Antenor

Antenor was one of the elders of Troy, a wise counsellor in the circle of King Priam. In Homer’s Iliad he entertained Menelaus and Odysseus when they came to Troy to demand the return of Helen, and later urged the Trojans to give her back. Because of that, according to later writers, the Greeks spared him and his house when Troy fell, and a tradition of the Roman age made him the founder of Patavium (Padua) in northern Italy.

Family

Antenor's wife was Theano, the daughter of Cisseus and priestess of Athena at Troy. It was Theano who opened the doors of the temple and led the women's prayer to Athena in the sixth book of the Iliad (Homer, Iliad 6.297–311). Homer names many sons of Antenor, who fight on the Trojan side. The eldest, Coon, wounds Agamemnon and is killed by him (Iliad 11.248–263). Others are Archelochus and Acamas, who lead the Dardanians with Aeneas (Iliad 2.822–823); Polybus and Agenor (Iliad 11.59); Helicaon, who married Priam's daughter Laodice (Iliad 3.122–124); Iphidamas (Iliad 11.221); Laodocus (Iliad 4.87); and Demoleon (Iliad 20.395–396). Pedaeus, an illegitimate son, was raised by Theano as one of her own children (Iliad 5.69–71). Quintus of Smyrna also names a son, Eurymachus (Posthomerica 11).

Antenor at Troy

In the Iliad, Antenor sits with the old men on the wall of Troy, watching the Greeks below; when Helen comes by, they say that she looks like an immortal goddess, but that she should go home on the ships rather than bring trouble on Troy (Iliad 3.146–160). When Helen points out Odysseus, Antenor says that he knows him: he had welcomed Odysseus and Menelaus in his own house when they came as envoys about Helen, and he recalls how each of them spoke (Iliad 3.203–224). He rides beside Priam when the king goes out to swear the oath for the duel of Paris and Menelaus (Iliad 3.262–263).

Later in the war the Trojans held an assembly in the citadel, and Antenor spoke first. He asked them to give Helen and her possessions back to the sons of Atreus, because they were breaking their oaths (Iliad 7.345–353). Paris refused to return Helen and offered only to give back the goods he had brought, with more of his own (Iliad 7.354–364).

After the Fall of Troy

Because of the hospitality he had shown to Menelaus and Odysseus, and because he had always favoured peace, Antenor was spared. Livy says that of all the Trojans only Aeneas and Antenor were treated by the Greeks according to old ties of hospitality, since both had always urged making peace and giving up Helen (Livy 1.1.1). According to Apollodorus, when Antenor's son Glaucus fled to his father's house, Odysseus and Menelaus recognised and protected him (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.21). Quintus of Smyrna writes that in all the houses of Troy there were dying men except Antenor's, to whom the Greeks paid the debt of hospitality (Posthomerica 13). In the painting by Polygnotus at Delphi, as Pausanias saw it, Antenor’s house has a leopard’s skin hanging over the door as a sign to the Greeks to keep away; Theano and her sons are shown there (Pausanias 10.27.3). Strabo adds that Sophocles, in his play on the capture of Troy, also had a panther skin set before the door (Strabo 13.1.53).

Antenor in Italy

Virgil makes Venus say that Antenor escaped from the midst of the Achaeans, entered the Illyrian gulf and the kingdom of the Liburnians, crossed the source of the Timavus, and there set up the city of Patavium, gave his people the name of Trojans, and hung up their arms (Virgil, Aeneid 1.242–249). Livy says that Antenor came to the head of the Adriatic with the Enetians (Heneti) of Paphlagonia, who had lost their king Pylaemenes at Troy; they drove out the Euganei, and the place where they landed was called Troy (Livy 1.1.2–3). Strabo also connects Antenor and his sons with the Heneti who settled at the head of the Adriatic (Strabo 12.3.8).

Antenor Sources

Homer, Iliad 2.822–823, 3.122–160, 3.203–224, 3.262–263, 4.87, 5.69–71, 6.297–311, 7.345–364, 11.59, 11.221, 11.248–263, 20.395–396; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.21; Pausanias 10.27.3; Strabo 12.3.8, 13.1.53; Livy 1.1.1–3; Virgil, Aeneid 1.242–249; Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 11, 13.

See Also: Priam, Trojan War, Helen, Menelaus, Odysseus, Theano, Aeneas, Paris, Athena