Neoptolemus- Greek HeroHero"Son of Achilles"

Son of Achilles

Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhus, was the son of Achilles and the princess Deidamia of Scyros. He was conceived during the period when Thetis had hidden the young Achilles on Scyros disguised as a girl to prevent him from going to Troy. After Achilles' death, the seer Helenus revealed that Troy could not fall without three conditions being met, one of which was the presence of Achilles' son. Odysseus sailed to Scyros to fetch the young warrior, who eagerly joined the Greek cause.

At Troy

Neoptolemus proved as fierce as his father. He was one of the warriors who hid inside the Trojan Horse, and during the sack of Troy he showed it. At the altar of Zeus he killed the aged King Priam — an act of sacrilege that haunted him afterward. He threw the infant Astyanax, Hector's son, from the walls and took Andromache as his war prize.

After the War

Neoptolemus did not return directly to his grandfather Peleus's kingdom in Phthia. Instead he settled in Epirus, where he founded a kingdom and fathered Molossus by Andromache. He married Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen, who had been promised to him during the war. But the marriage was unhappy and barren. Orestes, who had been betrothed to Hermione before Menelaus changed his mind, harbored a bitter grudge.

Death at Delphi

Neoptolemus traveled to Delphi, either to consult the oracle or to demand restitution from Apollo, whom he blamed for his father's death. There he met his end — traditions differ on whether he was killed by the temple priests for attempting to plunder the sanctuary, or by Orestes, who ambushed him at the altar. His tomb at Delphi became a hero-shrine where the Delphians offered him cult honors.