Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Still in the slaughter by the Scamander, Achilles faces Asteropaeus, leader of the Paeonians, son of Pelegon and grandson of the broad river Axius. Asteropaeus alone of the Trojans’ allies in this stretch is ambidextrous: he casts two spears at once. One weapon lodges in Achilles’ shield; the other grazes his right arm and draws blood—a rare touch of Achilles’ body in the poem’s late aristeia. Achilles answers with the Pelian ash spear, misses when Asteropaeus dodges, and the spear fixes in the riverbank. Asteropaeus strains to wrench Achilles’ spear free; Achilles is on him with the sword and strikes him in the belly. As Asteropaeus dies sprawling in the water, Achilles boasts over him: even a river’s grandson yields to a descendant of Zeus through Aeacus—Scamander may help the Trojans, but Zeus’s line outranks a river’s. He leaves the body for eels and fish and turns to kill other Paeonians until the river, angered by the choking dead, rises against him. Catalogue Asteropaeus as the Paeonian spear-duelist of *Iliad* 21—ambidextrous thrower, drawer of Achilles’ blood, slain before the river’s own assault.