Antenor (mythology)
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Anthenor (Ἀντήνωρ; gen.: Ἀντήνορος) was a son of the Dardanian noble Aesyetes
Aesyetes
Aesyetes, pronounced ee-seye-ee'-teez, was a Trojan hero and father of Alcathous. His tomb was the vantage point which Polites, son of Priam, used to scout the Greek camp during the Trojan War....

 by Cleomestra. He is a counselor to Priam
Priam
Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous".- Marriage and issue :...

 during the Trojan War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

.

History

He was one of the wisest of the Trojan elders and counsellors. Antenor was husband of Theano
Theano
Theano was the priestess of Athena in Troy. She was the daughter of the Thracian king Cisseus and Telecleia, wife of Antenor, and mother of many sons and a daughter Crino. The household of Antenor and Theano advocated peace and advised Helen's return to the Greeks. Because of their support , the...

, daughter of Cisseus
Cisseus
In Greek mythology, Cisseus was a Thracian king and father of Theano, the wife of Antenor, as related in Homer's Iliad. His wife was Telecleia, a daughter of King Ilus of Troy....

 of Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

, who bore him numerous children, mostly sons, including Archelochus
Archelochus
In the Iliad, Archelochus was a son of Antenor and along with his brother Acamas and Aeneas, shared the command of the Dardans fighting on the side of the Trojans. When the Trojan army was broken up into five divisions Archelochus was one of the three leaders of his division along with the other...

, Acamas
Acamas (son of Antenor)
Acamas , son of Antenor and Theano, was a participant in the Trojan War, and fought on the side of the Trojans. With his brother Archelochus and his cousin Aeneas, Acamas led the Dardanian contingent to assist King Priam. Along with Aeneas and Archelochus he led one of the five divisions...

, Glaucus, Helicaon
Helicaon
In Greek mythology Helicaon is the son of Antenor and Theano. His wife Laodice fell in love with Acamas....

, Laodocus, Coön
Coon
Coon may refer to:* Coon, a racial slur used in the United States to refer to black people* Coon, an abbreviation for fur from raccoons and racoon dogs* Coön , a Trojan warrior who fought in the Trojan War...

, Polybus
Polybus (Trojan War)
Polybus or Polybius was the son of Antenor and Theano. He was ultimately killed in the Trojan War by Neoptolemus....

, Agenor
Agenor, son of Antenor
Agenor , son of Antenor and Theano, was a Trojan soldier in the Iliad of Homer. One of their leaders in the attack upon the fortifications of the Greeks, he was the Trojan with the first kill on the Trojan side, when he killed Elephenor, one of the Euboean leaders...

, Iphidamas, Laodamas
Laodamas
In Greek mythology, Laódamas referred to five different people.-Laódamas, son of Eteocles:Laodamas, son of Eteocles, inherited Thebes from his father...

, Demoleon, Eurymachus
Eurymachus
The name Eurymachus, Evrimahos, or Eurýmakhos , is attributed to the following individuals:-Greek mythology:*In Homer’s Odyssey, Eurymachus, son of Polybus, is an Ithacan nobleman and one of the two leading suitors of Penelope, the other being Antinous...

 (most of whom perished during the Trojan War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

), and at least one daughter, Crino. He was also the father of a son Pedaeus, by an unknown woman.

As a counselor to Priam in the Trojan war, Antenor advised his fellow-townsmen to send Helen back to the Greeks
Menelaus
Menelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria.*Menelaus , brother of Ptolemy I Soter...

. He proved to be friendly to the Greeks and an advocate of peace. In the later story (according to Dares and Dictys
Dictys Cretensis
Dictys Cretensis of Knossus was the legendary companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War, and the purported author of a diary of its events, that deployed some of the same materials worked up by Homer for the Iliad...

) he was said to have treacherously opened the gates of Troy to the enemy; in return for which, at the general sack of the city, his house, marked by a panther's skin at the door, was spared by the victors. Afterwards, according to various versions of the legend, he either rebuilt a city on the site of Troy, or settled at Cyrene
Cyrene, Libya
Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony and then a Roman city in present-day Shahhat, Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar...

, or became the founder of Patavium (currently Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

).

Antenor in Literature

Antenor appears briefly in Homer's
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

 Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

. In Book 3, he is present when Helen identifies for Priam each of the Greek warriors from the wall of Troy; when she describes Odysseus, Antenor criticizes her, saying how he entertained Odysseus and Menelaus and got to know both. In Book 7, as mentioned above, he advises the Trojans to give back Helen, but Paris
Paris (mythology)
Paris , the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War...

 refuses to yield.

In Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...

's Troilus and Criseyde
Troilus and Criseyde
Troilus and Criseyde is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war in the Siege of Troy. It was composed using rime royale and probably completed during the mid 1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it...

, Antenor appears as a minor, non-speaking character who has been taken prisoner by the Greeks but is returned for them in exchange for Criseyde.

The circle Anthenora, for traitors, is named after him in the poem Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...

from Dante's
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...

 Divine Comedy.

Modern references

The minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...

 2207 Anthenor, discovered in 1977 by Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
Nikolay Stepanovich Chernykh was a Soviet and Russian astronomer.Chernykh was born in the city of Usman' in Voronezh Oblast...

, is named after him.

Sources

  • Homer, Iliad
    Iliad
    The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

    III, 148, 203, 262; VII, 347.
  • Horace, Epp. i. 2. 9.
  • Livy, i. 1.
  • Pindar, Pythia, v. 83.
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