Neoptolemus

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In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus, also Neoptólemos or Pyrrhus, was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamea. Achilles sought to avoid fighting in the Trojan War, due to a prophecy of his death in the conflict. He disguised himself as a woman in the court of Lycomedes, the King of Scyros. During that time, he had an affair with the princess, Deidamea, who then gave birth to Neoptolemus. Neoptolemus was originally called Pyrrhus, because the female version of that name, Pyrrha, had been taken by his father while disguised as a woman.

Ten years later in the war, after the death of Achilles and Ajax the great and no signs of victory for the Greeks, the Greeks captured the Trojan seer, Helenus, and forced him to tell them under what conditions could they take Troy. Helenus revealed to them that they could defeat Troy if they could acquire the poisonous arrows of Heracles (then in Philoctetes' possession); steal the Palladium (which led to the building of the famous wooden horse of Troy); and persuade Achilles' son to join the war.

In response to the prophecy, the Greeks took steps to retrieve the arrows of Heracles and bring Neoptolemus to Troy. Odysseus was sent to retrieve Neoptoloemus from Scyros. The two then went to Lemnos to retrieve Philoctetes. Years earlier, on the way to Troy, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake on Chryse. Odysseus had advised that he be left behind because the wound was festering and smelled bad. This retrieval is the plot of Philoctetes, a play by Sophocles.

In contrast to Achilles, a savage but noble warrior who had shown mercy to Priam, Neoptolemus was savage and cruel. After the war, he killed Priam, Eurypylus, Polyxena, Polites and Astyanax, among others, and enslaved Helenus and Andromache. The ghost of Achilles appeared to the survivors of the war, demanding Polyxena, the Trojan princess, be sacrificed before anybody could leave. Neoptolemus did so. Neoptolemus also sacrificed her father, Priam, to Zeus.

With Andromache, Helenus and Phoenix, Neoptolemus sailed to the Epirot Islands and then became the king of Epirus. With the enslaved Andromache, Neoptolemus was the father of Molossus and ancestor of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great.

Although Neoptolemus is often depicted as being cruel and savage, the play 'Philoctetes' by Sophocles shows him being a much kinder man, who honours his promises and shows remorse when he is made to trick Philoctetes.

Two accounts deal with Neoptolemus' death. He was either killed after he attempted to take Hermione from Orestes as her father Menelaus promised, or after he denounced Apollo, the murderer of his father. In the first case, he was killed by Orestes. In the second, revenge was taken by the Delphian priests of Apollo.

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