Priam

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Priam

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Priam (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
???aµ?? Priamos) was the king of Troy

Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
during the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
and youngest son of Laomedon

Laomedon

In Greek mythology, Laomedon was a Troy king, son of Ilus, brother of Ganymede and father of Priam, Astyoche, Lampus, Hicetaon, Clytius, Cilla , Proclia, Aethilla, Clytodora, and Hesione....
. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous".

See List of King Priam's children
List of King Priam's children

Priam, the mythical king of Troy during the Trojan War, supposedly had 50 sons and 50 daughters. Priam had several wives, the primary one Hecuba, daughter of Dymas, and several concubines, who bore his children....

Priam had a number of wives; his first was Arisbe

Arisbe (daughter of Merops)

In Greek mythology, Arisbe was a daughter of Merops of Percote, a seer. In a non-Homeric story, she married Priam, later king of Troy, and bore him a son named Aesacus....
, who had given birth to his son Aesacus

Aesacus

Aesacus or Aisakos, in Greek mythology, was a son of King Priam of Troy. Aesacus sorrowed for the death of his wife or would-be lover, a daughter of the river Cebren, and was transformed into a bird....
, who met a tragic death before the advent of the Trojan War.

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Encyclopedia

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek language

Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
during the Trojan War

Trojan War

Laomedon

Marriage and issue

Priam had a number of wives; his first was Arisbe

Arisbe (daughter of Merops)

Aesacus

Hecuba

Hecuba was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy, with whom she had 19 children. The most famous of said children was Hector of Troy....
(or Hecebe), daughter of the Phrygian

Phrygian

Phrygian can refer to:*A person from Phrygia*Phrygian cap once characteristic of the region* Phrygian language*Phrygian mode in music* Phrygian Valley, a historic location in northwestern Turkey...
king Dymas

Dymas

In Greek mythology, Dymas is the name attributed to at least four individuals.The first Dymas was a Phrygian king and father of Hecabe , wife to King Priam of Troy....
. By his various wives and concubines Priam was the father of fifty sons and nineteen daughters. Hector

Hector

In Greek mythology, Hector , or Hektor, is a Troy prince and one of the greatest fighters in the Trojan War. He is the son of Priam and Hecuba, descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy....
was Priam's eldest son by Hecuba, and heir to the Trojan throne. Paris

Paris (mythology)

Paris , the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek mythology. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War....
, another son, was the cause of the Trojan War. Other children of Priam and Hecuba include the prophetic Helenus

Helenus

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....
and Cassandra

Cassandra

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy....
; eldest daughter Ilione

Ilione

In Greek mythology, Ilione was the oldest daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her husband was the Thracian king Polymestor. Aeneas gives her scepter to Dido in the Aeneid....
; Deiphobus

Deiphobus

In Greek mythology, Deiphobus was a son of Priam and Hecuba. He was a prince of Troy, and the greatest of Priam's sons after Hector and Paris ....
; Troilus

Troilus

Troilus is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homer's Iliad which is believed to have been written in the late 9th century BC or 8th century BC....
; Polites

Polites

In Greek mythology, Polites referred to two different people, both of whom feature as minor characters in the epics by Homer.*Polites was a member Odysseus's crew....
; Creusa

Creusa

In Greek mythology, four people had the name Creusa ; the name means simply "princess"....
, wife of Aeneas

Aeneas

This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas .In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Troy hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus_....
; Laodice

Laodice

In Greek mythology, the name Laodice referred to different people but most importantly the wife of Telephus and the Queen of Mysia.*An alternate name for Electra...
, wife of Helicaon

Helicaon

In Greek mythology Helicaon is the son of Antenor and Theano. His wife Laodice fell in love with Acamas...
; Polyxena

Polyxena

Polyxena - ???????? was known to be a beautiful Troy princess from Greek mythology. She is the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba....
, who was slaughtered on the grave of Achilles; and Polydorus

Polydorus

In Greek mythology, Polydorus referred to several different people.#An Argive, son of Hippomedon. Pausanias lists him as one of the Epigoni, who attacked Thebes, Greece in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven Against Thebes, who died attempting the same thing....
, his youngest son.

Life

Priam was originally called Podarces

Podarces

In Greek mythology, Podarces was a son of Iphicles and brother of Protesilaus. In Homer Iliad, Podarces and Protesilaus were former suitors of Helen, and therefore bound to defend the marriage rights of Menelaus, her husband, when Helen was kidnapped by Paris ....
and he kept himself from being killed by Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
by giving him a golden veil embroidered by his sister, Hesione

Hesione

file:HerculesHesione.jpgIn Greek mythology, the most prominent Hesione was a Troy princess, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy, sister of Priam and second wife of King Telamon of Salamis Island....
. After this, Podarces changed his name to Priam. This is an etymology based on priatos "ransomed"; the actual etymology of the name is probably not Greek, but perhaps Lydian

Lydian

Lydian may refer to:* Lydian language, an ancient Anatolian language* Lydian script* Lydian mode, one of the modes derived from ancient Greek music...
in origin.

When Hector

Hector

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
, Achilles treats the body with disrespect and refuses to give it back. Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam, Hector’s father and the ruler of Troy, into the Achaean camp. Priam tearfully pleads with Achilles to take pity on a father bereft of his son and return Hector’s body. He invokes the memory of Achilles’ own father, Peleus

Peleus

In Greek mythology, Pele?s was a Greek hero cult who was already known to Homer. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Ende?s, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he became the father of Achilles....
. Deeply moved, Achilles finally relents and returns Hector’s corpse to the Trojans. Both sides agree to a temporary truce, and Hector receives a hero’s funeral. Achilles further goes on to give Priam leave to hold a proper funeral for Hector complete with funeral games. He promises that no Greek will engage in combat for 11 days, but on the 12th day of peace, the mighty war between the Greeks and the Trojans would resume.

It has been suggested by Hittite

Hittite

Hittite may refer to:*Hittites, ancient Anatolian people*Neo-Hittite states, Iron Age successors to the Hittite people located in modern Turkey and Syria...
sources, specifically the Manapa-Tarhunta letter

Manapa-Tarhunta letter

The Manapa-Tarhunta letter is a Hittite language letter discovered in the 1980s. It was written by a client king called Manapa-Tarhunta to an unnamed Hittite king around 1295 BCE....
that there is historical basis for the archetype

Archetype

An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all....
of King Priam. The letter describes one Piyama-Radu

Piyama-Radu

Piyamaradu was a warlike aristocratic personage whose name figures prominently in the Hittites archives of the middle and late 13th century BC in western Anatolia....
as a troublesome rebel who overthrew a Hittite

Hittite

Hittite may refer to:*Hittites, ancient Anatolian people*Neo-Hittite states, Iron Age successors to the Hittite people located in modern Turkey and Syria...
client king and thereafter established his own rule over the city of Troy (mentioned as Wilusa

Wilusa

Wilusa was a city of the late Bronze Age Assuwa confederation of western Anatolia.It is known from six references in 13th century BC Hittite language sources, including...
in Hittite). There is also mention of an Alaksandu

Alaksandu

Alaksandu was a king of Wilusa who sealed a treaty with Muwatalli II ca. 1280 BC. This treaty implies that Alaksandu had previously secured a treaty with Muwatalli's father, Mursili II, as well....
, suggested to be Paris Alexander(King Priam's son from the Iliad

ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
), a later ruler of the city of Wilusa

Wilusa

Wilusa was a city of the late Bronze Age Assuwa confederation of western Anatolia.It is known from six references in 13th century BC Hittite language sources, including...
who established peace between Wilusa and Hatti

Hatti

Hatti in Bronze Age Anatolia refers to:*the area of Hattusa, roughly delimited by the Halys bend*the Hattians of the 3rd millennium BC and 2nd millennium BC millennia BC...
(see the Alaksandu treaty).

In later literature

In the sack

Looting

Looting , to rob, sacking, plundering, despoiling, or pillaging is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe or riot, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting....
of Troy, Priam was brutally murdered by Achilles's son Neoptolemus

Neoptolemus

In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia . Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles birth that there would be a great war....
(also known in the Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
as Pyrrhus), in a scene memorialized both in Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
's Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
and Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle King Claudius, who has murdered King Hamlet, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude ....
. In said stories, Neoptolemus stormed into the palace of Priam and proceeded to make his way to Priam's chamber. After killing Polites, one of the many sons of Priam, Neoptolemus stabbed Priam in the side with his sword and inserted the blade up to the hilt. In Hamlet, Shakespeare particularly mentions Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus) pausing before killing Priam (i.e. killing him deliberately in cold blood).

In the Prose Edda

Prose Edda

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Old Norse language Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Norse mythology....
, Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was two-time elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing....
claimed that Priam was the ancestor of a race that migrated to Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical subregion in northern Europe that includes the Scandinavian Peninsula. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; some authorities also include Finland and some might even include Iceland....
and served as a basis for the Aesir.

In popular culture

In Dark Mirror
Dark Mirror

'Dark Mirror' may refer to:*Dark Mirror *Dark Mirror *...
, a Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American Science fiction on television entertainment series and media franchise. The Star Trek fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry is the setting of six television series including the original 1966 Star Trek: The Original Series, in addition to ten feature films with Star Trek to be released on May 8,...
novel taking place in the Mirror Universe, Priam has a much darker fate - as he is begging for the release of Hector's body for the burial rites, Achilles kills him in cold blood.

In Troy: Fall of Kings
Troy: Fall of Kings

Troy: Fall of Kings is a historical fantasy novel by British fantasy writer David Gemmell, forming the final part of the Troy Series.It was finished by his wife, Stella Gemmell, following his death on July 28 2006 and released under the joint authorship of David and Stella Gemmell....
by David Gemmell
David Gemmell

David Andrew Gemmell was a bestselling British author of heroic fantasy. A former journalist and newspaper editor, Gemmell's first fiction work published in 1984....
, Priam leaps to his death from the Great Tower in Troy.

In the 2004 film Troy
Troy (film)

Troy is an epic film released on May 14, 2004, concerning the Trojan War. It is loosely based on Homer's Iliad, but includes material from Virgil's Aeneid and other sources, and frequently diverges from myth....
, King Priam is portrayed by actor Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole

Peter Seamus O'Toole is an Irish people actor of stage and screen who achieved instant stardom in 1962 playing T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia ....
.

Priam

Marriage and issue

Life

In later literature

In popular culture

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