably this Ajax . Other accounts of his death are offered by Philostratus and the scholiast on Lycophron . Art . The abduction of Cassandra by Ajax was frequently represented in Greek works of art , for instance on the chest of Cypselus described by Pausanias and in extant works .