Neoptolemus

Neoptolemus (Νεοπτόλεμος) was the son of Achilles and Deidameia, the daughter of King Lycomedes of Scyrus.

Achilles was staying in Lycomedes' court on the island of Scyrus, where he met Deiddameia. Achilles slept with Deidameia so that Neoptolemus was conceived. Achilles probably left for Troy before Neoptolemus was born. According to Apollodorus, Neoptolemus was called Pyrrhus (Pyrrhos or Πυρρος) at birth.

After nine years of war at Troy, Helenus the Trojan seer foretold that Troy could not fall without Neoptolemus' aid. Odysseus fetched Neoptolemus at Scyrus, giving the boy Achilles' god-fashioned armour. Neoptolemus became the new leader of the Myrmidons, Achilles' followers. Menelaus promised his daughter Hermione to Neoptolemus, as a reward for fighting in the war.

In Sophocles' play called Philoctetes, Neoptolemus tried to persuade Philoctetes to rejoin the Greek army because Helenus, the Trojan seer, had foretold that one of the conditions of capturing Troy was that the bow of Heracles was required in the war.

Neoptolemus was among the Greek heroes who hid in the belly of the Wooden Horse (Trojan Horse). Neoptolemus killed Priam, the aged king of Troy, either within the temple of Zeus or he dragged the king out of sanctuary of the altar, and slaughtered Priam outside the temple doors.

When the ghost of Achilles appeared before the Greeks, demanding the sacrifice of Polyxena, Priam's youngest daughter, it was Neoptolemus who cut her throat upon his father's grave. Some say it was Neoptolemus who was also responsible for Astyanax's death, while others say that it was Odysseus who was responsible.

The morning after the fall of Troy, the Greek army began dividing loot and captives. Neoptolemus received the seer Helenus, the son of Priam and Helenus. He also received Andromache, wife of Hector, as his concubine.

Having Helenus as his slave proved to be a valuable asset; the seer's prophetic skills helped him to avoid unnecessary troubles. Since the Lesser Ajax had raped Cassandra in Athena's temple, a storm would destroy most of the Greek fleet. Helenus advised Neoptolemus to travel home overland, probably crossing the Hellespont and through Thrace and Macedonia. According to Apollodorus however, it was Thetis the sea goddess and his grandmother who advised Neoptolemus to stay on the island of Tenedos for two days. The Epic Cycle Nostoi, along with Apollodorus' account, mention Neoptolemus travelling overland from Thrace to Greece. Again, according to the Nostoi, Neoptolemus encountered Odysseus at Maronea.

According to Hyginus, a young Thracian woman named Harpalyce proved to be a better warrior than him. She was a daughter of Harpalycus and he had trained Harpalyce to fight. Neoptolemus wounded Harpalycus, but Harpalyce saved her father and drove Neoptolemus away.

Later, Neoptolemus safely reached his father's home in Phthia, a city or region in southern Thessaly. Instead of taking over the kingdom from his grandfather Peleus, Helenus again advised the young hero to found a new kingdom for himself in Epeirus (Epirus). Epeirus was a large, northwest region of Greece.

Andromache bore Neoptolemus three sons: Molossus, Pergamus and Pielus. Though Helenus and Andromache were slaves and former enemies of the Greeks, Neoptolemus treated them both fairly and with respect.

When Neoptolemus was to finally marry Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, he freed Helenus and Andromache, let them marry, and gave them the city of Buthrotum to rule. But according to Apollodorus, Deidameia, Neoptolemus' mother, became Helenus' wife, not Andromache.

The marriage was not to last long. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and nephew of Menelaus had been promised to receive Hermione in marriage before the war started. Orestes, cured of his madness and persecution of the Erinyes, decided and conspired together with Hermione and her father (Menelaus) to murder Neoptolemus.

Orestes committed fresh murder by killing Neoptolemus. Hermione encouraged her new lover to murder Andromache and her three sons. Peleus managed to rescue Andromache and his great-grandsons. Peleus was in despair because he had outlived his son and grandson.

Molossus would later found a new kingdom called Molossus within northern Epeirus, while Pergamus went to Mysia where he conquered the city of Teuthrania and renamed it to Pergamum.

The geographer Pausanias knew of one local legend where a priest of Apollo murdered Neoptolemus. And Apollodorus offered another version of Neoptolemus' death. When the young hero went to Delphi to demand reparation for his father's death from Apollo, he stole the votive offerings to the gods and set fire to Apollo's temple. Machaireus of Phocia, who was there at that time, killed Neoptolemus.