Neoptolemus

Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhus, was the son of the hero Achilles and the princess Deidamia in Greek mythology. Brought from Scyros to Troy after his father’s death because an oracle said that Troy could not fall without him, he killed Priam and took part in the sack of the city. Afterwards he settled in Epirus, married Hermione and died at Delphi.

Birth and Name

Achilles’ mother, the goddess Thetis, had foreseen that her son would die in a great war; afraid for him, she disguised him as a girl and entrusted him to King Lycomedes at the island of Scyros. While there, Achilles had an affair with Lycomedes’ daughter Deidamia, and from this union a son, Pyrrhus, was born, who was afterwards called Neoptolemus (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.8). Achilles was discovered by Odysseus and went to Troy, leaving the boy in Scyros. In the Iliad, Achilles speaks of his son Neoptolemus being reared on Scyros and hopes that Patroclus will one day take him from there to Phthia (Iliad 19.326–333).

Neoptolemus at Troy

After Achilles died, the Greeks captured the Trojan seer Helenus, who was forced to tell them how Troy could be taken: if the bones of Pelops were brought to them, if Neoptolemus fought for them, and if the Palladium were stolen from Troy (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.10). Apollodorus also lists the bow of Heracles among the conditions (Epitome 5.8). Odysseus and Phoenix went to Scyros and persuaded Lycomedes to let Neoptolemus go; Odysseus gave him his father’s arms, and Neoptolemus killed many Trojans (Epitome 5.11; Sophocles, Philoctetes 343–353). In the Odyssey, Odysseus tells Achilles’ ghost that he himself brought Neoptolemus from Scyros, that he was always first to speak in council, except for Nestor and Odysseus himself, and that he never held back in battle (Odyssey 11.505–518).

Neoptolemus killed Eurypylus, the son of Telephus, who had come with many Mysians to fight for the Trojans (Odyssey 11.519–521; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.12). Odysseus says that he was one of the Greeks who entered the Wooden Horse and that, while others wept and trembled, he never lost his color and never wiped a tear, but kept begging to be let out and gripped his sword (Odyssey 11.523–532). In Sophocles’ Philoctetes, Neoptolemus goes with Odysseus to Lemnos to fetch Philoctetes and the bow of Heracles.

The Sack of Troy

During the sack of Troy, Neoptolemus turned out to be a brutal person. He killed Priam, who had taken refuge at the altar of Zeus of the Courtyard (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.21). In Virgil he first kills Priam’s son Polites before his parents’ eyes and then drags the old king through his son’s blood to the altar (Aeneid 2.526–558). Astyanax, the infant son of Hector, was thrown from the battlements (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.23); the sources disagree on who did it. In the Sack of Ilium of Arctinus, as summarized by Proclus, Odysseus killed him, while in a fragment of the Little Iliad Neoptolemus snatched him from his nurse’s bosom and threw him from a tower; in Euripides the Greeks decide on his death at Odysseus’ urging (Trojan Women 719–739).

The Greeks then slaughtered Polyxena on the grave of Achilles, and Neoptolemus was the one who killed her (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.23; Euripides, Hecuba 107–152, 521–582). In Euripides the ghost of Achilles had appeared above his grave and demanded the sacrifice of the girl. As his special prize, Neoptolemus received the Trojan princess Andromache, the widow of Hector, as his concubine (Epitome 5.23; Euripides, Andromache 24–25).

Epirus and Marriage

After remaining in Tenedos for two days at the advice of Thetis, Neoptolemus set out by land with Helenus for the country of the Molossians. On the way Phoenix died, and Neoptolemus buried him. Having vanquished the Molossians in battle, he reigned as king, and with Andromache he had a son, Molossus (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.12). Pausanias adds that he settled in Epirus on the advice of the oracles of Helenus and that by Andromache he had Molossus, Pielus and Pergamus (1.11.1). Helenus founded a city in Molossia, and Neoptolemus gave him his mother Deidamia as wife (Epitome 6.13).

Neoptolemus was also the husband of Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. In the Odyssey, Menelaus is celebrating her marriage to the son of Achilles when Telemachus arrives, having promised her to him at Troy (Odyssey 4.1–9). In Euripides’ Andromache, Hermione had already been given to Orestes, and Neoptolemus took her from him, the first marriage producing no children (Andromache 966–981). Apollodorus says that when Orestes went mad, Neoptolemus carried off his wife Hermione, who had previously been betrothed to him at Troy (Epitome 6.14).

The Death of Neoptolemus

The sources give several versions of the death of Neoptolemus, which took place at Delphi. In Euripides’ Andromache, he went to Delphi to demand satisfaction from Apollo, who had killed his father Achilles, and then again to apologize to the god; there Orestes, angry at the loss of Hermione, plotted with the Delphians, and he was cut down at the altar (Andromache 49–55, 1085–1165). Virgil says that Orestes, crazed by the loss of his bride, murdered him at the altar of his father (Aeneid 3.330–332). Other accounts blame the Delphians: Pindar says that Neoptolemus was killed at Delphi in a quarrel over the sacrificial meat and buried within the precinct (Nemean 7.34–47), and Apollodorus says that he was killed by Machaereus the Phocian, either because he demanded satisfaction from the god for his father’s death or because he plundered the votive offerings and set fire to the temple (Epitome 6.14). After his death Helenus married Andromache and ruled part of Neoptolemus’ kingdom (Virgil, Aeneid 3.325–336; Pausanias 1.11.1).

Neoptolemus Sources

The main sources for Neoptolemus are Homer’s Iliad (19.326–333) and Odyssey (4.1–9, 11.505–537), Apollodorus’ Library (3.13.8) and Epitome (5.8–12, 5.21–23, 6.12–14), Sophocles’ Philoctetes (343–353), Euripides’ Trojan Women (719–739), Hecuba (107–152, 521–582) and Andromache (24–25, 49–55, 966–981, 1085–1165), Virgil’s Aeneid (2.526–558, 3.325–336), Pindar’s Nemean 7 (34–47) and Pausanias (1.11.1).

See Also: Achilles, Thetis, Trojan War, Helenus, Andromache, Odysseus, Priam, Orestes, Apollo, Hermione, Polyxena