Nicostratus (mythology)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In

Cinaethon.[3] His name means 'Victorious Army' and suggests that his birth came after the Trojan War.[4]

Family

Nicostratus' mother was either Menelaus' wife Helen of Troy, or a slave.[5] Although in Homer's Odyssey, the only child of Menelaus and Helen is Hermione, other sources also mention a son Nicostratus.[6] The mythographer Apollodorus says that "Menelaus had by Helen a daughter Hermione and, according to some (κατά τινας), a son Nicostratus", while a scholia on Sophocles' Electra quotes Hesiod as saying "She [Helen] bore Hermione to spear-famed Menelaus, and last of all she bore Nicostratus, scion of Ares".[7]

However, according to the geographer Pausanias, Nicostratus, and Megapenthes were sons of Menelaus by a slave, and that because they were illegitimate, Agamemnon's son Orestes succeeded Menelaus as king of Sparta.[8]

One account mentioned that Nicostratus and

Lacedaemonians.[9][10][11]

Mythology

According to the

Clytemenestra), Nicostratus and Megapenthes drove out Helen, who found refuge on Rhodes with Polyxo.[12]

According to Pausanias, Nicostratus and Megapenthes were depicted, riding a single horse, on the sixth century BC Doric-Ionic temple complex at Amyclae known as the throne of Apollo, designed by Bathycles of Magnesia.[13]

In popular culture

Although Nicostratus does not figure in any ancient account of the Trojan War, he is the central character in The Luck of Troy, a modern retelling of the story by Roger Lancelyn Green.[14]

Notes

  1. ^ Parada, s.v. Nicostratus.
  2. ^ Fowler, p. 529; Tripp, s.v. Nicostratus; Parada, s.v. Nicostratus; Grimal, p. 534 Table 13.
  3. Cinaethon fr. 3 [= Porphyry
    ap. schol. (D) Iliad 3.175].
  4. ^ Hard, p. 441; Fowler, p. 529.
  5. ^ Fowler, p. 529; Tripp, s.v. Nicostratus; Parada, s.v. Nicostratus.
  6. ^ Hard, p. 441; Homer, Odyssey 4.11–14,
  7. Cinaethon, fr. 3 [= Porphyry
    ap. schol. (D) Iliad 3.175], which seems to understand Nicostratus as being the son of Helen and Menelaus, see Gantz.
  8. ^ Hard, p. 441; Fowler, p. 529; Pausanias, 2.18.6.
  9. ^ Apollodorus, 3.11.1, f.n. 1 by Frazer with Scholiast on Homer, Iliad 3.175 as the authority; Grimal, s.v. Menelaus; Gantz, p. 573.
  10. .
  11. .
  12. ^ Grimal, s.vv. Megapenthes 1, Menelaus; Pausanias, 2.18.6, 3.19.9.
  13. ^ Gardner, p. 78; Pausanias, 3.18.13.
  14. ^ Girl with her Head in a Book, "Review: The Luck of Troy, Roger Lancelyn Green".

References