The death of Priam

After the death of Hector, the Greeks tricked their way into the city of Troy and began to lay waste to the city. Among those to die in the carnage was Priam himself. Despite his age and great frailty, Priam prepared to

The Meeting of Priam and Achilles

The episode that began with the death of Hector did not come to a conclusion until the elderly Priam made a secret nighttime journey into the Greek encampment to visit Achilles. Priam was guided to the tent by Hermes, messenger of the gods, and took with him gifts to appease the Greek warrior. Once he arrived at the tent, Priam begged Achilles to show pity and return the body of his son for a formal burial. Priam told Achilles of the great suffering that he had already endured due to the deaths of most of his 50 sons, and reminded Achilles that his own father, Peleus, was also

Old and would soon know what it was like to lose a son. Achilles was deeply affected by Priam's pleas and agreed to an 11-day truce so that Hector might receive a proper funeral. The account of Priam's petitioning Achilles is recorded in Homer's Iliad. Their momentary reconciliation and the transcendence of their enmity is one of the most famous and most moving sequences in the whole poem.

Below: This plaster relief by Antonio Giaccarelli (1799—1838) depicts a kneeling Priam begging Achilles for his son’s body.

Above: The Death of Priam by Pietro Benvenuti (1769—1844) depicts Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, about to slaughter the Trojan king on the altar of Zeus.

Join the defense of the city, until Hecuba persuaded him to take refuge at the altar of Zeus inside the royal palace. However, Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, ignored the sacred nature of the sanctuary and killed the king at the altar. Before he died, Priam was fated to witness one last tragedy—the death of Astyanax, the infant son of Hector and the last possible inheritor of the Trojan throne. Like his grandfather, Astyanax was cruelly killed by Neoptolemus.