Laomedon
King of Troy who cheated both Apollo and Poseidon of their wages and set the pattern of Trojan oath-breaking.
The Legend of Laomedon
He cheated two gods out of their wages — and cursed his city for generations. Zeus sentenced Apollo and Poseidon to serve Laomedon as mortals. Apollo tended his cattle while Poseidon built the walls of Troy. When the work was done, Laomedon refused to pay. Poseidon sent a sea monster; Apollo sent a plague. An oracle demanded Laomedon sacrifice his daughter Hesione. Heracles killed the monster and saved her, but Laomedon cheated him too, withholding the promised divine horses. Heracles returned with an army and sacked Troy the first time, killing all of Laomedon's sons except Priam. Troy's doom was not caused by Paris — it was inherited from Laomedon.
Parents
Ilus
Symbols
Explore Further
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus
Acastus
🗡 herovengeance
King of Iolcus and Argonaut who tried to murder Peleus through treachery on Mount Pelion — a tale of false accusation and sacred hospitality violated.
Myrtilus
🗡 herocurse
Charioteer of King Oenomaus bribed by Pelops to sabotage his master's chariot, then murdered by Pelops and the origin of the Pelopid curse.
Laius
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes whose attempt to cheat fate led directly to the Oedipus tragedy
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.
Thyestes
🗡 herocurse
Brother of Atreus who seduced his sister-in-law and was tricked into eating his own children at the feast of Atreus.
Jason
🗡 heroLeader of the Argonauts
The hero who assembled the Argonauts and sailed to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece, aided by Medea's sorcery.
Polydectes
🗡 herovillainy
King of Seriphos who desired Danae and sent Perseus to fetch Medusa's head, expecting the quest to kill him.
Perseus
🗡 heroHero who slew Medusa
The son of Zeus and Danae who beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda, and founded the Perseid dynasty of Mycenae.
Autolycus
🗡 herotheft, cunning
The master thief and shapeshifter, grandfather of Odysseus, whose gift for deception was inherited by the most cunning hero in Greek mythology.
Eriphyle
🗡 herobetrayal
Wife of Amphiaraus who twice accepted bribes to send her male relatives to their deaths in war.
Aegisthus
🗡 herovengeance
Son of Thyestes who murdered Agamemnon to avenge his father, ruling Mycenae with Clytemnestra for seven years.