Polydorus of Troy
Polydorus or Polydoros (
Mythology
In the Iliad
In Homer's Greek epic the Iliad, Polydorus is depicted briefly as a foe to Achilles. According to this source, Polydorus was the youngest son of Priam, and thus his father would not let him fight. Achilles, however, sees him on the battlefield showing off his great speed running through the lines and spears him, ending his life. Seeing his brother Polydorus’ death causes Hector to challenge Achilles.[1]
In Hecuba and Metamorphoses
In Euripides' tragedy Hecuba, the ghost of Polydorus is a character, and his death is the cause of the main conflict of the play. Polydorus’ ghost presents the prologue of the play, explaining that he was sent to Thrace under the protection of King Polymestor in case Troy fell. With his son, Priam sent gold so that if Troy should fall his son could continue to support himself. Once Troy fell, however, Polymestor killed Polydorus by throwing him into the sea and stole the gold. Polydorus laments the fact that his body is adrift in the sea without the proper death rites.
Later in the play, a slave woman tells Hecuba that Polydorus’ body has been found washed up on shore. Hecuba explains that she saw the murderer of Polydorus in a dream and it is Polymestor. Aided by Agamemnon and the other captive women, Hecuba proceeds to avenge her son’s murder by killing Polymestor’s sons and blinding him.[2] This same story of Polydorus is the subject of an episode in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.[3]
In the Aeneid
In
In Fabulae
According to the tradition of
As this occurred, Polydorus went to the oracle of Apollo in order to learn of his true parentage. Here he was told that his home city had been destroyed, his father killed, and his mother captured. Upon returning home, and still believing that he was the son of Polymestor and Iliona, he asked Iliona why the oracle had been wrong, at which point she tells him the truth of his ancestry. He proceeds to blind and kill Polymestor at his sister’s advice.[8]
Namesake
- 4708 Polydoros, Jovian asteroid named after Polydorus
See also
Notes
- ^ Homer, and Stanley Lombardo. Iliad. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1997:399.
- ^ Euripides, (Marilyn Nelson, tr.) Hecuba. U Penn Press, 1998.
- ^ Ovidius, Naso Publius (Alan D. Melville, tr.) Metamorphoses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986:307–12.
- ^ The king is assumed to be Polymestor although he is not mentioned explicitly.
- ^ Virgil (Robert Fitzgerald, tr.) The Aeneid. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print. 66–67.
- ^ Virgil; with an English Translation by H. Rushton Fairclough; in Two Volumes (Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid I-IV). Vol. 1. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann. 1938. p. 350-353. Retrieved 25 January 2018 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Ilion is the alternate name of Troy.
- pseudo-Apollodorus, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Trzaskoma, and C. Julius. Hyginus. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007:134.
References
- William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology vs .Polydorus. London. John Murray: printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street. 1849.
- Apollodorus, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Trzaskoma, and C. Julius. Hyginus. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007. Print.
- Euripides, and Marilyn Nelson. Hecuba. U Penn Press, 1998. Print.
- Homer, and Stanley Lombardo. Iliad. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1997. Print.
- Ovidius, Naso Publius, and Alan D. Melville. Metamorphoses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. Print.
- Virgil, and Robert Fitzgerald. The Aeneid. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print
External links
Media related to Polydorus at Wikimedia Commons