Ajax seems to have symptoms of what modern readers would call post-traumatic stress disorder, presumably caused by his service in the Trojan War. His nightmares suggest that the Trojan War harms not only the men killed and the women enslaved but also high-status surviving warriors like Ajax, albeit to a lesser degree. Tecmessa’s kneejerk identification with the father of her baby against her original people, the Trojans, suggests that cultural identity is complicated for women in misogynistic societies: they may feel that they belong to their original culture, but they may also come to see themselves as parts of the culture to whom their husband or “owner” belongs, especially if they have children with him.