Salamis (Σαλαμίς) — a Homeric kingdom of the Odyssey, c. 1200 BC

Salamis — Sea-girt Salamis, twelve ships and the tower-like shield — the bulwark of the Achaeans who never came home.

The island realm of Telamonian Aias, mightiest of the Greeks after Achilles. He led twelve ships to Troy and stood as the wall of the host — yet when the dead Achilles' arms were judged to Odysseus, madness and shame drove him to fall on his own sword. His realm returns no king.

Leader at Troy: Aias.

Ruler in the Odyssey's present: Aias.

Role in the Trojan War: Achaean, and the strong right arm of the host. Twelve ships from Salamis, drawn up beside the Athenians; behind his tower-like shield the Greeks held their line, and no man but Hector cared to meet him alone.

The homecoming: No homecoming — he fell at Troy by his own hand, and even in death his shade will not forgive.

Sea-girt Salamis lies over against the Attic shore, the small island-kingdom of Aias son of Telamon. It sent no great muster to Troy — "Aias led twelve ships from Salamis, and brought them and set them where the battalions of the Athenians stood" — yet in the man himself the Achaeans had a wall of bronze. In stature and in feats of war he was of a mould above all the other Danaans, second only to the noble son of Peleus. While the wrath of Achilles kept the Myrmidons (MYR) idle by their ships, it was Telamonian Aias who bore the weight of the fighting. When Hector of the Trojans (TRO) flung his challenge across the plain, the lot leapt out for Aias, and the two closed in single combat before both hosts until night parted them still undefeated; in honour of the duel they exchanged gifts, Hector giving his silver-studded sword and Aias his war-belt bright with purple. And when the Trojans drove the Greeks back upon the sea and thrust fire at the hulls, it was Aias who ranged from deck to deck with his great pike, the last man holding the ships — the very bulwark of the Achaeans. At his side stood his half-brother Teucer the archer, loosing shafts from behind the shelter of that huge sevenfold shield. His hardest labour came over a corpse. When Achilles of the Myrmidons (MYR) fell at the Scaean gate, a bitter fight broke over his body; Aias killed Glaukos of the Lycians (LYC), then hoisted the dead hero onto his shoulders and bore him back through a rain of darts while Odysseus of the Cephallenians (CEP) fought off the pursuers. That deed, and the arms it saved, undid him. Achilles' mother had set his god-forged armour as a prize for the bravest, and Aias and Odysseus came forward as rivals. The judges preferred Odysseus. Shamed past bearing, Aias planned a night attack on his own allies, but Athena turned his madness aside among the herds; when his wits came back and he saw the slaughtered cattle, he fell upon his own sword. Agamemnon of Mycenae (MYC), overlord of the host, forbade his body to be burned, and alone of all who died at Ilios he was laid in a coffin, in the earth at Rhoeteum. So Salamis is a realm without a return. There is no dramatic present of a homecoming here, only a grave across the water and an unhealed grudge. When Odysseus, ten years gone from Troy, went down among the dead and called to him with soft words — "What a tower of strength fell in thy fall, and we Achaeans cease not to sorrow for thee, even as for the life of Achilles" — the soul of Aias son of Telamon stood apart, still angry over the arms, and answered not a word, but passed away into the dark after the other spirits of the dead. The wrath that began at Troy outlasts the war and the man alike.

“What a tower of strength fell in thy fall, and we Achaeans cease not to sorrow for thee, even as for the life of Achilles, son of Peleus.” — Odyssey 11.556-558