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Figures in the ancient sources

Helenus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Helenus

19 passages from 10 ancient authors that tell of Helenus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Helenus was the son of King Priam of Troy and Queen Hecuba in Greek mythology, twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra. Cassandra, who had been given... For the story in one place, read our article on Helenus.

Homer (4)

  1. Homer, Iliad 13.576–672Helenus and Menelaus; Paris kills EuchenorHelenus kills Deipyrus with a great sword stroke, and Menelaus pins Helenus' hand to his bow with a spear. Menelaus kills Peisander, and Meriones kills Harpalion, the son of Pylaemenes, who is mourned by the Paphlagonians. Paris, angry at Harpalion's death, kills Euchenor.
  2. Homer, Iliad 13.673–787Polydamas' counsel; Hector regroupsHector, fighting on the left, does not know that the Achaeans are winning elsewhere. Polydamas advises him to call the chiefs together and decide whether to press on or retire, and Hector agrees but finds many of the leaders wounded or dead. He rebukes Paris sharply, and Paris answers that he will come with him.
  3. Homer, Iliad 6.1–118Helenus sends Hector to TroyThe Trojans give way before the Achaeans: Ajax kills Acamas and Diomedes kills Axylus, and Menelaus is about to spare Adrastus when Agamemnon kills him. Helenus tells Aeneas and Hector to hold the Trojans at the gates, and asks Hector to go to the city and have the older women offer a robe to Athena and vow twelve heifers if she will keep Diomedes from Troy. Hector rallies the host and leaves for Ilios.
  4. Homer, Iliad 7.1–91Hector challenges the AchaeansHector and Paris return to the battle together, and each kills an Achaean. Apollo and Athena meet beside the oak and agree to end the fighting for the day with a single combat, and Helenus, who understands the gods' plan, tells Hector to challenge the best of the Achaeans. Hector steps between the armies and proposes a duel in which the winner keeps the dead man's armour but returns his body.

Apollodorus (1)

  1. Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.5.1–23The death of Achilles, the Wooden Horse and the fall of TroyPenthesilea and then Memnon come to Troy's aid and are killed by Achilles, who is himself shot by Paris and Apollo. The contest for Achilles' arms drives Ajax to madness and suicide. Troy falls after Philoctetes shoots Paris, Helenus reveals the three conditions, Neoptolemus joins the army and Odysseus steals the Palladium, and the Greeks take the city with the Wooden Horse, Sinon and the beacon at Tenedos; the section closes with the sack, the deaths of Astyanax and Polyxena, and the division of the captives.

Sophocles (2)

  1. Sophocles, Philoctetes 507–627Second episode: Neoptolemus agrees; the Merchant's warningThe Chorus urge Neoptolemus to pity the man, and he agrees to take Philoctetes on board, and Philoctetes is overjoyed. As they are about to go, a Merchant arrives and says that Phoenix and the sons of Theseus are coming after Philoctetes, and that Odysseus and Diomedes are sailing for the same purpose. He tells them that the Trojan seer Helenus has foretold that Troy will fall only if Philoctetes is brought to it, and Philoctetes says that he would rather die than be persuaded by Odysseus.
  2. Sophocles, Philoctetes 1314–1347Exodos (cont.): Neoptolemus urges Philoctetes to go to TroyNeoptolemus tells Philoctetes that men must bear what the gods send, but that clinging to self-made misery is not excusable. He says that the disease came from the gods, because he came near the guardian serpent of Chryse, and that it will be healed when he goes to Troy, where the sons of Asclepius will cure him. He says that he and Philoctetes will take the city, as the Trojan prisoner Helenus has said, and that this must happen in the coming summer.

Euripides (1)

  1. Euripides, Andromache 1222–1288Exodos: Thetis appears and consoles PeleusPeleus says that he has no city or sceptre left and throws his sceptre on the ground, and the Chorus sees a divine form moving through the air. It is Thetis, who tells him that he must take the body to the Pythian altar and bury it there, a reproach to Delphi, and that Andromache will live in the Molossian land, married to Helenus, and that her child will found an unbroken line of kings, while Peleus himself will be made divine and live with her in the halls of Nereus.

Ovid (1)

  1. Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.359–476Pythagoras: the phoenix, the rise and fall of citiesPythagoras describes the transformations of living things: the birth of bees from cattle, of frogs from mud, and of the phoenix, which renews itself from its own pyre. He tells of the changes of sex in the hyena, and of the chameleon and the lynx. Cities, too, rise and fall: Troy, Sparta, Mycenae and Thebes have lost their strength, and Rome is rising. He ends with a plea not to kill animals for food and not to trap them by deceit.

Pausanias (3)

  1. Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.11.1–7Pyrrhus of Epirus: ancestry and rise to the throneAthens has a statue of Pyrrhus. Pausanias traces the Epirote royal house from Pyrrhus son of Achilles, Andromache and Helenus, and tells how Aeacides, Alcetas and finally Pyrrhus came to the throne after the fall of Olympias, Pyrrhus being restored with Ptolemy’s help. As king he first attacks Corcyra; Pausanias notes that no Greek before Pyrrhus fought the Romans, since Alexander of Epirus fell in Lucania first.
  2. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.23.1–8Argos: Hollow Street, the Asclepieum and disputed Argive tombsAlong Hollow Street are a temple of Dionysus, brought from Euboea, the house of Adrastus, and shrines of Amphiaraus, Eriphyle, Asclepius and Baton. Pausanias disputes Argive claims to hold the tombs of Hyrnetho, Deianira and Helenus and the Palladium, noting that the Palladium went to Italy and Deianira died near Trachis. He also describes the underground chamber of Acrisius’ daughter, the tomb of Crotopus, and the temple of Cretan Dionysus, where Ariadne’s coffin was said to be found.
  3. Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.25.1–11Delphi: the Cnidian Lesche and Polygnotus' painting of Troy after its capture (1)Pausanias describes the building dedicated by the Cnidians at Delphi, called the Lesche or Club-room, with its paintings by Polygnotus. On the right wall the painting shows Troy after its capture and the Greeks setting sail, with Menelaus' crew and the pilot Phrontis, then Helen and her handmaids, Helenus, the wounded Meges and Lycomedes, Aethra and Demophon, and the captive Trojan women, Andromache, Medisicaste and Polyxena, with Nestor.

Conon (1)

  1. Conon, Narrations 28.1–36.1Tenes, Tereus and the Spartan colonistsTenes' axe, the wanderings of the Magnesians and the punished negligence of Peithenius open the section. Tereus' crime against Philomela and the adventures of Proteus in Thrace follow, then Branchus of Didyma, the theft of the Palladion and the shepherd rescued by vultures. The Spartan colonists who founded Melos and settled Gortyn close it.

Plato (1)

  1. Plato, Cratylus 391a–394eHomer on names: Xanthus and Scamander, Astyanax and HectorHermogenes cannot easily give up his conviction, and Socrates tells him that the Sophists, whose teaching he cannot afford, are not the only source, so he should turn to Homer. Homer says that the river which fought with Hephaestus is called Xanthus by the gods and Scamander by men, and a bird chalcis by the gods and cymindis by men. Socrates then examines the names of Hector's son, Scamandrius and Astyanax, and notes that Astyanax (lord of the city) and Hector (holder) have almost the same meaning though they share almost no letters. He draws the principle that offspring should keep the name of the kind, as a lion's offspring is a lion, while the syllables may differ if the meaning stays.

Strabo (1)

  1. Strabo, Geography 13.1.52–55Scepsis: Aeneas and Aristotle's libraryStrabo describes Scepsis, ruled by descendants of Hector and Aeneas, and sets out the stories of Aeneas' fate, from Antenor's escape to Thrace to Aeneas' voyage, with Homer's lines that he and his descendants would rule the Trojans. He then tells how the books of Aristotle and Theophrastus passed to Neleus of Scepsis, were hidden underground, and were sold to Apellicon and later seized by Sylla for Rome. Demetrius the grammarian and Metrodorus close the section.

Virgil (4)

  1. Virgil, Aeneid 3.278–355Actium and Buthrotum: AndromacheThe Trojans make offerings and hold games at Actium, and Aeneas hangs a bronze shield on the temple door. At Buthrotum they hear that Helenus, Priam's son, now rules there with Andromache as his wife, and Aeneas finds her pouring offerings at an empty tomb of Hector. She faints at the sight of him, then tells him how Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) took her as a slave, how Orestes killed him, and how Helenus gained part of the realm. Helenus then welcomes the Trojans to a feast.
  2. Virgil, Aeneid 3.356–505The prophecy of HelenusAeneas asks Helenus how to escape the dangers foretold by Celaeno, and the priest prophesies that Italy is far off. Aeneas will find a white sow with thirty piglets, avoid the Greek-held coasts, sail around Sicily to avoid Scylla and Charybdis, pray to Hera (Juno), and visit the Sibyl at Cumae. Helenus gives gifts, and Andromache gives Ascanius (Iulus) robes in memory of her son Astyanax. Aeneas hopes the two peoples will one day be one in spirit.
  3. Virgil, Aeneid 3.506–587The voyage to Sicily and Mount EtnaThe Trojans sail toward Italy, and at dawn Achates is the first to see it. They land by a temple of Athena (Minerva), where Anchises reads four white horses as a sign of both war and peace, and they sacrifice to Hera (Juno) as Helenus instructed. They sail past Tarentum and Scylaceum, steer left to escape Charybdis, and reach the land of the Cyclops. There Mount Etna thunders and throws out fire and smoke through the night.
  4. Virgil, Aeneid 3.588–718Achaemenides and the Cyclops; the death of AnchisesAt dawn a starving man staggers from the woods and begs the Trojans for mercy, saying he is Achaemenides, a companion of Odysseus (Ulysses) left behind in the cave of the Cyclops. He describes the giant's cannibal feasts and how the Greeks blinded him. Polyphemus then appears, blinded, and the Trojans flee as the Cyclopes gather on the shore. They sail around Sicily's coast and land at Drepanum, where Anchises dies.