Irlandos at 09:41, December 29, 2005

2005-12-29T09:41:43Z

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In [[Greek mythology]], '''Priam''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] '''Πρίαμος''') was the king of [[Troy]] during the [[Trojan War]], and son of [[Laomedon]]. Priam had a number of wives (his first was [[Arisbe]]); his chief wife, [[Hecuba]], bore him twenty children. Another wife, [[Laothoe]], was the mother of [[Lycaon]]. He also fathered [[Cebriones]] with a slave. Priam was originally called [[Podarge]] (or Podarces) and he kept himself from being killed by [[Heracles]] by giving him a golden veil embroidered by his sister, [[Hesione]]. After this, Podarge changed his name to Priam. This is an aitiological popular etymology based on ''priatos'' "ransomed"; the actual etymology of the name is probably not Greek, a Lydian origin was suggested.

[[Polydorus]], Priam's youngest son, was sent with gifts of jewelry and gold to the court of King [[Polymestor]] to keep him safe during the [[Trojan War]]. The fighting grew vicious and Priam was frightened for the child's safety. After Troy fell, Polymestor threw Polydorus to his death to take the treasure for himself. Hecuba eventually avenged her son.

When [[Hector]] was killed by [[Achilles]], Priam walked into the Greek encampment and begged for Hector's body so he could be buried. Achilles agreed, though he had already dragged the body around Troy three times. In the sack of Troy, Priam was brutally murdered by Achilles's son [[Neoptolemus]] (also known in the Aeneid as Pyrrhus), in a scene memorialized both in Virgil's ''Aeneid'' and Shakespeare's ''Hamlet''.

====Priam's Children====
* By [[Arisbe]]:

* By [[Hecuba]]: [[Hector]], [[Ilione]], [[Creusa]], [[Deiphobus]], [[Helenus]], [[Antiphus]], [[Polites]], [[Laodice]], [[Paris]], [[Cassandra]], [[Polydorus]], [[Polyxena]], [[Tróáin]].

**[[Troilus]] (fathered by [[Apollo]])

* By [[Laothoe]]: [[Lycaon]]

* Other: [[Cebriones]]

[[Category:Trojans]]
[[Category:People who fought in the Trojan War]]

Priam - Revision history

Irlandos at 09:41, December 29, 2005