DEIPHOBOS HELENUS AND HELEN Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis Amphiktyon

 

DEIPHOBOS HELENUS AND HELEN

 Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis Amphiktyon

 Deiphobos was the second son of Priam, king of Troy, after Hector. He was skilled in the art of war and that is why Priam gave him Helen after the death of Paris. Some say that after the death of Paris, the Trojans decided to give Helen to the Greeks but Deiphobos opposed and kept her as his wife. That is why the Greeks burned his house first before burning the city. Menelaus, the husband of Helen, cut off his nose, ears and hands before killing him, while others say he stabbed him once in the stomach, as Deiphobus was sleeping when the city was burning, and Helen hid his weapons before Menelaus and Odysseus entered the chamber. Others said that Palamedes killed him earlier in battle. Aeneas built his monument before departing for Cape Roetion. He was of medium build, with a broad forehead, a flat nose, dark hair, with beautiful eyes and a beautiful beard. Priam's other son Helen was a twin with Cassandra. When they were infants they slept one night in the temple of Thymbraian Apollo and two snakes licked their ears and they became soothsayers. He was also a general favored by Apollo, that is, an excellent archer. They said that Apollo gave him an ivory bow with which he wounded Achilles when he was pursuing Hector. He quarreled with Deiphobus for Helen, but he prevailed. Out of his grief, Helenus went to the camp of the Greeks, or went to Ida and lived there in the wilderness, and from there the Greeks took him either by force or by bribery or by the cunning of Odysseus. Because Calchas said that it was impossible for them to conquer Troy without the advice of the soothsayer Helenus. According to others, seeing the fall of the city and unable to persuade his fellow Trojans to surrender the city peacefully, he went to the city of Chryse, where he was busy in the temple of Apollo. Diomedes and Odysseus took him from there when they went for this purpose. It is said that he advised the construction of the Trojan Horse, the theft of Pallas and other things. After the fall of Troy, Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, took him with him and used him as an advisor and not as a prisoner and gave him Andromache as his wife, and made him guardian of Molossus. He also fathered a son by Andromache, called Kestrin. Kestrin took many Epirotes with him and lived in Chaonia. The region that raised the famous Kestrine cattle was named after him. Some say that Helenus was killed in Troy. He was handsome, tall, white, fair-haired, with a long nose, a small beard, broad shoulders and wisdom like Odysseus. His brother Troilus, young and very handsome, is said to have been loved by Achilles and to have been killed by Helenus in the temple of Apollo because he did not accept his friendship. Homer and others say that he was killed in battle and the Trojans wept bitterly for him, because they had only hoped for him when the children of Priam were killed.

Commentary:

 1/ Andromache was the wife of Hector, she lost seven brothers to Achilles and her story is mentioned in both the Iliad and Euripides in "Andromache".

2/ Chaonia was the northwestern part of Epirus, homeland of the Greek tribe of Chaons.. Its main city was Phoenicia. According to Virgil, Chaon of Troy, probably the son of Priam and brother of Helenus was the eponymous ancestor of the Chaons

3/ The Phoenicians of Phoenicia in the Near East are Greeks who fled from Phoenicia in Epirus. Over time, among the indigenous Semitic populations, they became rivals of the Greeks and competed with them in navigation and trade in the Mediterranean and beyond. But they lacked in letters and culture.

4/ AI will of course tell you the “politically correct” lie, that they are a Semitic people who, however, differentiated themselves from the Canaanite Semites in the following areas: - maritime activity, (they were also Greek sailors) - the development of city-states (in the image and likeness of Greek models) - the Phoenician alphabet. (the Greek Alphabet) So what is meow-meow doing on the tiles? And the wise man understands

 5/As for the fact that Achilles sought the friendship of Helen in place of the slain Patroclus, the subject requires broader development because today's people cannot understand the meaning that friendship and friend had at that time. 'Even in my time it had remained as a remnant and we had a cordial friend with whom we discussed everything (30/11/25) (without AI)

 *Amphiktyon the Major General er Konstantinos Konstantinidis

 Author, Member of the Society of Greek Writers http://www.amphiktyon.blogspot.com (My main blog AMPHIKTYON ARTICLES & BOOKS-POEMS(old) AMPHIKTYON.BLOGSPOT.COM (In English) ANCIENT OLYMPICS-ATHLETICS (The Olympic Games) amphiktyon-poetry.blogspot.com (My poetry collection) AMPHIKTYONBOO