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"Oh! where ... can I find
inspired Helenus or
Cassandra, that they may read me my
dream?" [Hecabe
1. Euripides,
Hecabe
88]
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Helenus 1, who was the cleverest man in the
Trojan army just as
Odysseus was reputed to
be the most clever in his own, is the Trojan seer
who told the Achaeans, either voluntarily or by
force, how Troy could be
taken. After the sack of the city, he followed
Neoptolemus to
Epirus where he became king, marrying
Andromache, his own
sister-in-law.
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Best of SEERS
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Helenus 1 has been called the best of seers, a
gentle man, and also the dear son of
Priam 1, or indeed his
dearest; for his father believed him to possess the
wisdom that his brothers lacked. And yet when
Hector 1 died (who was
the pillar of Troy) the
king found no consolation in Helenus 1 and his
other sons who were still alive, and forgetting
himself he told them:
"Away with
you, base children that are my shame; would that
you all together in Hector's stead had been slain
...!" [Priam 1 to
his sons. Homer,
Iliad
24.254]
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Deeds in combat
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For that which is forever gone appears as the
most precious of all possessions, and its eloquent
absence causes everything else to look opaque and
unworthy. However, Helenus 1—though being a
corageous fighter, who led a company together with
his brother Deiphobus 1, slew Deipyrus, and was
himself wounded by
Menelaus with a spear
of bronze on the hand that held his bow, having to
leave the battlefield with his hand hang down and
the spear trailing after him—cannot be
compared to Hector 1.
For whereas the latter was a warrior of great
courage and strength, Helenus 1 was chiefly a man
of wise counsel. And therefore
Hector 1, knowing that
his brother understood the spirit of the gods (who
above rejoice in the ranks of warriors), listened
to him and followed his advices, as when he
challenged the best of the Achaeans, and fought in
single combat with Ajax 1.
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Captured knowledge
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For all that, Helenus 1 is remembered for other
deeds rather than those required by combat, and
particularly for this one: that only he knew the
oracles that protected the city, which he revealed
to the enemy so that the Achaeans could finally
take Troy. For when
Paris died, Helenus 1 and
his brother Deiphobus 1 quarrelled for the hand of
Helen; and when Deiphobus
1 was preferred, Helenus 1 left the city and
established his residence on Mount Ida, where
Odysseus captured him.
And after having displayed the excellent seer in
the Achaean camp, they forced this glorious prey to
tell how Troy could be
taken. That is why Helenus 1 prophesied whatever
matter they asked, instructing them to bring the
Bone of Pelops 1, to
fetch Neoptolemus
from Scyros, to persuade
Philoctetes (in
whose power were the Bow and Arrows of
Heracles 1) to come
from Lemnos, and also to
steal the Palladium, a
wooden statue that once had fallen from Heaven,
since if it were carried off
Troy could not survive.
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His indignation
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But others have said that Helenus 1 was not
captured but fetched by
Odysseus and
Diomedes 2, having
fled from Troy on account
of the crime committed by
Paris that he could not
bear. For Paris, in the
course of a truce, treacherously murdered
Achilles in the temple
of Thymbraean Apollo,
along with Nestor's son
Antilochus (who otherwise is said to have been
killed in battle, either by
Memnon or by
Hector 1). And they add
that Paris, not yet sated
of outrages against both gods and men, wished to
throw the bodies of
Achilles and Antilochus
to the dogs and birds, being however countermanded
by Helenus 1, who gave order to remove the bodies
from the temple, and hand them over to the
Achaeans.
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For the gods or the crime
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So Helenus 1, having arrived to the Achaean camp
as a suppliant, explained his acts by declaring
that he feared not death but the gods, whose
shrines Paris had
desecrated. And by invoking the gods and
Paris' crimes before the
Achaeans, Helenus 1 appeared to put piety and
decency above his obligations towards his country,
as if meaning that it is purposeless to defend the
motherland, when it violates all rules, human and
divine. But Helenus 1 also added that he had
learned of Troy's imminent
fall, and therefore it is not possible to determine
if Paris' crime motivated
him, or this knowledge did. For he (as some say)
also knew that after Troy's
fall he would come with
Neoptolemus to
Hellas, and live there many years. And so sure was
he concerning his own predictions that he willingly
gave himself over for execution, if his prophecies
proved to be false. However, in what concerns the
Palladium, others have
said otherwise, affirming that it was secretly
stolen by Odysseus when
he went by night to Troy
disguised as a beggar, or that it was handed over
to him by Antenor 1,
without any participation of Helenus 1.
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He knew both past and future
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In any case, most have agreed in considering
Helenus 1 the foremost of seers; for he was able,
without having been informed, to give a detailed
account of all events that had taken place in the
past, a circumstance that, some believe, puts
prophets and seers to the test; since no one (so it
is reasoned) can know the future who cannot tell
about the past. But seers are believed when there
is a wish to believe, and otherwise are
disbelieved. For when the Trojans years before were
planning to send a fleet to Hellas and carry off a
woman to avenge the abduction of
Priam 1's sister
Hesione 2, the seer
Helenus 1 declared that if such a purpose were
accomplished, then the Achaeans would sack
Troy and slay his whole
family. Yet this fearful prediction neither
frightened nor deterred his brothers, who sent a
fleet and captured Helen.
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The WOODEN HORSE
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Later, when the days of
Troy were counted, it was
Helenus 1 (some say) who instructed the Achaeans in
the building of the
WOODEN HORSE. And,
the Palladium being
stolen, Helenus 1 declared that there was no hope
left for Troy, and that the
Achaeans should offer a
WOODEN HORSE to
Athena, making it so
large that the Trojans would have to breach the
city walls in order to take it in. For (this was
the plan) through that hole in the walls the
Achaean army was to enter the city. But others do
not associate Helenus 1 to the
WOODEN HORSE, and
assert instead that a contingent of soldiers hid
inside that artistic (though treacherous) device,
and opened the gates of the city to the rest of the
army at a given signal. Whatever the case may be,
Troy was not conquered by
force, but through cunning, or betrayal, or theft,
or by any other similar means, or by a combination
of them.
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Treason rewarded
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Anyway, for all or any of the aforementioned
services, Helenus 1 has been counted by some (along
with Antenor 1 and
Aeneas) among those who
betrayed Troy and made it
possible for the invaders to take the city. And
when Troy fell, he was
confirmed in his rights as a traitor by
Agamemnon himself, who
gave him and Cassandra
their freedom; and after the intercession of
Helenus 1 on behalf of
Hecabe 1 and
Andromache,
Agamemnon again gave
these their freedom. It is said that these four
migrated to the Thracian Chersonese where they
settled with twelve hundred followers. Others have
said that
Neoptolemus rewarded
him with the sons of Hector
1, and with all the gold and silver that had
been collected among the
ACHAEAN LEADERS
in payment for his services.
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Epirus
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But still others have said that
Andromache and
Helenus 1 followed
Neoptolemus to
Epirus (the Adriatic coastal region of Greece
between the Ambracian Gulf and Illyria, today
called Albania), where
Neoptolemus, after
defeating the Molossians, reigned over them,
becoming also king of the islands off Epirus.
During his brief reign,
Neoptolemus gave his
mother Deidamia 1 as wife to Helenus 1, himself
marrying Hermione (who
remained childless in this marriage) while having
children with
Andromache. Years
later, Neoptolemus
was murdered by Orestes
2 at Delphi, and then
Helenus 1 inherited the kingdom, founded a city
Molossia, and married
Andromache.
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Extraordinary thing
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It was an extraordinary thing that Helenus 1,
son of Priam 1, should
become king in Hellas. And if he knew his fate he
never told anyone; for seers seldom prophesy about
their own future publicly, preferring to predict
the life and doings of others, as when Helenus 1,
during the last days of
Troy, told
Aeneas about his Italian
destiny:
"... if you
keep well in mind my soul's prophetic visions,
while you live
Troy shall not wholly perish! Fire and
sword shall give way before you ... I see even now
a city destined to the descendants of the
Phrygians, than which none greater is or shall be,
or has been in past ages ..." [Helenus 1 to
Aeneas. Ovid.
Metamorphoses
15.439]
But with or without previous knowledge of his
fate, Helenus 1 became king of Epirus, and
Andromache, who had
been married to his brother
Hector 1, the pillar of
Troy, became his own wife
and queen; and Helenus 1 inherited the kingdom from
Neoptolemus, the man
who killed his father Priam
1 and that was himself son of
Achilles, the destroyer
of Hector 1.
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Visit of Aeneas
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To this kingdom arrived years later the exiled
Aeneas in his way to
Carthage and Italy, with a strong desire to talk
with the king and his wife, and learn, among other
things, how these amazing things were possible.
Aeneas saw in Buthrotum,
where Helenus 1 reigned (although some say that
Aeneas marched two days
from Buthrotum to Dodona, in order to consult the
oracle, and that it was in Dodona that he met
Helenus 1), a miniature
Troy, with gates and
watercourses named after those of the Troad. And
having met Helenus 1, he asked him about the
dangers that he should avoid in his journey, and
how to overcome the troubles that could appear. And
this priest of Apollo
reassured and instructed
Aeneas, describing the
landscapes, the moods, and the dangers of his
voyage, as well as the signs that would show him
the site where he was to found his city. It was
easier for Helenus 1 the seer to utter his detailed
prophecy than for Aeneas
to store up all landmarks in his memory. Then
Helenus 1 let presents of gold, silver and ivory be
carried down to the ships, and took farewell from
Aeneas, and also from the
rest of us; for no one have heard of Helenus 1
after his meeting with
Aeneas, except that, at
his death, he was succeded on the throne by
Molossus, son of
Neoptolemus and
Andromache, and that
the Argives used to say, years ago, that his tomb
was in Argos.
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