Editing Helenus (son of Priam)

{{Short description|Mythical Trojan prince and seer}}
{{Other uses|Helenus (mythology)}}
{{Redirect-distinguish-text|Helenos|[[HelenOS]], an operating system based on a multiserver microkernel design}}

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Helenus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɛ|l|ə|n|ə|s}}; {{langx|grc|Ἕλενος}}, ''Helenos'', {{langx|la|Helenus}}) was a gentle and clever seer.<ref>[[Sophocles]], ''[[Philoctetes (Sophocles play)|Philoctetes]]'' 1338; [[Euripides]], ''[[Hecuba (play)|Hecuba]]'' 89'';'' [[Cicero]], ''[[De Natura Deorum]]'' 2.7; [[Dares Phrygius]], 12; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' 128</ref> He was also a [[Troy|Trojan]] prince as the [[List of children of Priam|son]] of King [[Priam]]<ref>Sophocles, ''Philoctetes'' 606; [[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' 3.295; Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 90 & 273; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], 2.23.5–6 & 10.25.5</ref> and Queen [[Hecuba]] of [[Troy]],<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 3.12.5; Dares Phrygius, 4</ref> and the twin brother of the prophetess [[Cassandra]].

[[File:Polygnotos 20.JPG|thumb|Sketch Illustration of Helenus]]

== Mythology ==

=== Early years ===
In the earliest sources, Helenus and his sister Cassandra were given the power of prophecy by [[Apollo]] after their ears were licked by snakes.<ref>D-scholia on Homeric scholarship</ref> In other sources, Helenus was taught the power by Cassandra, but others generally believed his predictions. After gaining foresight, he was renamed from Scamandrius to Helenus by a Thracian soothsayer.<ref>Eustathius, Commentary on the Iliad</ref> Helenus predicted that if [[Paris (mythology)|Alexander]] (''Paris'') brought home a Greek wife (i.e. [[Helen of Troy|Helen]]), the Achaeans would pursue, and overpower Troy and slay his parents and brothers.<ref>Dares Phrygius, 7</ref>

=== Trojan War ===
Helenus is described by Homer as being the greatest of [[Augury|augurs]]. He advises Hector to challenge any Achaean to a duel, which [[Telemonian Ajax]] accepts. Helenus led the third battalion of the Trojan forces along with his brother [[Deiphobus]]. He was also part of the Trojan forces led by his brother [[Hector]] that beat the [[Achaeans (Homer)|Greeks]] back from the plains west of Troy, and attacked their camp in the ''[[Iliad]]''. He is wounded in the hand by [[Menelaus]] and forced to retreat.

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 (mythology)|Paris]], but Helen was awarded to Deiphobus. Disgruntled over his loss, Helenus retreated to [[Mount Ida (Turkey)|Mount Ida]], where [[Odysseus]] later captured him.<ref>Sophocles, ''Philoctetes'' 606 & 1388; Apollodorus, [[Epitome]] 5.9</ref> He tells Odysseus, perhaps after torture or coercion, how to capture Troy: they would win if they stole the Trojan [[Palladium (mythology)|Palladium]], brought the bones of [[Pelops]] to Troy, and persuaded [[Neoptolemus]] ([[Achilles]]' son by the [[Scyrus|Scyrian]] princess [[Deidamia (mythology)|Deidamia]]) and [[Philoctetes]] (who possessed [[Heracles]]' bow and arrows) to join the Greeks in the war.<ref>Apollodorus, Epitome 5.10</ref> Neoptolemus was hiding from the war at [[Skyros|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 (son of Neoptolemus)|Molossus]], [[Pielus (mythology)|Pielus]] and [[Pergamus]] with her. After the fall of Troy, Helenus went with Neoptolemus, according to Apollodorus' Epitome 6.13.<ref>{{cite book|last=West|title=The Epic Cycle|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=263}}</ref> He traveled with Neoptolemus, Andromache and their children to [[Epirus]], where Neoptolemus permitted him to found the city of [[Butrint|Buthrotum]].<ref>Apollodorus, Epitome 6.12 & 13; Pausanias, 1.11.1 & 2.23.6</ref> 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 (mythology)|Hermione]], the daughter of [[Menelaus]] and [[Helen of Troy|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."<ref>{{cite book|last=Virgil|title=The Aeneid|year=1990|publisher=Penguin Books, David West|pages=65, line 292}}</ref><ref>Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 3.295–296</ref>

Andromache bore him a son, [[Cestrinus]],<ref>Pausanias, 1.11.1 & 2.23.6</ref> 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<ref>Apollodorus, Epitome 6.13</ref> and Andromache<ref>Pausanias, 2.23.6</ref> in marriage, which helped consolidate his claims to Neoptolemus' kingdom.<ref>Apollodorus, Epitome 6.13</ref> 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 his mother Hecuba after the [[Trojan War]] and they crossed over to the [[Chersonesus|Chersonese]] where the queen was turned into a bitch. Helenus then buried her at the place now called the Bitch's Tomb.<ref>Apollodorus, Epitome 5.23</ref>

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.<ref>Dares Phrygius, 42–44</ref>

In [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' ({{circa|1136}}) Helenus was captured by Neoptolemus along with many other Trojans, and taken in chains to Greece as revenge for the death of [[Achilles]] in the Trojan War. Under Neoptolemus' orders, they and their descendants remained in slavery until the time of King [[Pandrasus]] several generations later, when they were liberated by [[Brutus of Troy]].<ref name="HRB 1">{{cite wikisource | author=[[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] | wslink=Six Old English Chronicles/Geoffrey's British History | chapter=Book 1 | plaintitle=[[Historia Regum Britanniae]] | at=Chapters 3–11 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of children of Priam]]
*[[The Golden Bough (mythology)]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{EB1911 Poster|Helenus}}

* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
* [[Dares Phrygius]], ''from The Trojan War.'' ''The Chronicles of [[Dictys Cretensis|Dictys of Crete]] and Dares the Phrygian'' translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer, Jr. (1931-). Indiana University Press. 1966. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/DaresPhrygius.html Online version at theio.com]
*[[Euripides]], ''The Complete Greek Drama'' edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Hecuba, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0098 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
*Euripides, ''Euripidis Fabulae.'' ''vol. 1''. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1902. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0097 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Gaius Julius Hyginus]], ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*[[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]], ''Nature of the Gods from the Treatises of M.T. Cicero'' translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1812-1891), Bohn edition of 1878. [https://topostext.org/work/137 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*Marcus Tullius Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum.'' O. Plasberg. Leipzig. Teubner. 1917. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0037 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
*Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Virgil|Publius Vergilius Maro]], ''Aeneid.'' Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
* Publius Vergilius Maro, ''Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics''. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0055 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Sophocles]], ''The Philoctetes of Sophocles e''dited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0194 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
*Sophocles, ''Sophocles. Vol 2: Ajax. Electra. Trachiniae. Philoctetes'' with an English translation by F. Storr. The Loeb classical library, 21. Francis Storr. London; New York. William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company. 1913. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0193 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

{{Characters in the Iliad}}
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[[Category:Mythological Greek seers]]
[[Category:Trojans]]
[[Category:Princes in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Children of Priam]]
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Greek mythological slaves]]
[[Category:Characters in the Iliad]]