Rhesus
heroThracian king who brought white horses to Troy and was killed in his sleep by Odysseus and Diomedes on his first night.
The Myth
He never got to fight — he was murdered in his sleep on the very night he arrived, because a prophecy made him too dangerous to survive until morning. Rhesus arrived at Troy with magnificent white horses and a golden chariot. A prophecy stated that if his horses ate Trojan grass and drank Trojan water, Troy would be impregnable. Odysseus and Diomedes, having extracted this intelligence from the captured spy Dolon, infiltrated the Thracian camp that same night. They killed Rhesus and twelve warriors in their sleep, drove the horses to the Greek camp, and prevented the prophecy from being fulfilled. Euripides wrote a play called Rhesus (possibly spurious) about that single fatal night.
Parents
Eioneus, Muse Euterpe
Symbols
Fun Fact
Rhesus is possibly the only Trojan War hero whose entire myth takes place in a single night.
Explore Further
Diomedes
heroDiomedes was the only mortal in the Iliad to wound two Olympian gods in a single day.
Odysseus
heroThe cleverest of the Greek heroes, whose ten-year journey home from Troy is one of the greatest...
Odysseus (Trickster)
heroOdysseus was the most cunning of all Greek heroes — the man of polytropos (many turns), whose...
Diomedes (Aristeia)
conceptThe extended battle sequence in Iliad Books 5-6 where Diomedes wounds both Aphrodite and Ares, the...
Trojan Horse
conceptThe hollow wooden horse used by the Greeks to infiltrate and destroy Troy. Devised by Odysseus, it...
Trojan War
conceptThe Trojan War was the central event of Greek mythology — a ten-year siege of Troy by a Greek...
Troy
placeThe legendary city in Asia Minor besieged by the Greeks for ten years in the Trojan War. Troy's...
Troy (Hisarlik)
placeHisarlik in Turkey is the archaeological site identified as Homer's Troy — multiple cities layered...
Doloneia
conceptThe night raid in Iliad Book 10 where Odysseus and Diomedes infiltrate the Trojan camp and...
Pelops (King)
heroSon of Tantalus, restored to life by the gods with an ivory shoulder, who won his bride by cheating...
Absyrtus
heroSon of King Aeetes of Colchis, murdered and dismembered by his sister Medea to slow their father's...
Acastus
heroKing of Iolcus and Argonaut who later tried to murder Peleus by stranding him unarmed on Mount...