Memnon at Troy

In the last year of the Trojan War, after the Trojan hero Hector had been slain by Achilles, King Priam sent for help from his brother Tithonus. Memnon set off with a force of 2,000 men and 200 chariots to aid the hard-pressed and demoralized Trojans. Marching north toward Troy, Memnon subdued all the nations he encountered on the way

Memnon was an impressive commander and an imposing warrior who, like Achilles, wore armor forged by Hephaestus, the god of fire and metalworking. When he arrived at Troy he engaged the Greeks in a tremendous battle, killing several Greek heroes, including Antilochus, son of Nestor, who was trying to protect his father from Memnon’s forces. The same day, emboldened by the successes of their Ethiopian reinforcements on the field, the Trojans attempted to burn the Greek ships, but darkness fell before they could accomplish this task.

MEMNON

Achilles was absent from the Greek camp during this engagement. The following day, told by his mother, a sea goddess, of the death of his friend Antilochus, Achilles hurried back to the scene of the action. There he found Memnon engaged in single combat with the Greek hero Ajax. Brushing Ajax aside, Achilles attacked Memnon with ferocity. While the two were locked in battle, their mothers, Eos and Thetis, each pleaded with Zeus to save her own son. As Zeus ceremoniously weighed the fates of the warriors in his scales, Memnon’s pan sank below the other and he received a death blow from Achilles. Grief-stricken by Memnon’s death, Eos tearfully begged and received honors for her son from Zeus (see box).

Shortly after this, Achilles also died. Paris, the Trojan prince who had abducted Helen fTom Sparta, mortally wounded Achilles with an arrow that was guided to Achilles’ heel by the god Apollo. Ajax, Achilles’ close friend, carried his body from the field while Odysseus kept the Trojans at bay. Yet once the body was safe, Ajax and Odysseus argued as to which of them should inherit Achilles’ armor.