Deidameia

Family: Scyros · Role: queen and mother of Achilles' son · First appears: Book VII · Part 2

Life events

• Achilles' son agrees to sail to Troy if the Achaeans summon him by oracle.(Book VII · Part 2 · 📍 Scyros)
  • With: Neoptolemus
  • “If bidden of oracles the Achaean men Summon me, let us with to-morrow's dawn Fare forth upon the broad depths of the sea,”
• Deidameia pleads with her son not to leave for Troy.(Book VII · Part 2 · 📍 Scyros)
  • With: Neoptolemus
  • “Child, wherefore is thy soul now on the wing To follow strangers unto Ilium”
• His mother's pleading and tears keep Achilles' son in the halls for a while.(Book VII · Part 2 · 📍 Scyros)
  • With: Neoptolemus
  • “Yet were his hurrying feet Stayed by his mother's pleading and her tears Still in those halls awhile.”
• Achilles' son leaves his mother in her father's halls.(Book VII · Part 2 · 📍 Scyros)
  • With: Neoptolemus
  • “A thousand times he kissed her, then at last Left her alone with her own grief and moan There in her father's halls.”
• Deidameia gave Neoptolemus twenty trusted household men as henchmen.(Book VII · Part 3)
  • With: Neoptolemus
  • “And with them twenty gallant-hearted men, Whom Deidameia chose as trustiest Of all her household, and unto her son Gave them for henchmen swift to do his will.”
• After Neoptolemus and the ship had gone far out to sea, Deidameia continued to sigh and lament for him through the day.(Book VII · Part 3)
  • “In her bower, sorrowing for her son the while, Deidameia poured forth sighs and tears. With agony of soul her very heart Melted in her, as over coals doth lead Or wax, and never did her moaning cease, As o'er the wide sea her gaze followed him. Ay, for her son a mother fretteth still, Though it be to a feast that he hath gone, By a friend bidden forth. But soon the sail Of that good ship far-fleeting o'er the blue Grew faint and fainter--melted in sea-haze. But still she sighed, still daylong made her moan.”

Book VII · Part 2

• child: Neoptolemus “To whom of Deidameia thou wast born--”

Book VII · Part 3

• child: Neoptolemus “In her bower, sorrowing for her son the while, Deidameia poured forth sighs and tears.”

Also listed in Other Figures — Minor Figures

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Extracted from the original text of The Fall of Troy. Made with Rho MD.