Helenus of Troy

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In Greek mythology, Helenus (/ˈhɛlənəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἕλενος, Helenos, Latin: Helenus) was a gentle and clever seer.[1] He was also a Trojan prince as the son of King Priam[2] and Queen Hecuba of Troy,[3] and the twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra. He was also called Scamandrios, and was a lover of Apollo.[4]

Sketch Illustration of Helenus

Mythology[]

Early years[]

According to legend, Cassandra, having been given the power of prophecy by Apollo, taught it to her brother Helenus. Like Cassandra, he was always right, but unlike her, others believed him. Helenus was originally named Scamandrius, but after receiving his prophetic gift, he was renamed to Helenus by a Thracian Soothsayer.[5] Helenus predicted that if Alexander (Paris) brought home a Greek wife (i.e. Helen), the Achaeans would pursue, and overpower Troy and slay his parents and brothers.[6]

Trojan War[]

Helenus was part of the Trojan forces led by his brother Hector that beat the Greeks back from the plains west of Troy, and attacked their camp in the Iliad. Helenus' greatest feat in the war was shooting Achilles in the hand using a bow given to him by Apollo, causing Achilles to flee the battlefield.[7][8] When the Myrmidons led by Achilles turn the tide of battle and Hector is killed, foreshadowing Troy's imminent fall, Helenus - like most of the greatest heroes - survived the poem. After the death of Achilles, Alexander ordered to throw his body and that of Antilochus (son of Nestor) to the dogs and birds but this was opposed by Helenus who commanded to take them out of the temple and hand them over to the Achaeans. Thus, the Greeks received their dead and carried them back to the camp.[9]

In the final year of the Trojan War, Helenus vied against his brother Deiphobus for the hand of Helen after the death of their brother Paris, but Helen was awarded to Deiphobus. Disgruntled over his loss, Helenus retreated to Mount Ida, where Odysseus later captured him.[10] He told the Greek forces—probably out of his disgruntlement—under what circumstances they could take Troy. He said that they would win if they stole the Trojan Palladium, brought the bones of Pelops to Troy, and persuaded Neoptolemus (Achilles' son by the Scyrian princess Deidamia) and Philoctetes (who possessed Heracles' bow and arrows) to join the Greeks in the war.[11] Neoptolemus was hiding from the war at Scyrus, but the Greeks retrieved him.

Aftermath[]

Neoptolemus had taken Andromache, Helenus's sister-in-law, and Hector's widow, as a slave and concubine after the fall of Troy, and fathered Molossus, and Pergamus with her. After the fall of Troy, Helenus went with Neoptolemus, according to Apollodorus' Epitome 6.13.[12] He traveled with Neoptolemus, Andromache and their children to Epirus, where Neoptolemus permitted him to found the city of Buthrotum.[13] After Neoptolemus left Epirus, he left Andromache and their sons in Helenus's care.

Neoptolemus was killed by Orestes, Agamemmon's son, in a dispute over Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, whom Orestes had been promised as wife, but whom Neoptolemus had taken. As the kingdom of Neoptolemus was partitioned, this led to Helenus acquiring the rule of Buthrotum, as king. "Helenus, a son of Priam, was king over these Greek cities of Epirus, having succeeded to the throne and bed of Neoptolemus."[14][15]

Andromache bore him a son, Cestrinus,[16] who is identified with Genger or Zenter, a legendary Trojan king and father of Francus. Some mythographers alleged that Helenus was given the hand of both Deidamia[17] and Andromache[18] in marriage, which helped consolidate his claims to Neoptolemus' kingdom.[19] Helenus prophesied Aeneas' founding of Rome when he and his followers stopped at Buthrotum, detailed by Virgil in Aeneid Book III.

Other myths[]

In one account, Helenus got her mother Hecuba after the Trojan War and they crossed over to the Chersonese where the queen was turned into a bitch. Helenus then buried her at the place now called the Bitch's Tomb.[20]

In one version of the myth, Agamemnon summoned all of the traitors who helped betray Troy and honored their promises to them after the sack of the Troy. Two of which were Helenus and Cassandra who had always pled with Priam for peace, and how Helenus had successfully urged the return of Achilles’ body for burial. Accordingly, Agamemnon, following the advice of the council, gave Helenus and Cassandra their freedom. Then Helenus, remembering how Hecuba and Andromache had always loved him, interceded with Agamemnon in their behalf. The latter by advice of the council gave these their freedom. It is said that these four migrated to the Thracian Chersonese where they settled with twelve hundred followers.[21]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Sophocles, Philoctetes 1338; Euripides, Hecuba 89; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.7; Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 12; Hyginus, Fabulae 128
  2. ^ Sophocles, Philoctetes 606; Virgil, Aeneid 3.295; Hyginus, Fabulae 90 & 273; Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.23.5–6 & 10.25.5
  3. ^ Apollodorus, 3.12.5; Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 4
  4. ^ Photius, 'Bibliotheca excerpts'
  5. ^ Eustathius, Commentary on the Iliad
  6. ^ Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 7
  7. ^ Photius, 'Bibliotheca excerpts'
  8. ^ Dictys Cretensis, Chronicle of the Trojan War 3.6
  9. ^ Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 34
  10. ^ Sophocles, Philoctetes 606 & 1388; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.9
  11. ^ Apollodorus, Epitome 5.10
  12. ^ West (2013). The Epic Cycle. Oxford University Press. p. 263.
  13. ^ Apollodorus, Epitome 6.12 & 13; Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.11.1 & 2.23.6
  14. ^ Virgil (1990). The Aeneid. Penguin Books, David West. pp. 65, line 292.
  15. ^ Virgil, Aeneid 3.295–296
  16. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.11.1 & 2.23.6
  17. ^ Apollodorus, Epitome 6.13
  18. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.23.6
  19. ^ Apollodorus, Epitome 6.13
  20. ^ Apollodorus, Epitome 5.23  
  21. ^ Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 42–44

References[]


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