Ajax the Lesser in Greek works of art, such as the chest of Cypselus described by Pausanias and in extant works. Ajax the Lesser Ajax ( "Aias") was a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris. He was called the "lesser" or "Locrian" Ajax, to distinguish him from Ajax the Great, son of Telamon. He was the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War. He is a significant figure in Homer's "Iliad" and is also mentioned in the "Odyssey", in Virgil's "Aeneid" and in Euripides' "The Trojan Women". In Etruscan legend, he was known as "Aivas Vilates". Ajax's
Greek hero cult heroines as similar in kind to heroes, but in androcentric Greek culture, typically of lesser stature. Whitley distinguishes four or five essential types of hero cult: Hero cults could be of the utmost political importance. When Cleisthenes divided the Athenians into new demes for voting, he consulted Delphi on what heroes he should name each division after. According to Herodotus, the Spartans attributed their conquest of Arcadia to their theft of the bones of Orestes from the Arcadian town of Tegea. Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods. Thus Heracles's name means "the glory of