Priam was the king of Troy, a city in western Asia, during the Trojan War against the Greeks. Priam lost all 50 of his sons during the siege. Because of this, he came to personify the suffering of the Trojan people.
Priam came from a famous family. One of his
Ancestors, Dardanus, founded the city of Troy, and its ruling dynasty, the Dardanids, was named for him. Priam’s father, Laomedon, was a king of Troy known for his untrustworthiness. This trait was illustrated by two instances in which he reneged on his word, episodes that would have serious implications for Priam.
For a year Laomedon was served by the gods Apollo and Poseidon, who were disguised as mortals. Their period of servitude was a punishment imposed by Zeus, the king of the gods, after they rebelled against him. Poseidon helped to build the walls of Troy, while Apollo tended the king’s cattle. However, once their work was done, Laomedon refused to pay them. The two gods reacted angrily. Apollo sent a plague upon the Trojans, while Poseidon ordered a sea monster to attack them.
An oracle revealed that the gods would only be appeased by the sacrifice of Laomedon’s daughter, Hesione, to the sea monster. Laomedon did as the oracle commanded, but Hesione was saved at the last minute by Greek hero Heracles. Heracles had agreed to carry out this feat in return for two divine horses that Laomedon owned. However, despite advice to the contrary from his young son Podarces, Laomedon snubbed Heracles. Furious at the king’s behavior, Heracles later returned to Troy with an army, killing Laomedon and all but one of his sons.
Heracles spared Podarces because he had advised Laomedon to be true to his word. Hesione then bought her brother’s freedom by giving Heracles her veil. From this moment on, Podarces was known as Priam, from the
Greek verb priamai, meaning “to purchase.” As the only surviving male member of the royal family, Priam became king of Troy.
Priam went on to father 50 sons and 12 daughters, although not all his children were by the same partner. Priam’s first wife was Arisbe, the daughter of Merops, a famous seer. The pair had a son called Aesacus, who had remarkable gifts of foresight and could interpret dreams, a skill that was shared by his half sister Cassandra. However, Priam’s most renowned union was with his second wife, Hecuba, with whom he had a large number of children. Several of them played major roles in the Trojan War; indeed, one of them instigated it.
When Hecuba was pregnant with her second child, she dreamed that she was carrying in her womb a blazing firebrand that set light to both the city of Troy and the forests on Mount Ida and burned them to the ground. Priam and Hecuba asked Aesacus (or in some accounts Cassandra) to interpret the dream and were told that the baby was destined to bring about the destruction of Troy. When the child was born, Priam decided to kill him, but he could not bear to do so with his own hands. Instead he ordered that the child be left on Mount Ida to die. However, like many mythical babies condemned to the fate of exposure, the boy survived. The newborn infant was rescued by shepherds, who named him Paris and brought him up as if he were their own child.
As a young man, Paris ventured from the mountains to Troy at a time when games were being held. During the games he succeeded in defeating all the other contestants. In doing so he enraged his brother Deiphobus and was forced to take refuge at the altar of Zeus. At this point, the seeress Cassandra recognized Paris as the son of Priam. The king immediately welcomed him back into his family, an act that was to have tragic consequences both for Priam personally and for the city of Troy as a whole.