Aias is considered the oldest of Sophocles’ surviving tragedies. The central eponymous figure of the drama is the quintessential Homeric hero. Honor is of primary importance to him, as he himself states. The sense of honor, dignity is inherent in the concept of existence. He who has lost his honor is equivalent to dead.
The principles of Aedan are firm, unwavering and unquestionable. The hero, therefore, believes that he has suffered a grave insult, because he did not win the highest honor of being awarded the weapons of Achilles in the famous “crisis of weapons”, of which Odysseus emerged as the winner. Therefore, Aedas plans to take bloodthirsty revenge on his former allies (the Atreides and Odysseus). But he becomes the pride of the goddess Athena and the laughingstock of the Argive army.