PODARCES (Trojan warrior)

In the campaign against Troy, Podarces led the men of Phthia, bringing forty ships with him.^2,1 He stood in the van to defend the ships, fighting alongside Medon at the head of the Phthian warriors.^1,4 Wearing a breastplate, he helped keep the enemy away from the ships, and after Protesilaus died, Podarces took command of the troops.^2,4

His prowess was evident when he killed the warrior Clonie with a lance thrust between her hips.⁵ Yet his fate was sealed by Penthesileia, who wounded his right arm with a spear, causing him to bleed heavily.^5,3 He died shortly after retreating from the battle into the arms of his friends, a loss that the Argives mourned more than any other fallen hero.^5,3 They buried him separately from the common slain warriors and built a large, visible earth mound over his grave.³

Beyond the battlefield, Podarces was a suitor alongside Protesilaus for the same woman, seeking a wife in Lacedaemon.⁶ He sent messages to the house of Tyndareus and offered many bridal gifts to secure this marriage.⁶

Heracles required him to be enslaved before he could be ransomed, an act that gave him the name Priam because he was ransomed with a veil.⁷ Hesione chose her brother Podarces to take with her from the captives and ransomed him by giving him her head veil.⁷ He ascended to the throne after Heracles captured Ilium, taking Arisbe as his first wife and Hecuba as his second.⁸ His children included Aesacus, Hector, and many others, while he was born after his father drank a mixture containing rust from a hidden knife.^8,9 He ordered the exposure of his second son based on a dream interpretation, giving the infant to a servant named Agelaus to expose on Ida, and the exposed infant was raised by a servant and named Paris.⁸