<DIV>Sophocles' <i>Ajax</i> is one of the most disturbing and powerful <br/>surviving ancient tragedies. But it is also difficult to understand and <br/>interpret. What are we to make of its protagonist's extremism? Does Ajax<br/> deserve the isolation and divine punishment he experiences? Why is his <br/>state of mind so difficult to determine? Dr Hesk offers answers to these<br/> and many other questions by drawing together the very latest critical <br/>work on the play and introducing the reader to key frames for its <br/>interpretation, including Sophoclean heroism, language and form; Homeric<br/> intertextuality and Athens' 'masculinist' culture, and the <br/>twentieth-century reception of <i>Ajax</i>.</div>