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Lot Essay
Also known as Menelaos or sometimes Hercules, the present busts of Ajax are taken from the Antique group depicting the hero carrying the body of the dying Patroclus, fatally wounded by Hector, as recounted in Homer's Iliad, books XVI and XVII. Thought to be replicas of a Pergamene original dating from between 240 and 230 B.C., three versions of the group exist and are to be found on the Piazza del Pasquino, Rome and in the Loggia dei Lanzi and the Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
The myth of Ajax relates that the Greek hero, disappointed at having lost his claim to Achilles' weapons following the latter's death, went insane and killed himself. After his death he was transformed into a flower, in this case a larkspur, though in Poussin's 'Garden of Flora' (now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden) he is depicted as a carnation.
The myth of Ajax relates that the Greek hero, disappointed at having lost his claim to Achilles' weapons following the latter's death, went insane and killed himself. After his death he was transformed into a flower, in this case a larkspur, though in Poussin's 'Garden of Flora' (now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden) he is depicted as a carnation.