Teucer’s Family Tree

About Teucer →

Family

• Hesione(parent),Telamon(parent)— Consort

  Telamon received Hesione as his war prize after Heracles sacked Troy. She bore him the archer Teucer, who fought alongside his half-brother Ajax at the second siege of the same city.

Allied with

• Ajax

  Ajax and Teucer fought as a legendary pair at Troy — Teucer shot arrows from behind Ajax's massive tower shield, then ducked back to safety like a child sheltering behind its mother, as Homer describes in the Iliad.

Enemy of

• Hector

  In Iliad Book 8, Teucer shot at Hector from behind Ajax's shield, killing several Trojans nearby. Zeus intervened on Hector's behalf, snapping Teucer's bowstring before his arrow could strike.

Associated with

• Glaucus (son of Hippolochus)

  In Iliad 12, Glaucus joined Sarpedon in the assault on the Greek defensive wall. When Teucer's arrow wounded Glaucus in the arm, he withdrew from the rampart to conceal his injury from the enemy.

• Odysseus

  In Sophocles's Ajax, Odysseus intervened to support Teucer's demand that Ajax receive proper burial, persuading Agamemnon to relent despite Ajax's earlier hostility toward him.

• Priam

  Teucer was Priam's nephew through his mother Hesione, Priam's sister. This Trojan blood made Teucer's position at Troy deeply conflicted — he fought against his own maternal kin.

• Tecmessa

  After Ajax's suicide in Sophocles's tragedy, Teucer arrives and takes charge of the mourning. Ajax had entrusted Eurysaces to Teucer's guardianship, making him protector of Tecmessa and her son.