# Tecmessa — Ajax character guide

> Tecmessa in Ajax by Sophocles.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Tecmessa Fear

**First appearance:** 0002-ajax

## Snapshot

Ajax's spear-won wife, mother of his son, who argues against his suicide with the plainest plea in Greek tragedy: I am nothing without you.

## Who they are

Tecmessa was a princess before the war made her a captive and Ajax's bed; she has already lost one world and knows exactly what his death costs her and their boy Eurysaces. Her long appeal to him — remember your son, remember me, remember that a wife's fate follows her husband's — is the play's emotional counterweight to heroic honor. She is also the one who finds the body, which makes her the tragedy's first witness and its most intimate mourner.

## In the story

### [Dramatis Personae](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ajax_se/chapters/dramatis-personae)

Captive wife of Ajax, daughter of Teleutas.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ajax_se/characters/tecmessa
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ajax_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ajax_se/characters