Epeigeus Slain by Hector

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/259-epeigeus-slain-hector-iliad-16

Cycle: Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Patrocleia

Version line: Homeric — Myrmidon exile of royal blood; Hector kills him over Sarpedon’s body

Sources: Homer, *Iliad* 16.570–580

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/259-epeigeus-slain-hector-iliad-16.md

Characters

Agacles — father
Ajax — mourns and continues the fight
Epeigeus — former king of Budeion; Myrmidon exile; slain by Hector
Hecuba — kills him with a stone
Peleus and Thetis — receivers of the suppliant

Places

Budeion — Epeigeus’s former realm
Field over Sarpedon’s body — death scene
Molossia — place of asylum

Themes

Narrative

Epeigeus, son of Agacles, had been king in Budeion; having killed a kinsman, he came as a suppliant to Peleus and Thetis, who sent him with Achilles to Troy. In the fight over Sarpedon’s corpse Hector struck him on the head with a stone as he seized the body, and his skull split inside the helmet. Patroclus grieved for the fallen Myrmidon and pressed the Trojans harder. The lines give a full exile-suppliant résumé in miniature—royal killer purified at Phthia, dying in Patroclus’s battle. Catalogue Epeigeus apart from Sarpedon’s own death and from the general Patrocleia.