Thus driven from his own country Idomeneus sailed westward until he came
to the southern coast of Italy, where he founded the city and colony of
Sal-lenʹtia, and lived to an extreme old age.
The fate of Ajax Oileus, king of Locris, was almost as terrible as that
of Agamemnon. On the night of the destruction of Troy he had cruelly
ill-treated the princess Cassandra, whom he dragged from the altar of
the temple of Minerva, to which she had fled for refuge. Even the Greeks
themselves were shocked at the crime, and they threatened to punish him
for it. He was, however, allowed to set sail for Greece. But Minerva
borrowed from Jupiter his flaming thunderbolts, and, obtaining
permission from Neptune, she raised a furious tempest, which destroyed
the Locrian king's ship. He himself swam to a rock, and as he sat there
he defiantly cried out that he was safe in spite of all the gods. This
insult to the immortals brought upon him the wrath of Neptune, who,
smiting the rock with his awful trident, hurled the impious Ajax into
the depths of the sea.
He had said
That he, in spite of all the gods, would come
Safe from those mountain waves. When Neptune heard
The boaster's challenge, instantly he laid
His strong hand on the trident, smote the rock
And cleft it to the base. Part stood erect,
Part fell into the deep. There Ajax sat,
And felt the shock, and with the falling mass
Was carried headlong to the billowy depths
Below, and drank the brine and perished there.
BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book IV.
The venerable Nestor reached his home without misfortune or accident He
ended his days in peace in his kingdom of Pylos, though he had to mourn
the loss of his brave son Antilochus, whom Memnon had slain.
Diomede also reached his kingdom of Ætolia, but he found that in his
absence his home had been seized by a stranger. This was a punishment
sent upon him by Venus, whom, as we have seen, he had wounded in the
hand at the siege of Troy.
"Mad as I was, when I, with mortal arms,
Presumed against immortal powers to move,
And violate with wounds the queen of love."