Protesilaus, in Greek mythology, Thessalian prince who was killed in the Trojan War. A prophecy foretold that the first man who touched Trojan soil would be the first to die. When the Greek ships arrived at Troy, Protesilaus leaped ashore and was immediately killed. His wife, Laodamia, mourned his death so excessively that the gods allowed his image to visit her for three hours. When he returned to Hades, she was overcome with grief and took her own life.

In Greek mythology, Protesilaus (Ancient Greek: , Protesilaos), was a hero in the Iliad who was venerated in Thessaly and Thrace. Protesilaus was the son of Iphicles and the leader of the Phylaceans. Hyginus surmised that he was originally known as Iolaus, but was referred to as Protesilaus after being the first (πρῶτος) to die in Troy.

Background

Protesilaus was one of the suitors of Helen. He brought forty ships with him to Troy, and was the first to land: "the first man who dared to leap ashore when the Greek fleet touched the Troad, Pausanias recalled, quoting "the author of the epic called the Cypria". An oracle had prophesied that the first Greek to walk on the land after stepping off a ship in the Trojan War would be the first to die, and so, after killing four men, he was himself slain by Hector. After Protesilaus' death, his brother, Podarces, joined the war in his place. The gods had pity on his widow, Laodamia, daughter of Acastus, and brought him up from Hades to see her. Another source claims his wife was Polydora, daughter of Meleager. She was at first overjoyed, thinking he had returned from Troy, but after the gods returned him to the underworld, she found the loss unbearable. She had a bronze statue of her late husband constructed, and devoted herself to it. After her worried father had witnessed her behavior, he had it destroyed; however, Laodamia jumped into the fire with it.

Cult of Protesilaus

There was a shrine of Protesilaus at Phylace, his home in Thessaly, and games were organised there in his honour, Pindar noted. The tomb of Protesilaus at Elaeus in the Thracian Chersonese is documented in the 5th century, when, during the Persian War, votive treasure deposited at his tomb was plundered by the satrap Artayctes, under permission from Xerxes. The Greeks later captured and executed Artayctes, returning the treasure. The tomb was mentioned again when Alexander the Great arrived at Elaeus on his campaign against the Persian Empire. He offered a sacrifice on the tomb, hoping to avoid the fate of Protesilaus when he arrived in Asia. Like Protesilaus before him, Alexander was the first to step foot on Asian soil during his campaign. Philostratus writing of this temple in the early 3rd century AD, speaks of a cult statue of Protesilaus at this temple "standing on a base which was shaped like the prow of a boat;" Gisela Richter noted coins of Elaeus from the time of Commodus that show on their reverses Protesilaus on the prow of a ship, in helmet, cuirass and short chiton.

Representations

Among very few representations of Protesilaus, a sculpture by Deinomenes is just a passing mention in Pliny's Natural History; the outstanding surviving examples are two Roman copies of a lost mid-fifth century Greek bronze original represent Protesilaus at his defining moment, one of them in the British Museum, the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan's sculpture of a heroically nude helmeted warrior stands on a forward-slanting base, looking down and slightly to his left, with his right arm raised, prepared to strike, would not be identifiable, save by comparison made by Gisela Richter with a torso of the same model and its associated slanting base, schematically carved as the prow of a ship encircled by waves: Protesilaus about to jump ashore.

If Euripides' tragedy, Protesilaos had survived, his name would be more familiar today.

References

External links

• "Laodamia," poem by William Wordsworth.
• "Laodamia to Protesilaus," poem by Jared Carter.