Was Ajax real? Hell no. But don’t let that get in the way of a good story. It makes a good tease as the title for archaeological articles a great many might otherwise pay no attention to. Recently, an ancient palace was unearthed on the island of Miletus, some miles from the coast of Greece near Athens, attesting to the reality of the island kingdom of some formidable power during the height of Mychaenaean Greed times, which preceeded that era known as Classical greece.
Of course it has long been pretty much known that Miletus was at one time a thriving, powerful kingdom in the region during the time in question, no one ever disputed that. But this discovery is hardly proof of the existence of a giant warrior king and hero who, after falling into a quarrel with other Greek leaders during the height of the Trojan War, purportedly committed suicide.
However, something interesting seems to have transpired. Prior to the eventual fall of the Mychaenaean Kingdoms, the people of Miletus, for whatever reason, migrated to the island of Cyprus, whereupon arriving there they founded a town named after their former kingdom, which retains the name Miletus to this day.
So, is their some truth behind the symbolic story of Ajax and his demise? Was his suicide actually a coded and vaque reference to the peoples abandonment of the island? As it happens, it was mainly the aristocratic people of the island who left for Cyprus, the poorer peasants to a great extent seem to have remained behind. The reasons for the departure seems to have been due to some trouble with a foreign interloper, though this seems not to have been traced back to either the time of the “Peoples Of The Sea” (who ravaged the entire Mediterranean coast and ultimately settled in Philistea after being finally repulsed by the Egyptians) nor does it seem to coincide with the overall fall and demise of the Mychaenaean Kingdoms in general.
Who were their enemies then? The Mychaenaeans themselves? All that is known for a fact is that they dissappearred and did indeed migrate to Cyprus, as enough architectural evidence, in the way of textiles and jewelry, etc., has been found to confirm this.
As of this writing, however, no news of any giant sarcophagus. Probably after I post this I will receive some news of the discovery of the name Ajax, but I’m ready for ‘em.
AJAX : Ancient title roughly translated as a “King” or other such royal office holder of the ancient Mychaenaean city state of Miletus.
