Palamedes
Palamedes was a brilliant inventor who exposed Odysseus's fake madness — Odysseus never forgave him and engineered his execution at Troy.
The Legend of Palamedes
A Greek hero who exposed Odysseus's ruse of feigning madness to avoid the Trojan War, Palamedes placed the infant Telemachus before his plough, forcing Odysseus to swerve and reveal his sanity. At Troy, Palamedes invented dice, weights, and measures, and discovered Agamemnon's food rationing was corrupt. Odysseus never forgave him. He forged a letter from Priam and buried Trojan gold in Palamedes's tent, then accused him of treason. The Greek chieftains — Ajax, Diomedes, and others — condemned him. His unjust death stains Odysseus's legacy alongside the war Athena and Zeus orchestrated.
Parents
Nauplius and Clymene
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Creon
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes who ruled after Oedipus and decreed death for Antigone
Sisyphus
🗡 heroKing condemned to roll a boulder eternally
Sisyphus was the craftiest mortal who ever lived — he cheated Death twice before Zeus condemned him to push a boulder uphill for eternity.
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.
Laius
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes whose attempt to cheat fate led directly to the Oedipus tragedy
Ajax
🗡 heromadness
Ajax the Great's descent into madness and suicide after losing the contest for Achilles's armor to Odysseus.
Sisyphus
🗡 heroKing condemned to roll a boulder forever
The cunning king of Corinth who cheated death twice, only to be condemned to an eternity of futile labor in Tartarus — forever rolling a boulder uphill only to watch it roll back down.
Nauplius
🗡 heroNavigation, Vengeance, Deception
Master navigator who wrecked the Greek fleet on false beacon fires in revenge for his son Palamedes' unjust execution.
Cocalus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A king of Sicily who sheltered the craftsman Daedalus after his escape from Crete and whose daughters killed King Minos with boiling water
Anteia
🗡 heroDesire, false accusation
Queen of Tiryns who falsely accused Bellerophon of assault, setting in motion his legendary trials
Eurystheus
🗡 herofate
King of Mycenae who assigned Heracles his twelve labours, born prematurely through Hera's manipulation to gain power over the demigod.
Odysseus
🗡 heroHero of endurance and cunning
The craftiest of all Greek heroes, whose ten-year voyage home from Troy tested every human capacity for survival and adaptation.
Busiris
🗡 heroNone recorded
Egyptian king who sacrificed strangers to Zeus until Heracles broke free and killed him