Pelops. Pindar and
Apollodorus say, that Hercules, on going to visit his friend
Telamon, prayed to Jupiter that Telamon might have a son, whose skin
should be as impenetrable as that of the Nemaean lion, which he then
wore. As he prayed, he espied an eagle; upon which, he informed his
friend that a favourable event awaited his prayer, and desired him
to call his son after the name of an eagle, which in the Greek is
+aietos+. The Scholiast on Sophocles, Suidas and Tzetzes, say
further, that when Hercules returned to see Telamon, after the birth
of Ajax, he covered him with the lion's skin, and that by this means
Ajax became invulnerable except in that spot of his body, which was
beneath the hole which the arrow of Hercules had made in the skin of
the beast.

Dictys, Suidas, and Cedrenus affirm, that the dispute of Ulysses and
Ajax Telamon was about the Palladium, to which each of them laid
claim. They add, that the Grecian nobles, having adjudged it to
Ulysses, Ajax threatened to slay them, and was found dead in his
tent the next morning; but it is more generally stated to the effect
here related by Ovid, that he killed himself, because he could not
obtain the armour of Achilles. Filled with grief and anger combined,
he became distracted; and after falling on some flocks, which in his
madness he took for enemies, he at last stabbed himself with the
sword which he had received from Hector. This account has been
followed by Euripides, in his tragedy on the subject of the death of
Ajax; and Homer seems to allude to this story, when he makes Ulysses
say, that on his descent to the Infernal Regions, the shades of all
the Grecian heroes immediately met him, except that of Ajax, whose
resentment at their former dispute about the armour of Achilles was
still so warm, that he would not come near him. The Scholiast on
Homer, and Eustathius, say that Agamemnon being much embarrassed how
to behave in a dispute which might have proved fatal to the Grecian
cause, ordered the Trojan prisoners to come before the council to
give their opinion, as to which of them had done the most mischief;
and that they answered in favour of Ulysses. The Scholiast on
Aristophanes also adds, that Agamemnon, not satisfied with this
enquiry, sent out spies to know what was the opinion of the Trojans
on the relative merits of Ulysses and Ajax; and that upon their
report, he decided