Laertes
Father of Odysseus and aging king of Ithaca who returned to farming during his son's long absence.
The Legend of Laertes
Laertes was the son of Arcesius and king of Ithaca before ceding power to his son Odysseus. He had once been a hero of some standing — he sailed with the Argonauts in some traditions and participated in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. By the time of the Odyssey, however, he has retreated entirely from public life, living in a farmhouse outside the city and tending his orchard, consumed by grief over both Odysseus's absence and the death of the faithful nurse Anticlea. He appears in the poem as a figure of dignified, private mourning — the contrast with the violent disorder of the suitors in the palace could not be more pointed. In the final book of the Odyssey, Odysseus reveals himself to his father; Laertes weeps, bathes, dresses, and — in the brief final battle against the kin of the slain suitors — kills Eupeithes with a spear, demonstrating that even in old age, heroic blood runs true.
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Priam
🗡 heroKing of Troy
Priam was the aged king of Troy, father of fifty sons including Hector and Paris, whose night journey to beg Achilles for Hector's body is the Iliad's most moving scene.
Phaedimus
🗡 heroTrojan War, Minor Warriors
Son of Priam who fought at Troy and died defending the city in its final hours.
Parthenopaeus
🗡 heroSeven Against Thebes, Youth, Arcadia
Young Arcadian hero, one of the Seven Against Thebes, who died at the city walls before seeing his homeland again.
Amyntor
🗡 heroKingship, paternal conflict
King of Eleon or Ormenion whose curse upon his son Phoenix led to one of the Iliad's most poignant speeches
Antilochus
🗡 heroThe young warrior who died saving Nestor
The son of Nestor who died at Troy protecting his elderly father from Memnon — a sacrifice that moved Achilles to avenge him.
Icarius
🗡 heroNone recorded
A legendary king of Sparta and father of Penelope who tried to prevent his daughter from leaving with Odysseus after her marriage
Menelaus
🗡 heroKing of Sparta, husband of Helen
Menelaus was the king of Sparta whose stolen wife Helen was the cause of the Trojan War — yet he survived the war, the return, and old age, a rare happy ending among Greek heroes.
Nestor
🗡 heroAged king of Pylos, wisest of the Greeks
Nestor was the oldest and wisest Greek at Troy, whose long-winded reminiscences and sound counsel made him the archetypal wise old man of Western literature.
Theseus
🗡 heroSlayer of the Minotaur, king of Athens
The hero who navigated the Labyrinth, slew the Minotaur, and became the legendary king of Athens. Theseus was considered Athens's national hero.
Idomeneus of Crete
🗡 herowar
King of Crete and grandson of Minos who led eighty ships to Troy and made a rash vow to Poseidon on the voyage home.
Anchises
🗡 heroLove, royalty, Troy
Trojan prince beloved by Aphrodite and father of Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome
Sarpedon
🗡 heroNone recorded
Lycian prince and ally of Troy in the Trojan War, son of Zeus