Editing Pandarus

{{Short description|Mythical Trojan aristocrat}}
{{for multi|the asteroid|2674 Pandarus|the shark parasites|Pandarus (genus)|the butterfly|Hypolimnas pandarus}}
{{distinguish|Pandareus|Pandaros (sponge)}}
[[File:Kirk-TroilusCressidaAct1.jpg|thumb|Pandarus, centre, with Cressida, illustration to Troilus and Cressida by Thomas Kirk.]]
'''Pandarus''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|n|d|ə|r|ə|s}} or '''Pandar''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|n|d|ər}} ([[Ancient Greek]]: Πάνδαρος ''Pándaros'') is a Trojan aristocrat who appears in stories about the [[Trojan War]]. 

In Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' he is portrayed as an energetic and powerful warrior, but in medieval literature he becomes a witty and licentious figure who facilitates the affair between [[Troilus]] and [[Cressida]]. 

In [[Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'', he is portrayed as an aged degenerate and coward<ref name="shmoop">{{cite web |title=Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida |url=https://www.shmoop.com/troilus-cressida/pandarus.html |website=www.shmoop.com |access-date=12 December 2018}}</ref> who ends the play by telling the audience he will bequeath them his "diseases".<ref>{{cite web |title=Troilus and Cressida. Act V. Scene X. William Shakespeare. 1914. The Oxford Shakespeare |url=https://www.bartleby.com/70/35510.html |website=www.bartleby.com |access-date=12 December 2018}}</ref>

==Classical literature==
In Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'', Pandarus is a renowned archer and the son of [[Lycaon (Greek myth)|Lycaon]]. Pandarus, who fought on the side of [[Troy]] in the [[Trojan War]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Belknap |first1=Jacob |title=Pandarus in The Iliad: Character Analysis |url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/pandarus-in-the-iliad-character-analysis.html |website=Study.com |access-date=12 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref> and led a contingent from [[Zeleia]], first appeared in Book Two of the ''Iliad''. In Book Four, he is tricked by [[Athena]], who wishes for the destruction of Troy and assumes the form of [[Laodocus]], son of [[Antenor_(mythology)|Antenor]], to shoot and wound [[Menelaus]] with an arrow, sabotaging a truce that could potentially have led to the peaceful return of [[Helen of Troy]]. He then attempts to kill [[Diomedes]] at close range, since Athena is protecting him from his deadly arrows, while [[Aeneas]] acts as his charioteer. [[Diomedes]] narrowly survives the attack, though, retaliating with a deadly blow that knocks Pandarus out of the chariot. Diomedes then pursues [[Aeneas]], who is saved by his mother [[Aphrodite (mythology)|Aphrodite]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kline |first1=A. S. |title=Homer (c.750 BC): The Iliad Book V |url=https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad5.php |website=www.poetryintranslation.com |access-date=12 December 2018 |date=2009}}</ref>

'''Pandarus''' is also the name of a companion of [[Aeneas]] in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]''. His skull is cut in half vertically by [[Turnus]]' sword in Book IX of the Aeneid; this ending his life and causing a panic among the other Trojans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nehrkorn |first1=Helga |title=A Homeric Episode in Vergil's Aeneid |journal=The American Journal of Philology |date=October 1971 |volume=92 |issue=4 |pages=566–584 |doi=10.2307/292664 |language=en|jstor=292664 }}</ref>

==Later literature==
[[File:Pandarus and Bitias Fight the Rutuli Before the Trojan Camp (Aeneid, Book IX) MET ES5304.jpg|thumb|Pandarus and Bitias Fight the Rutuli Before the Trojan Camp (Aeneid, Book IX) ]]
Pandarus appears in ''[[Il Filostrato]]'' by [[Giovanni Boccaccio]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Il Filostrato Critical Essays |url=https://www.enotes.com/topics/il-filostrato |website=eNotes |access-date=12 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref> in which he plays the role of a go-between in the relationship of his cousin Criseyde and the Trojan prince Troilus, the younger brother of Paris and Hector. Boccaccio himself derived the story from ''Le Roman De Troie'', by 12th-century poet [[Benoît de Sainte-Maure]]. This story is not part of [[Greek mythology|classical Greek mythology]]. Both Pandarus and other characters in the medieval narrative who carry names from the ''[[Iliad]]'' are quite different from Homer's characters of the same name.

In [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]’s poem ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'' (1370), Pandarus plays the same role, though Chaucer's Pandarus is Criseyde's uncle, not her cousin.<ref name="crane" />  Chaucer's Pandarus is of special interest because he is constructed as an expert rhetorician, who uses dozens of proverbs and proverbial sayings to bring the lovers Troilus and Criseyde together. When his linguistic fireworks fail at the end of the story, the proverb and human rhetoric in general are questioned as reliable means of communication.<ref>Richard Utz, "''Sic et Non'': Zu Funktion und Epistemologie des Sprichwortes bei Geoffrey Chaucer,” ''Das Mittelalter: Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung'' 2.2 (1997), 31-43.</ref> 

[[William Shakespeare]] used the medieval story again in his play ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'' (1609).  Shakespeare's Pandarus is more of a bawd than Chaucer's, as well as being lecherous and degenerate.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pandarus |url=https://www.playshakespeare.com/troilus-and-cressida/characters/3411-pandarus |website=www.playshakespeare.com |access-date=12 December 2018 |language=en-gb}}</ref>

In ''[[The Duke's Children]]'' by [[Anthony Trollope]] when the Duke of Omnium suspects Mrs Finn of encouraging his daughter's romance he refers to her as a 'she-Pandarus'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trollope |first1=Anthony |title=The Duke's Children |date=2011 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=9780199578382 |pages=40, 522 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W5z0N1sc6JQC&q=she-Pandarus&pg=PA522 |language=en}}</ref>

In "[[The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea]]" by [[Yukio Mishima]], Pandarus is mentioned briefly during an internal contemplation by the character Ryuji Tsukazaki.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheSailorWhoFellFromGraceWithTheSea_201607/The-Sailor-Who-Fell-From-Grace-with-the-Sea-Full-Text_djvu.txt |via=archive.org |access-date=12 December 2018 |date=1963}}</ref>

==Pandering==
The plot function of the aging lecher Pandarus in Chaucer's and Shakespeare's famous works has given rise to the English terms ''a pander'' (in later usage ''a panderer''), from Chaucer, meaning a person who furthers other people's illicit sexual amours;<ref name="crane">{{cite web |last1=Crane |first1=Samantha |title=The Pandering of Pandarus |url=https://www.mckendree.edu/academics/scholars/issue18/crane.htm |website=www.mckendree.edu |publisher=[[McKendree University]] |access-date=12 December 2018}}</ref> and ''to pander'', from Shakespeare, as a verb denoting the same activity.<ref name="shmoop" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oed.com/view/Entry/136753|url-access=subscription|title=Oxford English Dictionary|website=oed.com|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}</ref> ''A panderer'' is, specifically, a bawd — a male who arranges access to female sexual favors: the manager of prostitutes.  Thus, in law, the charge of ''[[procuring (prostitution)|pandering]]'' is an accusation that an individual has sold the sexual services of another. The verb "to pander" is also used in a more general sense to suggest active or implicit encouragement of someone's weaknesses.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
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{{Characters in the Iliad}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Trojan Leaders]]
[[Category:Male Shakespearean characters]]
[[Category:Middle English literature]]
[[Category:Prostitution]]
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Troilus and Cressida]]