Neoptolemus

For other uses, see Neoptolemus (disambiguation).

Neoptolemus' Kingdom, Epirus

In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus (/ˌniːəpˈtɒlɪməs/; Ancient Greek: Νεοπτόλεμος, romanized: Neoptólemos, lit. 'new warrior'), also called Pyrrhus (/ˈpɪrəs/; Πύρρος, Pýrrhos, 'red', for his red hair), was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia, and the brother of Oneiros. He became the mythical progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Molossians of ancient Epirus.

In Cypria, Achilles sails to Scyros after a failed expedition to Troy, marries princess Deidamia and has Neoptolemus, until Achilles is called to arms again. In a non-Homeric version of the story, Achilles' mother Thetis foretold many years before Achilles' birth that there would be a great war. She saw that her only son was to die if he fought in the war. She sought a place for him to avoid fighting in the Trojan War, disguising him as a woman in the court of Lycomedes, the king of Scyros. During that time Achilles had an affair with the princess, Deidamea, who then gave birth to Neoptolemos. Neoptolemos was originally called Pyrrhos, because his father had called himself Pyrrha, the female version of that name, while disguised as a woman.

The Greeks captured the Trojan seer, Helenus, and forced him to tell them under what conditions they could take Troy. Helenos revealed to them that they could defeat Troy if they could acquire the poisonous arrows of Heracles (then in the possession of Philoctetes); steal the Palladium (which led to the building of the famous wooden horse of Troy); and put Achilles' son in the war.

In response to the prophecy, the Greeks took steps to retrieve the arrows of Heracles and to bring Neoptolemos to Troy. They sent Odysseus to retrieve Neoptolemos, then a mere teenager, from Scyros. The two then went to Lemnos to retrieve Philoctetes. Years earlier, on the way to Troy, Philoctetes had been bitten by a snake on Chryse Island. Agamemnon had advised that he be left behind because the wound was festering and smelled bad. This retrieval is the plot of Philoctetes, a play by Sophocles. Euripides, in his play Hekabe (also known as Hecuba), has a moving scene (ll 566–575) which shows Neoptolemos as a compassionate young man who kills Polyxena, Hekabe's daughter, with ambivalent feelings and in the least painful way.

Neoptolemus killing Priam

Some sources portray Neoptolemos as brutal. He killed six men on the field of battle. During and after the Trojan war he killed Priam, Eurypylus, Polyxena, Polites and Astyanax (Hector and Andromache's infant son) among others, captured Helenos, and made Andromache (the widow of Hector), his concubine. The ghost of Achilles appeared to the survivors of the war, demanding Polyxena, the Trojan princess, be sacrificed before anybody could leave. Neoptolemos carried out the sacrifice. With Andromache, Helenos and Phoenix, Neoptolemos then sailed to the Epirot Islands and became the King of Epirus. With the enslaved Andromache, Neoptolemos was the father of Molossos and through him, according to the myth, an ancestor of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. According to Hyginus, his son with Andromache was Amphialos:

[123] CXXIII. NEOPTOLEMUS Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and Deidamia, begat Amphialus by captive Andromache, daughter of Ēëtion. But after he heard that Hermione his betrothed had been given to Orestes in marriage, he went to Lacedaemon and demanded her from Menelaus. Menelaus did not wish to go back on his word, and took Hermione from Orestes and gave her to Neoptolemus. Orestes, thus insulted, slew Neoptolemus as he was sacrificing to Delphi, and recovered Hermione. The bones of Neoptolemus were scattered through the land of Ambracia, which is in the district of Epirus.

Neoptolemus and Andromache, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin

Although Neoptolemus is often depicted thus, the play Philoctetes by Sophocles shows him as a much kinder man, who honours his promises and shows remorse when he is made to trick Philoctetes.

Two accounts deal with Neoptolemos' death. He was either killed after he attempted to take Hermione from Orestes as her father Menelaus had promised, or after he denounced Apollo, the murderer of his father. In the first case, he was killed by Orestes. In the second, the Delphic priests of Apollo took revenge.

After the death of Neoptolemos his kingdom was portioned and Helenos (who later married Andromache) took part of it: "Helenus, a son of Priam, was king over these Greek cities of Epirus, having succeeded to the throne and bed of Pyrrhus..."

Neoptolemus or Pyrrhus in art and literature

• Neoptolemus is one of the main characters in Philoctetes, a tragedy by Sophocles.
• Andromache, a tragedy by Euripides. Neoptolemus does not appear on stage but his death at Delphi is described
• Apollodorus' Library, in Book 3 and in the Epitome 5.10-12, 5.21, 5.24
• The Aeneid by Virgil
• Trojan Women by Seneca
• The Posthomerica, an epic poem by Quintus of Smyrna
• In Confessio Amantis Book 4 line 2161ff he is the slayer of the Amazon Penthesilea
• The Tragedy of Dido by Christopher Marlowe
• Pyrrhus features in the player's speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) where his killing of Priam is described
• The Second Part of the Iron Age, the final play in the Ages series by Thomas Heywood
• Pyrrhus is a leading character in Andromaque (1667), a play by Jean Racine
• Andromaque (1780), an opera by Grétry based on Racine's play
• Ermione (1819), an opera by Gioachino Rossini based on Racine's play
• An Arrow's Flight, a novel by Mark Merlis (1998)
• The Song of Achilles, a novel by Madeline Miller (2011)
• The Song of Troy, a novel written by Colleen McCullough (1998)
• The Silence of the Girls, a novel written by Pat Barker (2018)
• The Golden Prince, a novel written by Ken Catran (1999)

Mentioned briefly in Euripides' plays Trojan Women and Hecuba, simply stating that Andromache, wife of Hector, was his promised spear bride.

External links

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Neoptolemus" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.