Rhesus

Family: Thrace · Role: king · First appears: Euripides, Rhesus — Scene 2

Rhesus became monarch of Thrace after receiving his education from the nymphs, and was known as “Thrace, and he is called The son of Strymon.” Persuaded by repeated messages from Hector’s ambassadors, he came by night to Ilion with a vast army to aid Troy. Hector welcomed him as a friend, while Priam was also counted among his friends; Rhesus called Hector his kinsman and said that he had raised him from ruling a petty state to a wide-extended throne.

Before reaching Troy, Rhesus had broken the Thracian troops around Pangæum and Pæonia, defeated the Scythian tribes at the Euxine shore, taken their children as hostages, and imposed annual tribute. At Troy, Hector placed him outside the lines with his troops, and Rhesus offered to face Achilles and Aias while threatening Odysseus, whom he regarded as an enemy. On Athena’s order, Odysseus and Diomedes attacked him in the dead of night, killed him, destroyed the Thracian host, and carried away his horses and chariot.

After Rhesus’s death, Hector resolved to raise a tomb and funeral honors for his ally. He was mourned by Philammon and condemned Helen for the fate brought upon him, while his destiny was described as a restoration from death: he would be exalted from mortal man to a god and become a priest of Dionysus and the god beneath Pangeum’s rock.