Palamedes (mythology)

Sculpture of Palamedes by Antonio Canova

Palamedes (Ancient Greek: Παλαμήδης) was a Euboean prince, son of King Nauplius in Greek mythology.^[1] He joined the rest of the Greeks in the expedition against Troy.^[1] He was associated with the invention of dice, numbers, and letters.

Family

Palamedes's mother was either Clymene (daughter of King Catreus of Crete),^[2]Hesione,^[3] or Philyra.^[4] He was the brother of Oeax and Nausimedon.

Mythology

Odysseus fakes insanity, early 17th century tapestry. Ptuj Ormož Regional Museum, Ptuj Slovenia

Although he is a major character in some accounts of the Trojan War, Palamedes is not mentioned in Homer's Iliad.

After Paris took Helen to Troy, Agamemnon sent heralds to each of the kings, to remind them of the oaths which they had sworn to protect Menelaus' marriage, and warned them to look to the safety each of his own wife, saying that the affront had been offered equally to the whole of Greece.^[5] In some versions, like Hyginus's Fabulae^[6], Agamemnon and Menelaus traveled personally to Ithaca to retrieve Odysseus. Since he did not wish to go to war, he feigned madness by plowing his fields with a donkey and an ox both hitched to the same plow, so the beasts of different sizes caused the plow to pull chaotically. Palamedes, on his own initiative and realizing the deception, placed Odysseus’ infant son Telemachus, in front of the plow, forcing Odysseus to reveal his sanity.^[7] This episode served as an example of Palamedes' cleverness and ingenuity, as well as establishing his intellectual rivalry with Odysseus.

The ancient sources give different accounts of how Palamedes met his death.^[1] By Hyginus's account, Odysseus never forgave Palamedes for ruining his attempt to stay out of the Trojan War. When Palamedes advised the Greeks to return home, Odysseus hid gold in his tent and wrote a fake letter purportedly from Priam. Thus Palamedes was accused of treason and stoned to death by the Greeks.^[6] In Pausanias's version, Palamedes was drowned by Odysseus and Diomedes during a fishing expedition.^[8] Still another version by Dictys Cretensis relates that he was lured into a well in search of treasure, and then was crushed by stones.^[9]

In ancient literature

In the Apology, Plato describes Socrates as looking forward to speaking with Palamedes after death,^[10] and intimates in the Phaedrus that Palamedes authored a work on rhetoric.^[11]Euripides and many other dramatists wrote dramas about his fate. The orator Gorgias also wrote a Defense of Palamedes, describing the defense speech that Palamedes gave when charged with treason.

Ovid discusses Palamedes' role in the Trojan War in the Metamorphoses.^[12] Palamedes' fate is described in Virgil's Aeneid.^[13]

Dares the Phrygian portrayed Palamedes as ". . .tall and slender, wise, magnanimous, and charming."^[14]

Inventions

Palamedes is variously credited with the invention of various aspects of counting and writing.

Plato in The Republic (Book 7) remarks (through the character of Socrates) that Palamedes claimed to have invented numbers. Pausanias in his Description of Greece (2.20.3) says that in Argos there is a Temple of Fortune to which Palamedes dedicated the dice that he had invented. Hyginus claims Palamedes created eleven letters of the Greek alphabet:

The Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropo, created seven Greek letters: Α Β Η Τ Ι Υ. Others say that Mercury did it from the flight of cranes which make the shape of letters when they fly. However, Palamedes the son of Nauplius invented 11 letters.^[15]

Reception

In 1625 the major Dutch playwright Joost van den Vondel wrote the play Palamedes, based on the Greek myth. The play had a clear topical political connotation: the unjust killing of Palamedes stands for the execution of the statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt six years earlier, which Vondel, like others in the Dutch Republic, considered a judicial murder. In Vondel's version, responsibility for Palamedes' killing is attributed mainly to a harsh and tyrannical Agamemnon, who was clearly intended to represent Prince Maurits of Nassau. Authorities in Amsterdam found no difficulty in deciphering the political meanings behind Vondel's classical allusions and imposed a heavy fine on him.

Notes

1. L Schmitz (1873). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 3. J. Murray, 1873. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
2. Apollodorus, 2.1.5, 3.2.2 & E.6.8; Dictys Cretensis, 1.1 & 6.2
3. "Hesione". oxfordreference.com. Oxford University Press.
4. Hard, p. 236; Gantz, p. 604; Apollodorus, 3.2.2 with Cercops as the authority for Hesione while Nostoi as the source for Philyra
5. "Apollodorus, Epitome, book E, chapter 3, section 6". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2026-01-25.
6. Hyginus, Fabulae105
7. Apollodorus, Epitome 3.7
8. Pausanias, 10.31.2 citing the epic Cypria
9. Cretensis, Dictys. "2.15". www.theoi.com. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
10. Plato, Apology 41b
11. Phaedrus, 261b
12. Ovid. Metamorphoses. pp. 13.34–60, 308–312.
13. Virgil. Aeneid. pp. 2.81–85.
14. Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy13
15. Hyginus. Fabulae, 277.

References

• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website.
• Dictys Cretensis, from The Trojan War.The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer, Jr. (1931–). Indiana University Press. 1966. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• D. R. Reinsch, "Die Palamedes-Episode in der Synopsis Chronike des Konstantinos Manasses und ihre Inspirationsquelle," in Byzantinische Sprachkunst. Studien zur byzantinischen Literatur gewidmet Wolfram Hoerandner zum 65. Geburtstag. Hg. v. Martin Hinterberger und Elisabeth Schiffer. Berlin-New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2007 (Byzantinisches Archiv, 20), 266–276.
• Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Gorgias, "Defense of Palamedes" (Ancient Greek: Ὑπερ Παλαμήδου ἀπολογία), in Antiphontis Orationes et fragmenta, adiunctis Gorgiae, Antisthenis, Alcidamantis declamationibus, ed. Friedrich Blass. B. G. Teubner, 1892.
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio.3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid. Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

External links

• Palamedes at Greek Mythology Link