Palace of Iliad’s Ajax the Great Found.

• Nicholas Dollak
  March 31st, 2006 at 6:28 am

  Cool! However, the article mentions no artifacts confirming or implying the existence of King Ajax. These palaces often stood for centuries before falling to ruin, and were home to several kings over time. Claiming to have found “the palace of Ajax” would be a bit like finding ruins on a spot traditionally thought to have been Camelot, and claiming to have found Arthur’s castle. One may have found a castle, but without some solid archaeological evidence from the site, Arthur himself remains a powerful legend and not a flesh-&-blood man.

  The “palace of Ajax” certainly is the right age and in a plausible location. We’ve found evidence of a series of wars between Troy and the various Greek kingdoms of ancient times. (Although a beauty contest between goddesses, with Paris as judge and Helen as prize, is blamed for the war, it seems to have been caused by trade disputes. Yeah, Homer’s version is much more fun to read!) A palace, probably belonging to King Nestor, has been found, along with a drinking-cup of the correct age with an inscription that translates partly as “I am the cup of Nestor…” Unless Nestor was already a legend at the time of the inscribing, the cup might be evidence of his existence. Since the rest of the inscription is something like “He who drinks from me becomes slave to Aphrodite,” and makes no mention of Nestor’s greatness or his legendary part in the Trojan War, the cup is probably genuine, and the inscription mainly a precaution against theft.

  The artifacts found in Ajax’s palace are certainly fascinating and illustrate the wide range of locations whose goods found their way to Greece. (The armor from Rameses II may have been a gift, or may have been a black-market item, as many pharaohs’ tombs were robbed.) We need to find a sort of “Nestor’s cup,” though, before deciding that Ajax is more than a legend.

• hoo ha
  March 31st, 2006 at 8:07 am

  Dude, the Iliad is 7th century BEFORE Christ, not 13th Century. A 13th Century site would be Middle ages and probably a castle or monastery but NOT related to the Iliad.

• Alex
  March 31st, 2006 at 9:53 pm

  You’re right Hoo Ha - my mistake. Fixed in the blog entry now.

  Thanks for the input Nicholas. Yannis Lolos, the archaeologist who found the site while hiking, actually spent 5 years excavating it, with details synching up with the Iliad. However, they do not seem to have “Nestor’s cup”

Want your own avatar? Get one for free at Gravatar!