TecmessaTecmessa was the daughter of Teuthras (Teleutas), king of Phrygia. Tecmessa's fate was very similar to that of Briseis.
Ajax, son of Telamon and Periboea, defeated Phrygia during the Trojan War and slew Teuthras. Ajax then took Tecmessa as a concubine, or "spoil of war."
Robert Bell describes Ajax as "strong, large, and very handsome, and he was characterized as calm, self-controlled, benevolent, and god-fearing" (Bell, 410).
When Achilles fell, his armor was to go to the man who inspired the most fear among the Trojans. Whether due to jealousy, or persuaded by Odysseus' eloquence, or due to Athena's intervention, the armor went to Odysseus.
Ajax was so outraged that he went insane, and that very night he killed the food supply (a herd of sheep) of the Greeks, imagining them to be the Trojan enemy.
The next morning he realized what he had done, and decided to kill himself with his sword.
Sophocles, in Aiax, states that Tecmessa appealed in vain to Ajax not to commit suicide (Gantz, 630-1).
Nevertheless, Tecmessa was left alone with a son, Eurysaces, she had borne Ajax.
Teucer, Ajax's half-brother, left Tecmessa and Eurysaces in Troy and went to return Ajax's body to Telamon, his father. Telamon consequently exiled Teucer to Cyprus for not having avenged his half-brother's death (Bell, 411).
The fate of Tecmessa is disputed. Some say that she died in Troy, and others say that she journeyed with Eurysaces to Salamis.
Either way, Eurysaces was later honored with an altar in Athens (Bell, 411).
Horace, in Liber II, Ode IV, of Carminum, remarks upon the relationship between Tecmessa and Ajax as an example of love between different social stations. In the ode, Horace states that loving people of lower social stations is not wrong, for even Ajax, a great warrior, loved a captive woman.
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(1)Ne sit ancillae tibi amor
pudori, Xanthia Phoceu. Prius insolentem serva Briseis niveo colore movit Achillem; movit Aiacem Telamone natum forma captivae dominum Tecmessae; arsit Atrides medio in triumpho virgine rapta, barbarae postquam cecidere turmae Thessalo victore et ademptus Hector tradidit fessis leviora tolli Pergama Grais. |
Do not let love of your handmaiden [make you] shameful, Xanthias of Phocis. Before the slave Briseis of snow-colored complexion moved insolent Achilles; the form of captive Tecmessa moved her master, Ajax, son of Telamon; Atrides in the middle of triumph had burned in love for a captive maiden, when the barbrous troops had fallen to the Thessalian victor [Achilles], and Hector surrendered Troy, easier to be defeated, to the weary Greeks. |