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Priamos
"Of all the cities that men live under the sun and the starry sky, the nearest to my heart was Troy, with Priam and the people of Priam."
Zeus to Hera; Homer, Iliad 4.45
Priam is the son of Laomedon and Strymo, and is the third king of the city of Troy (also called 'Ilium', after its founder Ilus). His father Laomedon became well known for his arrogance and hubris, and this spelled doom for him. For he was punished by Poseidon and Apollo, who sent a plague on the Trojan people and a sea monster to ravage the coasts. It was prophesied that the monster would only be satisfied once Laomedon had given up his daughter as a sacrifice to it. As she was tied up on the sea shore, the legendary hero Heracles saw her, killed the monster, and freed the girl. However, Laomedon tried to trick Heracles out of his reward, and so Heracles launched the first Achaean war on Troy. He easily took the city, killed Laomedon, and gave the royal sceptre to Laomedon's son Priam, advising him to be a better ruler than his father. He slew the rest of Laomedon's sons, however.
Indeed, Priam did become a much better ruler than his father, and under his guidance Troy became wealthy and powerful once more. As a young man Priam fought in a war against the Amazons, and was joined by Mygdon, king of the Bebrycians, and Otreus, king of the Phrygians. Thus he joined the ranks of great Amazonomachoi (people who fought the Amazons) such as Heracles and Theseus. In fact, many say that it was Priam's war that caused the Amazons' decline. At any rate, Priam won the Amazons over to become his 'allies' - even if they were a little reluctant.
Priam's first wife was called Arisbe, but he gave her over to the Phrygian ruler Hyrtacus, and took Hecabe as his second wife. She gave Priam his first son, Hector, followed soon after by Paris. This son was to prove to be the ruin of Troy, when he sailed back from Sparta with Menelaus' wife Helen. When the sons of Atreus declared war on Troy, Priam had to instruct Hector, the commander of his armies, to prepare the city's defences. While many people blamed Helen for bringing war and destruction on the city, Priam was nonetheless extremely tolerant and sympathetic to her. In Book 3 of the Iliad, the poet Homer records that many Trojan elders saw Helen walk past and, while they noted her great beauty, even so they said that it would be much better if she was driven out of Troy to leave them in peace. Priam, on the other hand, invited her to sit down next to him, and told her that he bore her no ill will, but rather blamed the gods for his misfortune. One time, in counsel, the Trojan Antenor demanded that Paris restore Helen to the Achaeans, but Priam actually came in on Paris' side and said that he should be allowed to keep her.
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Towards the end of the tenth year of the Trojan War, Hector resolved to go out to face Achilles in open battle. For the first time, Priam tried to seriously influence his son's decisions, and he tried to stop him going to fight the great Achaean hero. However, Hector went out to face him anyway, and was slain in battle. Priam saw Hector's death, and then watched as Achilles tied him to the back of his chariot and dragged him around the city walls. Priam attempted to leave Troy to beg Achilles for the body, but was stopped by his people. He fell down in the dung, pleading to be allowed to leave, but they stopped him.
Priam had lost many sons in the war, but Hector was by far his favourite, his first-born. He decided to leave Troy late at night under cover of darkness to try to ransom back Hector's body from Achilles. As he left, he rebuked his other children, who fell short of his love for Hector. While he travelled to the Achaean camp, the god Hermes made him invisible until he reached Achilles' hut. Achilles had been horribly abusing Hector's body (though the gods kept it from being damaged), but eventually his mother Thetis persuaded him to relent. He felt pity for Priam and admired his boldness in coming to ask so directly, and so let him have his son's body so that he could give it the funeral rites.
Eventually, of course, Troy fell to the Achaeans. Priam was waiting in the inner chambers of his palace with his wife Hecabe. Finally Achilles' son Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus) found him and cruelly hacked him down even as he was grasping at the altar of his family gods.
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