Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis Amphiktyon
Many Greeks and especially foreigners think that the Trojan War took place between foreign tribes, or between East and West, and Turkish paranoia may consider the Trojans to be distant ancestors of the Turko-Mongols. The truth is that the Trojan War was a civil war between Greek tribes. The Trojans and Thracians were Greek tribes, as were their Achaean opponents. From the names and the gods, everyone can understand this. Priam was previously called Podarkis and then he was called Priam. He was appointed king by Hercules when he had campaigned there. Others say that when Heracles came to Troy his father had appointed him Phrygia. Priam married Arisbe, daughter of Meropus, and she bore him Aisakon. Then he gave Arisbe to Hyrtacus, and he married Hecabe, daughter of Diamantus, or the river Sangarius. By her he begat: [Hector, Parin, Crepus, Laodice, Polyxena, Cassandra, Diophobe, Helen, Pamona, Polite, Antiphon, Hippona, Polydorus, and Troilus.] He also begat illegitimate sons by many women. The ancients honored illegitimate sons as well as natural ones. Thus Homer does not hesitate to mention Teucer as illegitimate, but he was born of a princess. He calls those born of legitimate marriage legitimate and those born of concubines illegitimate. He calls those born of an unknown father ‘dark’ and those born of a virgin mother virgin. In total, Priam fathered 45 sons (not mentioned for reasons of economy) and 8 daughters, the following: [Aristodemus, Creusa, Cassandra, Laodice, Lysimachus, Medusa, Medesikastis, and Polyxena]. When the Achaeans arrived in Troy, all the children were alive. After the war began, some were killed in the battles, such as: Hector, Troilus, and Mistor. After the murder of Hector, nine living people are mentioned whom Priam reproaches, apparently for their cowardice and names them: “bad sons of murderers” “Lies, orchestras, excellent dancers” I wish they had all been killed instead of Hector, their savior and the city. Because Heracles demolished the city wall, Priam built it stronger. When he fortified the city and strengthened the defense, he sent Antenor as an ambassador to Greece to ask for Hesione. He went first to Peleus, then to Telamon, the Dioscuri and Nestor, but they all gave him the same answer that “the Trojans were to blame”. So he returned without doing anything and was even cursed. Peleus and Telamon did not accept him. Therefore, he urged Priam to take revenge, but Hector did not want war. Paris asked for a fleet to avenge the insult, but Helen was against it. On the contrary, Zeus and Troilus took Paris’ side. Thus the fleet was organized for Paris to seize Helen. In the war, Priam was already old as he saw his sons and allies killed and the betrayal and fall of his city. Finally, Pyrrhus killed him too on the altar of Zeus. Priam was magnificent, very agile, handsome, with beautiful eyes, a large nose, lively eyebrows, shaggy, light blue, bright crimson. He was a wise and kind king and an experienced commander and he cared for his allies and others. The betrayal of Antenor. Antenor was a controversial figure in Greek Mythology. He was an advisor to King Priam during the Trojan War. He was the son of the Trojan hero Aesyete and Cleomestra, or the son of Iketaeon, his wife Theano was a priestess of the Goddess Athena, her father Kissea was the king of Thrace and her mother was Hecuba. They gave birth to Crino and many sons, called by Homer the Antinorides: [Archilochus, Helikaon, Laodocus, Coon, Agenor, Dimoleon, Eurymachus, Antheus, Thersilochus and Medona]. Most of his sons were killed in the Trojan War, especially by Achilles and his son Neoptolemus. However, it seems that Antenor was not happy with the outcome of the war. It appears sporadically in Homer’s Iliad, in Rhapsody III, that he hosted Menelaus and Odysseus, who were searching for Helen, in his house before the war began, then he fled them so that the Greeks would not murder them. In Rhapsody VIII of the Iliad, Antenor advises the Trojans to give back the Beautiful Helen, to avoid war, acknowledging Troy’s responsibilities for accepting the illegitimate couple, but Paris refuses. Virgil in the “Aeneid” presents Aphrodite telling Zeus that Antenor, after the fall of Troy, fled to northern Italy and founded the city of Patavium, today’s Padua. Geoffrey Chaucer in his work “Troilus and Chryseis” presents Antenor as a mute young man, who was a prisoner of the Greeks, who was eventually freed after his exchange with Chryseis took place (9/11/25)
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