Priam

Description

Priam was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography as "tall for the age, big, good, ruddy-colored, light-eyed, long-nosed, eyebrows meeting, keen-eyed, gray, restrained." Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian, he was illustrated as ". . .had a handsome face and a pleasant voice. He was large and swarthy."

Marriage and children

See List of children of Priam

Priam is said to have fathered fifty sons and many daughters, with his chief wife Hecuba, daughter of the Phrygian king Dymas and many other wives and concubines. These children include famous mythological figures such as Hector, Paris, Helenus, Cassandra, Deiphobus, Troilus, Laodice, Polyxena, Creusa, and Polydorus. Priam was killed when he was around 80 years old by Achilles' son Neoptolemus.

Life

In Book 3 of Homer's Iliad, Priam tells Helen of Troy that he once helped King Mygdon of Phrygia in a battle against the Amazons.

When Hector is killed by Achilles, the Greek warrior treats the body with disrespect and refuses to give it back. According to Homer in book XXIV of the Iliad, Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam, Hector's father and the ruler of Troy, into the Greek 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. Priam begs Achilles to pity him, saying, "I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before – I put my lips to the hands of the man who killed my son." Deeply moved by Priam's supplication, Achilles relents and returns Hector's corpse to the Trojans. Both sides agree to a temporary truce, and Achilles gives Priam leave to hold a proper funeral for Hector, complete with funeral games. He promises that no Greek will engage in combat for at least nine days, but on the twelfth day of peace, the Greeks would all stand once more and the mighty war would continue marking a brief, and very significant pause in the conflict portrayed by the Homeric narrative.

Priam’s body language in the scene demonstrates ancient gestures of humility, that conveyed vulnerability and heightened the force of his plea. His reliance on these traditional forms of supplication contrasts with the dignity and restraint that characterized his reign and leadership during the Trojan War. By approaching Achilles in this manner, Priam's image as a supplicant conveyed an observable lowering of status used to express vulnerability in traditional Greek visual depictions and narratives. As Tim McNiven has shown, such gestures of male supplication are also well known from Greek vase paintings.

Priam is killed during the Sack of Troy by Achilles' son Neoptolemus (also known as Pyrrhus). His death is graphically related in Book II of Virgil's Aeneid. In Virgil's description, Neoptolemus first kills Priam's son Polites in front of his father as he seeks sanctuary on the altar of Zeus. Priam rebukes Neoptolemus, throwing a spear at him, harmlessly hitting his shield. Neoptolemus then drags Priam to the altar and there kills him too. Priam's death is alternatively depicted in some Greek vases. In this version, Neoptolemus clubs Priam to death with the corpse of the latter's baby grandson, Astyanax.

Family tree

Cultural depiction

Film

• Helen of Troy (1956) - played by Cedric Hardwicke.
• The Trojan Horse (1961) - played by Carlo Tamberlani.
• Troy (2004) - played by Peter O'Toole.

TV series

• Helen of Troy (2003) - played by John Rhys-Davies.
• Troy: Fall of a City (2018) - played by David Threlfall.

Theater

• Les Troyens in which King Priam plays a minor role (1863).
• King Priam (1962).