SOURCE: Ringer, Marc. “Ajax: The Staging of a Hero.” In Electra and the Empty Urn: Metatheater and Role Playing in Sophocles, pp. 31-49. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

In the following excerpt, Ringer explores the metatheatrical elements of the Ajax as well as Sophocles's technique for depicting his hero as a displaced man full of contradictions.

Ajax is generally considered the earliest of the seven surviving Sophoclean tragedies, probably composed sometime between the 450s to mid 440s. Whatever its actual date of composition, it is arguably Sophocles' most original work, a construct of dazzling ingenuity. Dramatic suspense is created and sustained through the subtle manipulation of tragic convention and from several almost unparalleled violations of expected dramaturgical practice. Above all, Ajax is a profoundly metatheatrical work, often calling attention to its own status as a tragedy performed in the Theater of Dionysus. This vital metatheatrical...