Editing Protesilaus

{{Short description|Greek mythological hero}}
{{For|the butterfly|Protesilaus (butterfly)}}
[[File:MACEDON, Skione. Circa 480-470 BC.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Coinage of [[Skione]]. Head of Protesilaos, wearing Attic helmet / Stern of galley left within incuse square. Circa 480-470 BC]]
[[File:THESSALY, Thebai. Early 3rd century BC.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Coinage of [[Phthiotic Thebes|Thebai]], [[Thessaly]]. Veiled head of [[Demeter]], wearing wreath of grain ears / ΘHBAIΩИ, Protesilaos, wearing armor and short [[Chiton (garment)|chiton]], holding sword in right hand and shield in left, stepping off the prow of a galley; waves visible to the lower right. Early 3rd century BC]]
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Protesilaus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|p|r|ɒ|t|ᵻ|s|ᵻ|ˈ|l|eɪ|ə|s}}; {{langx|grc|Πρωτεσίλᾱος|Prōtesilāos}}) was a [[Greek hero|hero]] in the ''[[Iliad]]'' who was venerated at [[Temenos|cult site]]s in [[Thessaly]] and [[Thrace]]. Protesilaus was the son of [[Iphiclus (mythology)|Iphiclus]], a "lord of many sheep"; as grandson of the eponymous Phylacos, he was the leader of the [[Phylace (Thessaly)|Phylace]]ans.<ref>[[Homer]]. ''[[Iliad]]'', 2.695.</ref> [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] surmised that he was originally known as Iolaus—not to be confused with [[Iolaus]], the nephew of [[Heracles]]—but was referred to as "Protesilaus" after being the first ({{lang|grc|πρῶτος}}, ''protos'') to leap ashore at [[Troy]], and thus the first to die in the war.<ref name="Hyginus. Fabulae, 103">Hyginus. ''Fabulae'', 103.</ref>

== Description ==
In the account of [[Dares Phrygius|Dares the Phrygian]], Protesilaus was illustrated as ". . .fair-skinned, and dignified. He was swift, self-confident, and even rash."<ref>[[Dares Phrygius]], ''History of the Fall of Troy'' [https://www.theoi.com/Text/DaresPhrygius.html 13]</ref>

==Mythology==
Protesilaus was one of the [[suitors of Helen]].<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus. ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|The Library]]'', 3.10.8; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]]. ''Fabulae'', 97.</ref> He brought forty black ships with him to Troy,<ref>''Iliad'' II; Pseudo-Apollodorus. Epitome of ''The Library'' E.3.14.</ref> drawing his men from "flowering" [[Pyrasus]], coastal Antron and [[Pteleos|Pteleus]], "deep in grass", in addition to his native [[Phylace (Magnesia)|Phylace]]. Protesilaus was the first to land: "the first man who dared to leap ashore when the Greek fleet touched the [[Troad]]", [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] recalled, quoting the author of the epic tale called the ''[[Cypria]]''.<ref>Pausanias, iv.2.5.</ref>  An [[oracle]] by [[Thetis]] had prophesied that the first Greek to walk on the land after stepping off a ship in the [[Trojan War]] would be the first to die,<ref name="Hyginus. Fabulae, 103"/> and so, after killing four men,<ref>Hyginus. ''Fabulae'', 114.</ref> he was himself slain by [[Hector]]. Alternate sources have him slain by either [[Aeneas]], [[Euphorbus]], [[Achates]], or [[Cycnus]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smyrnaeus|first1=Quintus|title=Fall of Troy|year=1913|url=https://archive.org/details/falloftroywithen00quinuoft}}</ref>  Another legend claims that [[Odysseus]] threw his shield on the beach and jumped upon it. Tricked Protesilaus thinking that Odysseus was the first who stepped on Trojan soil, jumped second and died afterwards {{Citation needed|reason= Couldn't locate any ancient source that describes this trick taking place|date=February 2025}}. After Protesilaus' death, his brother, [[Podarces]], joined the war in his place.<ref>Homer. ''Iliad'', 2.705.</ref> The gods had pity on his widow, [[Laodamia of Phylace|Laodamia]], daughter of [[Acastus]], and brought him up from Hades to see her. She was at first overjoyed, thinking he had returned from Troy, but after the gods returned him to the underworld, she found the loss unbearable.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus. Epitome to ''The Library'', E.3.30; Ovid. ''Heroides'', 13.</ref>  She had a bronze statue of her late husband constructed, and devoted herself to it. After her worried father had witnessed her behavior, he had it destroyed; however, Laodamia jumped into the fire with it.<ref>Hyginus. ''Fabulae'', 104.</ref> Another source claims his wife was [[Polydora]], daughter of [[Meleager]].<ref>''The [[Cypria]]'', Fragment 17; cited in [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'', 4. 2. 7</ref>

According to legend, the Nymphs planted [[elm]]s on the tomb, in the [[Thracian Chersonese]], of "great-hearted Protesilaus" («μεγάθυμου Πρωτεσιλάου»), elms that grew to be the tallest in the known world; but when their topmost branches saw far off the ruins of Troy, they immediately withered, so great still was the bitterness of the hero buried below.<ref>[[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], ''Τα μεθ' `Ομηρον'', 7.407-411</ref><ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''Naturalis Historia'', 16.238</ref>  The story is the subject of a poem by [[Antiphilus of Byzantium]] (1st century A.D.) in the [[Palatine Anthology]]:
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{{"|
: Θεσσαλὲ Πρωτεσίλαε, σὲ μὲν πολὺς ᾄσεται αἰών,
:Tρoίᾳ ὀφειλoμένoυ πτώματος ἀρξάμενoν·
:σᾶμα δὲ τοι πτελέῃσι συνηρεφὲς ἀμφικoμεῦση
:Nύμφαι, ἀπεχθoμένης Ἰλίoυ ἀντιπέρας.
:Δένδρα δὲ δυσμήνιτα, καὶ ἤν ποτε τεῖχoς ἴδωσι
:Tρώϊον, αὐαλέην φυλλοχoεῦντι κόμην.
:ὅσσoς ἐν ἡρώεσσι τότ᾽ ἦν χόλoς, oὗ μέρoς ἀκμὴν
:ἐχθρὸν ἐν ἀψύχoις σώζεται ἀκρέμoσιν.}}<ref>''Anth. Pal.'', VII.141</ref>
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{{"|
: [:Thessalian Protesilaos, a long age shall sing your praises,
:Of the destined dead at Troy the first;
:Your tomb with thick-foliaged elms they covered,
:The nymphs, across the water from hated Ilion.
:Trees full of anger; and whenever that wall they see,
:Of Troy, the leaves in their upper crown wither and fall.
:So great in the heroes was the bitterness then, some of which still
:Remembers, hostile, in the soulless upper branches.]}}
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==Cult of Protesilaus==
[[File:Statue of Protesilaos, British Museum (26889637992).jpg|thumb|Roman statue of Protesilaus from [[Cyzicus]], now in the [[British Museum]].]]

Only two [[Temenos|sanctuaries]] to Protesilaus are attested.<ref>Ludo de Lannoy, ed. Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean and Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, trs.,''Flavius Philostratus: On Heroes'' (1977, 2002) Introduction, liii.</ref> There was a shrine of Protesilaus at [[Phylace (Magnesia)|Phylace]], his home in Thessaly, where his widow was left lacerating her cheeks in mourning him,<ref>''Iliad'' II.</ref> and games were organised there in his honour, [[Pindar]] noted.<ref>Pindar. ''First Isthmian Ode'', 83f.</ref> The tomb of Protesilaus at [[Elaeus]] in the [[Thracian Chersonese]] is documented in the 5th century BCE, when, during the [[Greco-Persian Wars|Persian War]], votive treasure deposited at his tomb was plundered by the satrap Artayctes, under permission from [[Xerxes I of Persia|Xerxes]]. The Greeks later captured and executed Artayctes, returning the treasure.<ref>[[Herodotus]]. ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|The Histories]]'', 9.116-120; see also 7.23.</ref> The tomb was mentioned again when [[Alexander the Great]] arrived at Elaeus on his campaign against the [[Persian Empire]]. He offered a sacrifice on the tomb,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Oredsson |first=Sverker |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/170881839 |title=Gustav II Adolf |date=2007 |publisher=Atlantis |isbn=978-91-7353-157-3 |location=Stockholm |pages=302 |language=sv |oclc=170881839}}</ref> hoping to avoid the fate of Protesilaus when he arrived in Asia.  Like Protesilaus before him, Alexander was the first to set foot on Asian soil during his campaign.<ref>[[Arrian]]. ''The Campaigns of Alexander'', 1.11.</ref> [[Philostratus III|Philostratus]] writing of this temple in the early 3rd century CE,<ref>Philostratus. ''Heroikos'' ("Dialogue Concerning Heroes"). "Protesilaos" is set in the sanctuary; elms were planted at the sanctuary by the nymphs; the [[chthonic]] hero has given advice to athletes in the form of oracular dreams; see Christopher P. Jones, "Philostratus' Heroikos and Its Setting in Reality", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''121''' (2001:141-149).</ref> speaks of a [[cult statue]] of Protesilaus at this temple "standing on a base which was shaped like the prow of a boat." Coins of Elaeus from the time of [[Commodus]] with Protesilaus on the prow of a ship, in helmet, [[cuirass]] and short [[chiton]] on the reverse probably depict this statue.<ref>C. Jones, ''New Heroes in Antiquity'' 2010, 72</ref><ref>Image of the coin from ''RPC Online:'': {{cite web |title=RPC IV, 10954 |url=https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/10954 |website=Roman Provincial Coinage Online |publisher=Ashmolean Museum |access-date=21 December 2022}}</ref> [[Strabo]] also mentions the sanctuary.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://topostext.org/work/144#7.8.51|title=ToposText|website=topostext.org}}</ref>
 
A founder-cult of Protesilaus at Scione, in [[Pallene, Chalcidice]], was given an [[etiology]] by the Greek grammarian and mythographer of the Augustan-era [[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]]<ref>Conon's abbreviated mythographies are known through a summary made by the ninth-century [[Photios I of Constantinople|patriarch Photius]] for his ''Biblioteca'' (Alan Cameron, ''Greek Mythography in the Roman World'' [Oxford University Press) 2004:72).</ref> that is at variance with the [[Epic Cycle|epic tradition]]. In this, Conon asserts that Protesilaus survived the Trojan War and was returning with Priam's sister Aethilla as his captive. When the ships go ashore for water on the coast of Pallene, between Scione and Mende, Aethilla persuaded the other Trojan women to burn the ships, forcing Protesilaus to remain and found the city of Scione. A rare tetradrachm of Scione ca. 480 BCE acquired by the [[British Museum]] depicts Protesilaus, identified by the retrograde legend <small>PROTESLAS</small>.<!--PROTESLAS is correct--><ref>G. F. H., "Protesilaos at Scione" ''[[British Museum Quarterly|The British Museum Quarterly]]'' '''1'''.1 (May 1926):24).</ref>

Protesilaus, speaking from beyond the grave, is the oracular source of the corrected eye-witness version of the actions of heroes at Troy, related by a "vine-dresser" to a Phoenician merchant in the [[framing device]] that gives an air of authenticity to the narratives of [[Philostratus]]' ''[[Heroicus]]'', a late literary representation of [[Greek hero|Greek hero-cult]] traditions that developed independently of the epic tradition.<ref>See Casey Dué and Gregory Nagy, "Preliminaries to Philostratus's ''On Heroes''", in Maclean and Aitken 2002.</ref>

==Cultural depictions==
Among very few representations of Protesilaus,<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], in his travels in Greece at the end of the 2nd century AD saw no statues of Protesilaus, though he appeared among the heroes painted by [[Polygnotus]] at [[Delphi]] (x.30.3).</ref> a sculpture by [[Deinomenes_(sculptor)|Deinomenes]] is just a passing mention in [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'';<ref>'Historia Naturalis, 34.76.</ref> the outstanding surviving examples are two Roman copies of a lost mid-fifth century Greek bronze original representing Protesilaus at his defining moment, one of them in a torso at the [[British Museum]],<ref>Found at [[Cyzicus]] in [[Mysia]] (modern Turkey).</ref> the other at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].<ref>Accession number 1925.25.116: Richter 1929b: [[Gisela M. A. Richter]], "A Statue of Protesilaos in the Metropolitan Museum" ''Metropolitan Museum Studies'' '''1'''.2 (May 1929:187-200).</ref> The Metropolitan's sculpture of a heroically nude [[Corinthian helmet|helmeted]] warrior stands on a forward-slanting base, looking down and slightly to his left, with his right arm raised, prepared to strike, would not be identifiable, save by comparison made by [[Gisela Richter]]<ref>Richter 1929b.</ref> with a torso of the same model and its associated slanting base, schematically carved as the prow of a ship encircled by waves: Protesilaus about to jump ashore.

[[Euripides]] had a tragedy named Protesilaus after him, but it is not one of his extant plays.<ref>So observed Gisela Richter, discussing the recently-acquired Metropolitan sculpture: Richter 1929a. "A Statue of Protesilaos" ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'' '''24'''.1 (January 1929:26-29) p. 29.</ref>

The poem in the ''[[Palatine Anthology]]'' (VII.141) on Protesilaus by [[Antiphilus of Byzantium]] in turn inspired [[F. L. Lucas|F. L. Lucas's]] poem "The Elms of Protesilaus" (1927).<ref>New Statesman, 17 Dec. 1927, p.325, reprinted in ''The Best Poems of 1928'', ed. Thomas Moult (Cape, London, 1928;  Harcourt, Brace & Co, N.Y., 1928) and included with revisions in Lucas's ''Time and Memory'' (1929) and ''From Many Times and Lands'' (1951)</ref>

==Works employing this myth==
* "Dialogues of the Dead", by [[Lucian]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/lucian-dialogues_dead/1961/pb_LCL431.163.xml|title=Dialogues Of The Dead: Dialogue 28|first=Jeffrey|last=Henderson|website=Loeb Classical Library}}</ref>
* ''Protesilaos'', a lost tragedy of [[Euripides]] of which only fragments survive<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.107.xml|title=Protesilaus|first=Jeffrey|last=Henderson|website=Loeb Classical Library}}</ref>
* "Protesilaodamia", a lost work of [[Laevius]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-3561|title=Laevius|first=Edward|last=Courtney|date=March 7, 2016|website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3561|isbn=9780199381135}}</ref>
* "carmen 61", "carmen 68", by [[Catullus]]<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/love-and-death-laodamia-and-protesilaus-in-catullus-propertius-and-others1/D0D6F457FC152E9400585C463F4B9F45|title=Love and death: Laodamia and Protesilaus in Catullus, Propertius, and others1|first=R. O. a. M.|last=Lyne|date=May 30, 1998|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=48|issue=1|pages=200–212|via=Cambridge Core|doi=10.1093/cq/48.1.200|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* "Elegies, to Cynthia", by [[Propertius]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0067:book=1:poem=19|title=Sextus Propertius, Elegies, Book 1, Addressed to Cynthia|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>
* "Heroicus", by [[Philostratus]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL521/2014/volume.xml|title=Heroicus. Gymnasticus. Discourses 1 and 2|first=Jeffrey|last=Henderson|year=2014|publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674996748|via=www.loebclassics.com}}</ref>
* "The Epistles", 13, by [[Ovid]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0085:poem=13|title=P. Ovidius Naso, The Epistles of Ovid, Laodamia to Protesilaus|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>
* "[[Laodamia (Wordsworth)|Laodamia]]", by [[William Wordsworth]]
* " Veeraanganaa", by [[Michael Madhusudan Dutt]]<ref>{{cite thesis|title=Reconstruction of European epic tradition in Michael Madhusudan Dattas epic with special reference to Milton|url=http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/97181/13/13_chapter%205.pdf|year=2014|publisher=university of Assam|last=Chakraborty |first=Udayshankar}}</ref>
* "Protesilas i Laodamia", by [[Stanisław Wyspiański]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.europeana.eu/el/item/0940433/_nncbbZT|title=Protesilas i Laodamia : tragedya|website=www.europeana.eu}}</ref>
* ΠΡΩΤΕΣΙΛΑΟΣ, Η ΤΡΑΓΩΔΙΑ, ΤΟΥ Κωνσταντίνου Αθ. Οικονόμου, Λάρισα, 2010. [www.scribd.com/oikonomoukon]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Protesilaus |volume=22 |short=x}}
* "Laodamia," [http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/704/ poem ] by [[William Wordsworth]].
* "Laodamia to Protesilaus," [https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/laodamia-to-protesilaus/ poem] by [[Jared Carter (poet)|Jared Carter]].

{{Characters in the Iliad}}

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