Memnon

Also known as: Tithonus' son / the godlike son of splendour-throned Dawn / the hero child of the Dawn-goddess · Family: Aethiopians · Role: warrior-king · First appears: Book II · Part 1

At Troy, after Priam had sent him an urgent summons, Memnon arrived with a countless Aethiopian host. Priam welcomed him with gifts and a feast, then asked him to fight the next morning. Memnon declined to boast at the feast, saying that battle would prove his strength. He was the son of Eos and Tithonus.

When the Trojan and Danaan forces met, Memnon killed Pheron and Ereuthus, then slew Antilochus with a spear thrust to the heart. He stopped Nestor from rushing into battle and spared him out of respect for his age. At the Hellespont, he drove the Argives toward the shore, killing many, and wounded Achilles in the arm. Zeus inspired both heroes with greater prowess as they fought; Achilles finally killed Memnon.

After Memnon’s death, his comrades fled and Achilles pursued the Trojans. At Eos’s command, the winds carried her son’s body from Priam’s plain to Aesopus’ stream, where Aesopus' daughters later planted trees around his barrow. The river Paphlagoneion was said to turn to blood once a year on the day Memnon died.