He must not be seen! I will cover his body, I will wrap him completely in my mantle. No one who loved him could bear to see the dark blood pouring from his nostrils and the raw wound in his breast.So declared Tekmessa when she discovered the body of her dead lover Ajax in an Athenian tragedy by the playwright Sophokles. Ajax was one of the greatest of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. The tragic circumstances surrounding his suicide were recounted in epic poetry now lost to us, but Athenian vase-painters in the early 400s B.C. frequently drew on this tradition for depictions of his death.The interior of this red-figure cup attributed to the Brygos Painter shows Ajax impaled on his sword and Tekmessa running to cover the body. The gaping mouth and open eyes indicate death, and blood flows from the wound. In a unique representation of the suicide, the sword enters through his back rather than the more natural position through the stomach. Beneath Ajax, the Brygos Painter attempted to convey the texture of the pebble beach where Ajax went to die.The exterior of the cup presents the events leading to Ajax's suicide. When Achilles was killed, Ajax saved his body from the Trojans and expected to be rewarded with Achilles? armor. However, Odysseus also claimed the armor. One side of this cup shows the two heroes quarreling, while on the other side, the Greek leaders vote on which hero should be awarded Achilles' armor. The opponents sit on either side of a table with uneven piles of stones. Odysseus wins by one vote, and the despondent Ajax clutches his bowed head.