Polymestor

Also known as: POLY / POLYMESTOR · Family: Thrace · Role: king of the Thracians · First appears: Euripides, Hecuba — Scene 1

Polymestor, king of the Thracians, was Priam’s Thracian friend and received Polydorus into his palace at the Chersonese, with gold entrusted for safekeeping. He had “received him from the hands of Priam as a charge to take care of,” but murdered Polydorus for the gold and cast his body into the sea. Though their relationship had been one of guardianship, patronage, and friendship, Polydorus became his enemy.

In Scene 6, Polymestor tells Hecuba that Polydorus lives in good health and remembers his mother, then enters the tent after she claims Trojan treasures are hidden there. Hecuba and the captive Trojan women stab his two children and blind him; he cries, “Oh me! I wretch am deprived of the sight of mine eyes.” In Scene 7, Polymestor again acknowledges that he killed Priam’s son, saying, “Him I put to death,” and explains that he did so to prevent Troy’s revival.

Polymestor appeals to Agamemnon as a friend, while Agamemnon condemns him for killing his guest to possess the gold and accepts his punishment. He orders Polymestor expelled to a desert island. Polymestor also says that Dionysius the Thracian prophet told him what he knew.