Death of Antilochus at Memnon’s Hands (*Aethiopis*)

Death of Antilochus at Memnon’s Hands (Aethiopis)

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/228-antilochus-death-memnon-aethiopis

Cycle: Trojan — Epic Cycle / *Aethiopis*

Version line: Cyclic / Apollodorean — Memnon kills Antilochus; Achilles avenges him

Sources: Proclus, summary of the *Aethiopis*; Apollodorus, *Epitome* 5.3; cf. Homer, *Odyssey* 3.111–112, 4.186–188, 11.468–470 (Antilochus remembered)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/228-antilochus-death-memnon-aethiopis.md

Characters

Ajax — avenges Antilochus
Memnon — son of Eos; killer; later slain by Achilles
Nestor — father; helpless witness in cyclic/Homeric memory
Patroclus — son of Nestor; slain by Memnon
Rhea — mother of Memnon

Places

Assembly — battlefield of the *Aethiopis*

Themes

Narrative

In the *Aethiopis*, after Penthesilea, Memnon son of Eos comes to Troy in immortal armor made by Hephaestus. Fighting for the Trojans, he kills Antilochus son of Nestor—the young charioteer dear to Achilles and praised in the *Odyssey* as foremost in speed after the Myrmidon. Nestor’s helplessness and Achilles’ grief frame the next combat: Achilles meets Memnon and kills him; Eos obtains immortality for her son. Homeric reminiscence keeps Antilochus among the shades Achilles meets and among those Menelaus and Nestor mourn. Catalogue Antilochus’s death apart from the wider Memnon aristeia and Eos’s boon: it is the personal loss that links Nestor’s line to Achilles’ last victories.