# Archaeologists uncover the palace of Ajax **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 28, 2006, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222 "2006-03-28T06:39:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/1 "2006-03-28T06:39:24Z")
An interesting [story](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2106548,00.html) in _The Times_. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/2 "2006-03-28T06:44:43Z")
Bet it’s a real clean place… ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/3 "2006-03-28T06:46:23Z")
Incredible, so exciting. Amazing that the myth becomes reality. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/4 "2006-03-28T12:13:48Z")
Before I click the link I must know if it’s Ajax the Greater or Ajax the Lesser. The lesser simply is not worth of my intrest or perusal. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/5 "2006-03-28T12:30:15Z")
Skeptic here. Until they discover some _real_ indication of the ownership [say an inscription] it is simply an interesting Mycenean vintage palace that was abandoned or fell in the rough era _WE_ attribute the Illiad to. It may or may not be the palace of Ajax. But it is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/6 "2006-03-28T12:43:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Bet it’s a real clean place… I woulda said that if you hadn’t. J.B. Handelsman once drew a picture of the fighting before Troy, with a fighting can of Ajax cleanser in the background. It’s not just our modern world that has a warped image of “Ajax”. In Shakespeare’s time a _jakes_ meant the toilet (“jakes” = “john”), so _Ajax_ = _A Jakes_ was the source of a lot of coarse punning. (See Eric Partidge’s “Shakespeare’s Bawdy”) I’m convinced that it was because of this sort of this that Fitzgerald made all his transliterations of the Greek deliberately as far from the Latin versions as possible. So the hero’s name came out as _Aias_, and when I read his Iliad and Odyssey translations I didn’t picture fighting cans of foaming cleanser. Put me in the camp of Skeptics. The mask of Agamemnon wasn’t of him, and my understandin is that people got skeptical about the grave of Philip of Macedon they supposed found, after they calmed down a little. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/7 "2006-03-28T15:03:59Z")
Yeah, no mention of any inscriptions with his name or anything. I’m certain anyone owning a palace on Salamis would have claimed Ajax (the Greater) as an ancestor, but I doubt we’ll ever find historical proof of the man himself. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-uncover-the-palace-of-ajax/350222/8 "2006-03-28T15:05:20Z")
Sorry, just read the post above. **Cal** , do you mean the toms at Vergina? Those are totally accepted as the tombs of the Macedonian royal family. There’s some discussions as to whose tomb is Philip’s, whose is Philip Arrhidaus and so on, however.