Polydorus  

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In Greek mythology, Polydorus (Greek: Πολύδωρος, i.e. "many-gift[ed]") referred to several different people.

  1. An Argive, son of Hippomedon. Pausanias lists him as one of the Epigoni, who attacked Thebes in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven Against Thebes, who died attempting the same thing.
  2. Polydorus, son of Cadmus and Harmonia, and father of Labdacus by his wife Nycteis, daughter of Nycteus.
  3. Polydorus (Priam's Son), a Trojan, and King Priam's youngest son during the Trojan War. He was sent with gifts of jewelry and gold to the court of King Polymestor to be kept safe during the Trojan War. The fighting was getting vicious and Priam was frightened for the child's safety. After Troy fell, Polymestor threw Polydorus to his death to take the treasure for himself. Hecuba, Polydorus' mother, eventually avenged her son. This story is depicted in Hecuba by Euripides.
  4. Another Trojan, and another son of Priam. As recounted in Homer's Iliad, this Polydorus was a son of Priam and Laothoe, and fought during the Trojan War. He was slain by Achilles.
  5. Polydorus (son of Astyanax) or Polydore
  6. One of the three Rhodian sculptors who created the statue Laocoön and his Sons.

His death is also alluded to in Virgil's "Aeneid", when Aeneas encounters a tree that bleeds while on his quest to found a new home for the Trojan people.

Polydorus is also the name of an Agiad King of Sparta. He was preceded by Alcmenes and succeeded by Eurycrates, reigning in the 7th century BC. He fought in the latter part of the First Messenian War, alongside the Eurypontid king Theopompus.

According to Plutarch's [Life of Lycurgus] (Section 8), Polydorus may have had a role in reorganising the distribution of land in Laconia.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Polydorus" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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