"Written in the fifth century BC, Sophocles' tragedy concerns the shame and death of Ajax, a Greek who had won fame for his prodigious strength in the Trojan War. A brutal farewell to the valor and values of the heroic world, the play moves through a series of reversals: old allies become enemies, honor becomes disgrace, and divine power becomes temporal authority." "Formally terse, this translation conveys the force and urgency of Sophocles' Greek."--BOOK JACKET.