Neoptolemus
Neoptolemos ( Greek Νεοπτόλεμος ) - also called Pyrrhos because of his red hair - is a figure from Greek mythology , more precisely from the saga of the Trojan War . He is the son of Achilles and Deidameia . He is portrayed as very similar to his father both in appearance and in military ability. However, he completely misses his independent judgment.
Neoptolemus grew up on the island of Skyros , at the court of his grandfather Lykomedes . On the advice of the seer Helenus , the Greeks bring him to the walls of Troy as his substitute after the death of Achilles . He helps Odysseus or Diomedes to convince Philoctetes , who has been abandoned on Lemnos, to rejoin the Greek army. Neoptolemos is one of the heroes who let themselves be locked inside the Trojan Horse . During the conquest of Troy, he beheads the old king Priam at the altar of Zeus .
He receives Andromache , Hector's widow, as spoils of war . In a dream the spirit of his fallen father appears to him, who asks him to sacrifice the most valuable part of the booty to him. The Greeks chose Polyxena , Priam's daughter, who does not consent to her sacrifice and stabs herself to death at the tomb of Achilles. Nevertheless, the gods send the Greeks favorable airflow.
Neoptolemus' fates after his departure from Troy are represented very differently by the sources. According to one version, he reaches Phthia in Thessaly without incident , where he succeeds his father. According to other sources, he comes to Epirus and reigns there for some time. He kidnaps Lanassa , the granddaughter or great-granddaughter of Heracles , from the Zeus temple in Dodona and fathered eight children with her. His descendants rule Epirus for a long time, and Olympias , the mother of Alexander the Great , is said to have descended from him.
There are two versions of how Neoptolemus was killed: Either he is said to have been slain by Orestes because he wanted to assault his fiancé Hermione . Or he is said to have been killed by Apollo priests after a sacrilege against Apollo . Furthermore, one can read that Hermione was promised to Neoptolemus by her father Menelaus during the Trojan War and had to marry him.
At the end of the holy road from the Oracle of Delphi , Neoptolemus had a small temenus in which his tomb was to be found.
literature
- Paul Weizsäcker : Neoptolemos . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.1, Leipzig 1902, Col. 167-176 ( digitized version ).
- Otto Höfer : Pyrrhos 1 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.2, Leipzig 1909, Col. 3360-3363 ( digitized version ).
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Sophocles , Philoctetes .
- ↑ Philostratus , Heroicus 5,3,
- ^ Proklos , Chrestomathia 4; Libraries of Apollodorus , Epitome 5, 21.
- ^ Velleius Paterculus , historia Romana 1, 1, 1.
- ^ Velleius Paterculus, historia Romana 1, 1, 3.