Iliad 7

Up to now, Diomedes has been the hero who comes closest to Achilles in competing for the title ‘best of the Achaeans’. Here in Rhapsody 7, however, the focus shifts to Ajax, who responds to the challenge of Hector to fight in a duel the one hero among all the Achaeans who is truly the ‘best of the Achaeans’. As we know from the overall references to Ajax in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, this hero is considered to be the second-best of the Achaeans in both epics. So, it does not bode well for Hector that, in his duel with Ajax, he cannot succeed beyond fighting such a hero to a draw. If Hector can do no better than fight to a draw the second-best of the Achaeans, he is surely doomed when the time comes for him to face the very best of the Achaeans in Rhapsody 22.

Hector and Ajax separated by heralds, pen and ink drawing by John Flaxman, 1790’s Victoria and Albert Museum