Helenus
Trojan prince and seer who possessed the gift of prophecy and later aided the Greeks
The Legend of Helenus
Helenus was a son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and the twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra. Like his sister he possessed the gift of prophecy, though his predictions were believed while hers were not. He fought bravely during the war and was a respected advisor. After a dispute over who should inherit Helen following Paris's death, Helenus left Troy in anger. He was captured by Odysseus and revealed the conditions necessary for the Greeks to take Troy, including the need for the Palladium and the bow of Heracles. After the war he was taken as a slave by Neoptolemus.
Parents
Priam and Hecuba
Symbols
Fun Fact
Helenus was the only Trojan seer whose prophecies were actually believed by those who heard them
Explore Further
Helenos
🗡 heroProphecy, combat
Alternative transliteration of Helenus, Trojan prince and seer who foretold the fall of Troy
Iphitus
🗡 heroNone recorded
Son of Eurytus who gave Odysseus the great bow and was later murdered by Heracles
Philoctetes and the Bow
🗡 heroarchery, suffering
The hero who possessed Heracles' bow without which Troy could not fall, abandoned on Lemnos for ten years due to his festering wound.
Melampus
🗡 heroNone recorded
The first mortal prophet in Greek tradition who gained the ability to understand the speech of animals after serpents licked his ears clean
Manto
🗡 heroprophecy
Daughter of Tiresias and prophetess in her own right who was sent to Delphi as a war prize after Thebes fell.
Eurytion
🗡 heroHunting, archery
Argonaut and skilled hunter who later participated in the Calydonian Boar Hunt
Teucer
🗡 heroGreatest Greek archer at Troy
Teucer was the half-brother of Ajax the Great and the finest archer among the Greeks — he shot from behind Ajax's great shield, the most effective partnership at Troy.
Oedipus
🗡 heroKing who fulfilled the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother
The tragic king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling a prophecy he had spent his life trying to avoid.
Amphiaraus
🗡 heroThe prophet who foresaw his own death at Thebes
A warrior-prophet who knew the Seven Against Thebes would fail but marched to his death anyway, swallowed by the earth.
Cadmus
🗡 heroFounder of Thebes
Cadmus was the Phoenician prince who founded Thebes, sowed dragon's teeth, and brought the alphabet from Phoenicia to Greece.
Archeptolemus
🗡 heroChariot warfare, service
Trojan charioteer of Hector who was killed by an arrow from Teucer during the battle at the Greek ships
Mopsus
🗡 heroprophecy
Son of Manto and grandson of Tiresias who defeated the great seer Calchas in a divination contest, causing Calchas to die.