according to Moore, personifies in Ajax an affirmation of what is heroic in life. Translators Frederic Raphael and Kenneth McLeish called the work a "masterpiece", arguing that "Sophocles turned the almost comic myth of a bad loser into a tragedy of disappointment, folly, and divine partiality." Bernard Knox considers Ajax’s speech on "time" to be "so majestic, remote and mysterious, and at the same time so passionate, dramatic and complex" that if this were the only writing we had of Sophocles, he would still be considered "one of the world’s greatest poets." The speech begins: Long rolling waves of time bring all things to light and plunge them down again in utter darkness. In a study of the phenomenon of suicide bombers, one author, Arata Takeda, says that though in the end it doesn't quite work that way, Ajax’s death resembles that kind of strategy, when Ajax calls on the Erinyes, the “avenging deities of the underworld”, to destroy his foes. Performance history The American director Peter Sellars staged an adaption of the play, also called Ajax, written by Robert Auletta at the Kennedy Center in New York and at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 1986. The setting was relocated to the United States in the near future, having recently won a war in Latin America, which had, however, gone very badly. Howie Seago played Ajax, Ralph Marrero played Menelaus, Aleta Mitchell played Athene, and Ben Halley Jr. was the leader of the chorus. The set design was by George Tsypin and the costumes by Dunya Ramicova. Ajax was produced at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge in 2011, in modern dress, with a setting that appeared to be a war zone somewhere in the Middle East. It was translated by Charles Connaghan, and directed by Sarah Benson. In May 2016, Jeff S. Dailey directed the play for a limited Off Broadway run at the John Cullum Theatre in midtown Manhattan. It set the play Sophocles' original location of Troy and featured Matthew Hansen in the title role. Adaptations Timberlake Wertenbaker's play Our Ajax, which was first performed in November 2013 at the Southwark Playhouse, London, was inspired by Sophocles' tragedy. It has a contemporary military setting, with references to modern warfare including the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wertenbaker made use of interviews with current and former servicemen and women in developing the play. English translations