Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Eurysaces.
The gallery
Tekemessa and Eurysakes
Henry Fuseli, c. 1800–1810
Fuseli's drawing of Tecmessa with the child Eurysaces — the son named for Ajax's broad shield. In Sophocles the doomed hero entrusts the boy and the shield before his suicide; Romantic pathos keeps mother and heir at the edge of that farewell.
In play
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Ajax
Sophocles
Ajax places the great shield in Eurysaces' hands and bids Tecmessa guard the child — the Salaminian heir who later rules the island and turns Teucer away.
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Eurysaces
Son of Ajax and Tecmessa; king of Salamis and namesake of his father's shield — not the Roman baker whose tomb borrows the name.