Deiphobus

A son of Priam and Hecabe, was next to Hector the bravest among the Trojans. When Paris, yet unrecognized, came to his brothers, and conquered them all in the contest for his favorite bull, Deiphobus drew his sword against him, and Paris fled to the altar of Zeus Herceius.¹

Deiphobus and his brothers, Helenus and Asius, led the third host of the Trojans against the camp of the Achaeans,² and when Asius had fallen, Deiphobus advanced against Idomeneus, but, instead of killing him, he slew Hypsenor.³ When hereupon Idomeneus challenged him, he called Aeneas to his assistance.⁴ He also slew Ascalaphus, and while he was tearing the helmet from his enemy's head, he was wounded by Meriones, and led out of the tumult by his brother, Polites.⁵ When Athena wanted to deceive Hector in his fight with Achilles, she assumed the appearance of Deiphobus.⁶ He accompanied Helen to the wooden horse in which the Achaeans were concealed.⁷

Later traditions describe him as the conqueror of Achilles, and as having married Helen after the death of Paris, for he had loved her, it is said, before, and had therefore prevented her being restored to the Greeks.⁸ It was for this reason that, on the fall of Troy all the hatred of the Achaeans was let loose against him, and Odysseus and Menelaus rushed to his house, which was among the first that were consumed by the flames.⁹ He himself was killed by Helen;¹⁰ according to other traditions, he fell in battle against Palamedes;¹¹ or he was slain and fearfully mangled by Menelaus.¹² In this fearful condition he was found in the lower world by Aeneas, who erected a monument to him on cape Rhoeteum.¹³ His body, which remained unburied, was believed to have been changed into a plant used against hypochondriasis.

Pausanias¹⁴ saw a statue of him at Olympia, a work of Lycius, which the inhabitants of Apollonia had dedicated there.

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