User:Dwilliams1751/Polydorus (Son of Priam)

Polydorus (Son of Priam) is the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba in the mythology of the Trojan War. Polydorus is an excellent example of the fluid nature of myth, as his role and story varies significantly in different traditions and sources.

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.
This same story of Polydorus is summarized in essence in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

In The Aeneid

In Vergil's Roman epic The Aeneid, Aeneas lands in Thrace hoping to establish a colony for his people. The land is overgrown with various plants, and as Aeneas begins to uproot them, they began to spout blood. The plant begins to speak and explains that it is Polydorus - the spears that were used to kill him stuck into the ground and took root, transforming into plants. It is explained that Priam sent Polydorus to Thrace with payment to the Thracian king – assumedly Polymestor although he is not mentioned explicitly – so that he would be protected if Troy fell. When Troy did fall, Polymestor, broke his pact with the Trojans and killed Polydorus in order to ingratiate himself to Agamemnon and kept the payment. Aeneas goes on to give Polydorus a proper burial.

In Fabulae

According to the tradition of Hyginus’ lesser known text Fabulae, Priam and Hecuba entrusted Polydorus’ upbringing to his sister, Iliona, who was the wife of Polymestor. In order to ensure Polydorus’ safety, she raised him as her own son, while she raised her and Polymestor’s true son, Deipylus, as her brother. After the fall of Troy, the Acheans offered Polymestor Agamemnon’s daughter Electra to be his wife if he killed Polydorus. Polymestor agreed, but because of the switch that Iliona executed, he instead killed Deipylus.
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.

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.

References

Category:Greek mythology Category:Roman mythology