Polites Slain before Priam

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/256-polites-slain-neoptolemus-priam

Cycle: Trojan — Sack of Troy / Priam’s death prelude

Version line: Vergilian Roman narrative (+ Little Iliadic / Pausanian Greek notices) — Neoptolemus kills Polites in Priam’s sight

Sources: Vergil, *Aeneid* 2.526–558 (**Roman**—labeled); Pausanias 10.27.2 (Polites among Priam’s sons); cf. Apollodorus, *Epitome* 5.21 (Priam killed by Neoptolemus at Zeus Herceius without naming Polites)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/256-polites-slain-neoptolemus-priam.md

Characters

Dardanus — father who witnesses and then dies
Polites — son of Priam; slain by Neoptolemus in the palace
Pyrrhus — killer
Spartans — mother present at the scene (Vergil)

Places

Palace of Priam — scene of the killings
Troy in sack — surrounding night

Themes

Sacrifice

Narrative

In Vergil’s Roman sack-narrative, Polites, son of Priam, flees wounded through the palace courts pursued by Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus). He falls before his parents’ eyes at the altar of Zeus Herceius. Priam, enraged, weakly hurls a spear and is then dragged to the altar and slain. Greek handbook summaries often compress Priam’s death without this son’s agony; Pausanias still lists Polites among Priam’s children. Catalogue Polites’s death as a distinct beat of the sack—the son’s murder that precipitates the father’s end—labeling Vergil as the primary continuous source.