Paris

Also known as: Alexander · Family: The Trojans · Role: warrior · First appears: Book I · Part 3

At Troy, Paris’s arrow missed Sthenelus and killed Evenor instead. When Polydamas urged the Trojans to return Helen and her wealth to save the city, Paris publicly reviled him, and Polydamas answered with a rebuke. Paris’s passion for Helen was bound up with the woes he had brought upon Troy. In battle, Ajax son of Telamon struck him with a stone, leaving him unconscious; Hector’s steeds carried him back to Troy barely breathing.

In Book VI, Paris welcomed his cousin Eurypylus son of Telephus to his palace, and Trojans and Eurypylus’s men feasted together. Later, Paris joined Aeneas and Eurypylus in an assault, but Thoas wounded him in the thigh and he withdrew for his bow. He killed Phorcys, Mosynus, and Cleolaus, and wounded Eetion with an arrow. In Book X he killed Demoleon, but when he later fought Philoctetes, his arrow killed Cleodorus instead; Philoctetes then wounded Paris, who fled the battle.

Paris went to Oenone, whose healing could save him if she chose, and begged her to treat his wound. She refused and drove him from her doors. In Book X, Paris died on Ida, and his mother Hecuba lamented him: “Best Of all my sons, save Hector alone, wast thou!” Oenone later rushed to his funeral pyre and died there clasping him; they were burned together, and their bones were buried in a golden vase beneath a mound marked by two pillars.