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Antenor 1 was one of the Elders of
Troy at the time of the
Trojan War. During the
sack of Troy, he was spared
by the Achaeans, either because he advocated peace
and the restoration of
Helen, or because he
betrayed the city. After the war, he came to
northern Italy where he founded Padua.
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The conflict
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When the seducer Paris
took with him gorgeous
Helen from
Sparta to
Troy, he did not imagine
the size of the conflagration he was about to
cause, nor did he fear any consequences; for women
had been abducted before and no one had gone to war
for their sake. But this time, for reasons known to
the gods and in part also to mortals, a huge
coalition was formed by many kingdoms throughout
the whole of Hellas, determined to sail to
Troy and to obtain, either
through persuasive words or through harsh force,
the restoration of the Spartan queen and the
property that the Trojan prince had stolen.
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Embassy
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Some believe and feel that whereas war arouses
enthusiasm, giving opportunity for courage and
glory to come forth, peace tends to cause boredom,
its demands being less challenging. Yet, war brings
death and destruction, and that is why the desire
of a peaceful settlement, makes its way even into
the hearts of those who are more eager to fight.
For negotiation may sometimes yield the desired
results. And so, when the powerful army led by King
Agamemnon reached the
Troad, Odysseus and
Menelaus were sent as
ambassadors with the mission of persuading the
Trojans to restore Helen
and the Spartan property.
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Antenor 1's defends the ambassadors
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This embassy failed, and the Trojans, who had
summoned an assembly, not only refused to restore
Helen and the property,
but also threatened to kill the envoys. It is then
that Antenor 1, whose childhood and young years
have not been preserved in any known record, comes
into the story already as an aged man, intervening
to protect the ambassadors and thereby averting
what is normally regarded as a particularly
treacherous crime. He also wished to restore
Helen, as
Odysseus later
recalled:
"I was sent
also as a bold ambassador to Ilium's stronghold and
visited and entered the senate-house of lofty
Troy. It was still full of heroes ... I
pleaded the common cause which Greece had entrusted
to me, I denounced
Paris, demanded the return of
Helen and the booty, and I prevailed on
Priam and Antenor who sided with
Priam. But
Paris and his brothers and his
companions in the robbery scarce restrained their
impious hands from me ..."
[Odysseus to the
Achaeans. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
13.196]
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Proposal of Antimachus 5
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It was Antimachus 5, who, being the most
eloquent in the Trojan assembly, defeated all
proposals to give back
Helen to
Menelaus, and also
demanded that the envoys be executed. On account of
this atrocious recommendation to the assembly,
Antimachus 5's sons Pisander 1 and Hippolochus 2
lost their lives. For later, when
Agamemnon chanced to
have them at his mercy in the battlefield, he did
not spare them as they begged—although they
offered rich treasures as ransom—, but instead
slew them, so that they would pay for their
father's foul outrage.
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Antenor 1's picture of the ambassadors
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Later, when Antenor 1 recalled the episode with
the ambassadors, whom he had received as guests in
his own house, he described
Menelaus as taller than
Odysseus and as a man
of fluent but short speech; yet, he added,
Odysseus was the more
royal when they both were seated, and by far the
more eloquent.
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He insisted more than once
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Antenor 1 was of the opinion that to restore
Helen was the proper thing
to do, and years later, during the war, he still
caused trouble by letting the Trojan assemblies
know what he thought:
"Trojans,
Dardanians and allies ... hear a proposal which I
feel compelled to make. Let us have done now, and
give Helen back to the Atrides, along with
all her property. By fighting on as we are doing,
we have made perjurers of ourselves. No good that I
can see will ever come of that ..." [Antenor
1 to the Trojan assembly. Homer,
Iliad
7.347]
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Paris' opinion about
Antenor 1's brains
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But such ideas were too much for the Trojans,
and particularly for
Paris, who, although
willing to restore the Spartan property, had no
intention of giving up whom he called his wife; and
on hearing Antenor 1's proposal
Paris commented:
"... the god
themselves must have addled your brains ..."
[Paris to Antenor 1.
Homer,
Iliad
7.356]
For the younger often regard as pusillanimous
and confused those whom Old
Age has estranged from the charms of war and
love, whereas those who are older, loving words
more than action and seeing themselves as wiser,
not seldom think that the younger are possessed by
some kind of folly that might easily cause their
ruin.
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The Elders of Troy talk
rather than act
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So, while the Trojan youths mainly spent their
time attending love and war, as youth often does,
the Elders of Troy, such as
Panthous, Thymoetes 1, Lampus 2, Clytius 5,
Hicetaon 1, Ucalegon and Antenor 1 himself, spent
their time talking; for Old
Age brings action to an end. Yet the welfare of
the state not seldom requires their counsel, and
that is why King Priam 1,
himself an old man at the time of the
Trojan War, could sit
in conference with these men. And when a truce was
agreed, so that Paris and
Menelaus could attempt,
by fighting in single combat, to put an end to the
conflict, Antenor 1 mounted King
Priam 1's chariot and
came with him to the plain where the duel was going
to take place.
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The Elders' chat
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But even if desire for physical action had long
ago deserted the Elders, they could still
understand and appreciate what motivates it. That
is why, on seeing Helen
coming along, they could comment:
"Who on earth
could blame the Trojan and Achaean men-at-arms for
suffering so long for such a woman's sake? Indeed,
she is the very image of an immortal
goddess."
Yet as their years had made them acquainted with
restraint and moderation, they added:
"All the same,
and lovely as she is, let her sail home and not
stay her to vex us and our children after
us." [Antenor 1 and the Trojan Elders
chatting among themselves. Homer,
Iliad
3.155]
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Buried Trojans
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Helen did sail back
home to Sparta, but not
before the Trojans were utterly defeated and the
city laid in ruins. She was restored to her husband
Menelaus, who killed
her second Trojan husband Deiphobus 1 after the
death of Paris. The
massacre of the Trojans occurred by night, and many
were surprised and slain in their beds, both
soldiers and civilians; for the victors, having
little control over their own violence, gave
themselves to rape, executions and outrages of all
kinds. Antenor 1 himself buried many of those who
did not survive the devastating rage, among which
King Priam 1's daughter
Polyxena 1 (betrothed
to Antenor 1's son Eurymachus 3), who was
sacrificed by the Achaeans upon
Achilles' grave.
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His house spared
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However, the house of Antenor 1 was respected on
account of his friendly attitude towards the
Achaeans, and because
Odysseus and
Menelaus were bound by
ties of hospitality to him, established when they
came to Troy as envoys. It
is said that during the sack of
Troy a leopard's skin was
hanged over the entrance of Antenor 1's house as a
sign that his house was to be left unpillaged, and
some have believed that Antenor 1 and his sons
betrayed the city to the Achaeans, this being the
reason why they were spared
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Comes to Italy and founds famous city
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When the Trojan War
was over and the city was destroyed, Antenor 1
migrated to Italy accompanied by the Eneti or
Heneti, who until then had lived in Paphlagonia,
northern Asia Minor. The Eneti, it is said, crossed
over to Thrace after the capture of
Troy and the death of their
king Pylaemenes 1, whom
Menelaus slew. Antenor
1 and his surviving children settled at the recess
of the Adriatic, and subsequently founded Padua in
Italy, some time before
Aeneas reached
Dido's Carthage. These
Trojans under Antenor 1, along with the Eneti,
conquered the territory which is between the inmost
bay of the Adriatic and the Alps, expelling the
Eugani, who dwelt there. The region has been called
Veneto and the people Veneti; and as of AD 2000,
there is still a city, in that Italian district,
called Venice, the name of which derives from the
Eneti. Or so they say ...
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Another with identical name
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Antenor 2 is one of the
SUITORS OF
PENELOPE.
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Abolengo
Album - High Resolution Genealogical Charts
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Names in this chart
Acamas 3, Aesyetes, Agenor 8, Antenor 1,
Archelochus, Assaracus,
Atlas, Cisseus 2,
Cleomestra, Coon, Crino 2, Dardanus 1, Demoleon 2,
Echeclus 2, Electra 3, Erichthonius 1, Eurymachus
3, Glaucus 6, Hecabe 1,
Helicaon 1, Ilus 2, Iphidamas 1, Laodamas 3,
Laodice 3, Laodocus 3, Laomedon 1, Pedaeus,
Pleione, Polybus 5, Priam
1, Theano 2, Tros 1,
Zeus.
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