Source-groundedThe Iliad
All entities

Character · Individual

Helenus

son of Priam

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name
Helenus
Disambiguator
son of Priam
Kind
Character
Scope
Individual
Editorial note
Distinct from the inherited Helenus, son of Oenops; this augur is explicitly Priam’s son.

Aliases

0

No aliases recorded.

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

0

No presence observations in the processed scope.

Claims

6
·Direct

Helenus, Priam’s son and wisest augur, directs Hector and Aeneas to hold their ground and rally the host before the gates.

See evidence text
“Priam’s son Helenus, wisest of augurs, said to Hector and Aeneas, ‘Hector and Aeneas, you two are the mainstays of the Trojans and Lycians, for you are foremost at all times, alike in fight and counsel; hold your ground here, and go about among the host to rally them in front of the gates, or they will fling themselves into the arms of their wives, to the great joy of our foes. Then, when you have put heart into all our companies, we will stand firm here and fight the Danaans however hard they press us, for there is nothing else to be done”
·Direct

Helenus divines the gods’ counsel, approaches his brother Hector, and urges him to challenge the best Achaean, assuring him that his doom is not yet due.

See evidence text
“Helenus son of Priam divined the counsel of the gods; he therefore went up to Hector and said, ‘Hector son of Priam, peer of gods in counsel, I am your brother, let me then persuade you. Bid the other Trojans and Achaeans all of them take their seats, and challenge the best man among the Achaeans to meet you in single combat. I have heard the voice of the ever-living gods, and the hour of your doom is not yet come”
·Direct

Helenus strikes Deipyrus at the temple in close combat with a great Thracian sword and tears away his helmet.

See evidence text
“Helenus then struck Deipyrus with a great Thracian sword, hitting him on the temple in close combat and tearing the helmet from his head; the helmet fell to the ground”
·Direct

Helenus’s arrow glances off Menelaus’s armour; a spear pierces his bow hand and pins it to the bow, forcing retreat.

See evidence text
“Helenus drew his bow, and the two attacked one another at one and the same moment, the one with his spear, and the other with his bow and arrow. The son of Priam hit the breastplate of Menelaus’s corslet, but the arrow glanced from off it. As black beans or pulse come pattering down on to a threshing-floor from the broad winnowing-shovel, blown by shrill winds and shaken by the shovel—even so did the arrow glance off and recoil from the shield of Menelaus, who in his turn wounded the hand with which Helenus carried his bow; the spear went right through his hand and stuck in the bow itself, so that to his life he retreated under cover of his men, with his hand dragging by his side”
·Direct

Helenus has been struck and wounded by the Argives.

See evidence text
“looking everywhere to find Deiphobus and prince Helenus, Adamas son of Asius, and Asius son of Hyrtacus; living, indeed, and scatheless he could no longer find them, for the two last were lying by the sterns of the Achaean ships, slain by the Argives, while the others had been also stricken and wounded by them”
·Reported

Alexandrus reports that Helenus left the field alive with a wounded hand.

See evidence text
“Deiphobus and King Helenus alone have left the field, wounded both of them in the hand”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

4
·Direct
“Priam’s son Helenus, wisest of augurs”
·Direct
“Helenus son of Priam divined the counsel of the gods”
·Direct
“Helenus then struck Deipyrus”
·Direct
“Then he called to his sons, upbraiding Helenus, Paris, noble Agathon, Pammon, Antiphonus, Polites of the loud battle-cry, Deiphobus, Hippothous, and Dius.”

Passage preview

Book 6 · Passage 9

With these words he put heart and soul into them all. And now the Trojans would have been routed and driven back into Ilius, had not Priam’s son Helenus, wisest of augurs, said to Hector and Aeneas, ‘Hector and Aeneas, you two are the mainstays of the Trojans and Lycians, for you are foremost at all times, alike in fight and counsel; hold your ground here, and go about among the host to rally them in front of the gates, or they will fling themselves into the arms of their wives, to the great joy of our foes. Then, when you have put heart into all our companies, we will stand firm here and fight the Danaans however hard they press us, for there is nothing else to be done. Meanwhile do you, Hector, go to the city and tell our mother what is happening. Tell her to bid the matrons gather at the temple of Minerva in the acropolis; let her then take her key and open the doors of the sacred building; there, upon the knees of Minerva, let her lay the largest, fairest robe she has in her house—the one she sets most store by; let her, moreover, promise to sacrifice twelve yearling heifers that have never yet felt the goad, in the temple of the goddess, if she will take pity on the town, with the wives and little ones of the Trojans, and keep the son of Tydeus from falling on the goodly city of Ilius; for he fights with fury and fills men’s souls with panic. I hold him mightiest of them all; we did not fear even their great champion Achilles, son of a goddess though he be, as we do this man: his rage is beyond all bounds, and there is none can vie with him in prowess.’