Helenus

Helenus was a son of King Priam of Troy and Queen Hecuba in Greek mythology, and the best seer among the Trojans. He fought in the Trojan War, was captured by Odysseus and revealed what the Greeks needed in order to take Troy. After the war he settled in Epirus, where he married Andromache and became king.

Family

Apollodorus lists Helenus among the sons of Priam and Hecuba, together with Hector, Paris, Deiphobus, Pammon, Polites, Antiphus, Hipponous, Polydorus and Troilus; Cassandra was among their daughters (Library 3.12.5). Homer calls him “the son of Priam, by far the best of the bird-seers” (Iliad 6.76). Cassandra is the Trojan prophetess whom no one believed; Helenus had no such curse, and in the Iliad his advice is followed. Homer does not say how he came by his gift.

Helenus in the Iliad

In the Iliad Helenus is a seer, a warrior and a counsellor. When the Trojans are hard pressed in battle he urges Hector and Aeneas to rally the army (Iliad 6.75–77). Later he understands in his heart the plan which Athena and Apollo had agreed on, and advises Hector to stop the fighting and challenge the best of the Greeks to single combat, which leads to the duel between Hector and Ajax (Iliad 7.44–53). With Deiphobus he commands one of the divisions of the Trojan attack on the Greek wall (Iliad 12.94). He strikes down the Greek Deipyrus with a Thracian sword (Iliad 13.576–577).

After the Death of Paris

After Paris died, Helenus and Deiphobus quarrelled over which of them should marry Helen. Deiphobus was preferred, and Helenus left Troy and went to live on Mount Ida (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.9). Quintus of Smyrna also tells of the wrath of Helenus, who had hoped in vain to marry Helen, and foretells that he would flee to the mountain and be seized by the Greeks (Fall of Troy 10).

Calchas had said that Helenus knew the oracles that protected the city, so Odysseus set an ambush, captured him and brought him to the Greek camp (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.9). In Sophocles’ Philoctetes, Odysseus captured Helenus at night; the seer then revealed that Troy would never fall unless Philoctetes were persuaded to come from Lemnos (Philoctetes 604–613). In Apollodorus, Helenus is forced to say how Troy can be taken: the bones of Pelops must be brought to the Greeks; Neoptolemus must fight on their side; and the Palladium, which had fallen from heaven, must be stolen from Troy, because the city could not be taken while it was inside the walls. The Greeks then fetched the bones of Pelops and sent Odysseus and Phoenix to Scyros to bring Neoptolemus (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.10–11).

Epirus

After the war, Neoptolemus set out by land for the country of the Molossians together with Helenus (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.12). Pausanias says that Neoptolemus, called Pyrrhus, settled in Epirus because of the oracles of Helenus; Helenus married Andromache after Pyrrhus was killed at Delphi and had a son, Cestrinus. When Helenus died, he left the kingdom to Molossus, son of Pyrrhus and Andromache (Description of Greece 1.11.1–2).

Virgil gives a similar account. Aeneas, sailing past Epirus, finds Helenus ruling at Buthrotum with Andromache as his wife; Neoptolemus, wishing to marry Hermione, had passed Andromache on to Helenus, and after Neoptolemus was murdered by Orestes, part of his realm came to Helenus. Helenus then gives Aeneas prophecies about the voyage to Italy, including warnings about Scylla and Charybdis (Aeneid 3.294–505).

In Apollodorus, Helenus founded a city in Molossia and Neoptolemus gave him his mother Deidamia as a wife (Epitome 6.13).

Helenus Sources

Homer, Iliad 6.75–77, 7.44–53, 12.94, 13.576–577; Sophocles, Philoctetes 604–613; Apollodorus, Library 3.12.5, Epitome 5.9–11, 6.12–13; Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 10; Pausanias 1.11.1–2; Virgil, Aeneid 3.294–505.

See Also: Priam, Hecuba, Cassandra, Apollo, Trojan War, Hector, Paris, Helen, Odysseus, Neoptolemus, Andromache, Philoctetes, Deiphobus