Person Page 84

Helenus was a Trojan soldier and prophet in the Trojan War.

In Greek mythology, Helenus was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and the twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra. He was also called Scamandrios. According to legend, Cassandra, having been given the power of prophecy by Apollo, taught it to her brother. Like Cassandra, he was always right, but unlike her, others believed him.

Helenus was part of the Trojan forces led by his brother Hector that beat the Greeks back from the plains west of Troy, and attacked their camp in the Iliad. Though when the Myrmidons led by Achilles turn the tide of battle and Hector is killed, foreshadowing Troy's imminent fall, Helenus - like most of the greatest heroes - survived the poem.

In the final year of the Trojan War, Helenus vied against his brother Deiphobus for the hand of Helen of Troy after the death of their brother Paris, but Helen was awarded to Deiphobus. Disgruntled over his loss, Helenus retreated to Mount Ida, where Odysseus later captured him. He told the Greek forces—probably out of his disgruntlement—under what circumstances they could take Troy. He said that they would win if they stole the Trojan Palladium, brought the bones of Pelops to Troy, and persuaded Neoptolemus (Achilles' son by the Scyrian princess Deidamia) and Philoctetes (who possessed Heracles' bow and arrows) to join the Greeks in the war. Neoptolemus was hiding from the war at Scyrus, but the Greeks retrieved him.

Neoptolemus had taken Helenus's sister-in-law, Andromache, as a slave and concubine after Hector's death, and fathered Molossus, Pielus and Pergamus on her. After the fall of Troy, Helenus became a sort of vassal to Neoptolemus. He traveled with Neoptolemus, Andromache and their children to Epirus, where Neoptolemus permitted him to found the city of Buthrotum. After Neoptolemus left Epirus, he left Andromache and their sons in Helenus's care. Neoptolemus was killed by Orestes, Agamemmon's son, in dispute over Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and 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. Andromache bore him a son, Cestrinus, who is identified with Genger or Zenter, a legendary Trojan king and father of Franco. Some mythographers alleged that Helenus married Neoptolemus's mother, Deidamia, as well as Andromache, in order to consolidate his claims on part of Neoptolemus' kingdom. Helenus prophesied Aeneas' founding of Rome when he and his followers stopped at Buthrotum, detailed by Virgil in Aeneid Book III.

Appears in Aeneid, Book III, line(s) 295, 334, 374.

Real, myth??

Ilus (Ilos in Greek) is in Greek mythology the founder of the city called Ilion (Latinized as Ilium) to which he gave his name. When the latter became the chief city of the Trojan people it was also often called Troy, the name by which it is best known today.

Ilus was son and heir to Tros of Dardania and brother of Assaracus and Ganymede. He won the wrestling prize at games held by the King of Phrygia and received fifty youths and maidens as his reward. The king also, on the advice of an oracle, gave him a cow and asked him to found a city where it should lie down. Ilus did so.

Ilus then prayed to Zeus for a sign and at once saw the Palladium fallen from heaven and lying before his tent but was immediately blinded for the impiety of looking on the image. He regained his sight after making offerings to Athena.

Ilus preferred his new city of Ilium to Dardania and on his father's death he remained there, bestowing the rule of Dardania on his brother Assaracus instead and so the Trojans were split into two kingdoms.

Ilus was father of Laomedon who succeeded him. His wife was said to be either Eurydice (daughter of Adrastus), or Leucippe. Other children of Ilus include two daughters, Themiste (or Themis) and Telecleia, who married Capys and Cisseus, respectively.

A figure in Greek mythology who was the eponymous ancestor of the Trojans.