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In Greek mythology, Priam (Greek Πρίαμος, Priamos) was the king of Troy during the Trojan War, and youngest son of Laomedon.
Marriage and issue Priam had a number of wives; his first was Hecuba. By his various wives and concubines Priam was the father of fifty sons and several daughters. Priam's eldest son was Aesacus, his son by Arisbe; Aesacus met a tragic death before the advent of the Trojan War. Life Priam was originally called Podarces and he kept himself from being killed by Heracles by giving him a golden veil embroidered by his sister, Hesione. After this, Podarces changed his name to Priam. This is an etymology based on priatos "ransomed"; the actual etymology of the name is probably not Greek, but perhaps Lydian in origin. When Hector was killed by Achilles, Achilles treated the body with disrespect and refused to give it back. Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam, Hector’s father and the ruler of Troy, into the Achaean camp. Priam tearfully pleads with Achilles to take pity on a father bereft of his son and return Hector’s body. He invokes the memory of Achilles’ own father, Peleus. Deeply moved, Achilles finally relents and returns Hector’s corpse to the Trojans. Both sides agree to a temporary truce, and Hector receives a hero’s funeral. Achilles further goes on to give Priam leave to hold a proper funeral for Hector complete with funeral games. He promises that no Greek will engage in combat for 11 days, but on the 12th the war would resume. In later literature In the sack of Troy, Priam was brutally murdered by Achilles's son Neoptolemus (also known in the Aeneid as Pyrrhus), in a scene memorialized both in Virgil's Aeneid and Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson claimed that Priam was the ancestor of a race that migrated to Scandinavia and served as a basis for the Aesir. In Popular culture Priam is shown in the movie Troy as a good king and father, and is killed by Agamemnon in the gardens of Troy during the sacking towards the movie's end. | ||||||||
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