Polypoetes

The mighty son of Pirithous and Hippodamia. He was one of the Lapiths, who joined the Greeks in the Trojan war, commanding the men of Argissa, Gyrtone, Orthe, Elone and Oloosson.1 He killed Astyalus, Damasus, Pylon, and Ormenus in battle.

At the funeral games of Patroclus, Polypoetes, Leonteus, Ajax, and Epeius stepped forward to compete for the prize — a store of iron that would last the winner five years. Epeius flung the quoit from him, which set all the Achaeans laughing. Next came Leonteus, and then Ajax, who threw the quoit beyond any mark that had been made yet. Polypoetes, however, hurled it as though it had been a stockman's stick, and out-distanced them all. His followers carried the prize for him and set it on board his ship.2

After the fall of Troy, Polypoetes and Leonteus are said to have founded the city of Aspendus in Pamphylia.3

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References

Notes

  1. Homer. Iliad ii, 738 ff., comp. vi, 29; xii, 129.
  2. ibid. xxiii, 836 ff.
  3. Eustathius on Homer, p. 334.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.