Ajax here alludes to the long-standing story that Ulysses tried to avoid the war by pretending to be insane. When the Greek Palamedes goes to fetch him, Ulysses yokes a donkey and an ox together to plow his field, which he then begins to sow with salt. His true sanity is revealed when Palamedes sets Ulysses’ baby, Telemachus, down in front of the plow, and Ulysses stops it before overrunning his son. In retaliation, Ulysses later frames Palamedes for treason, for which he is stoned to death.
