Galaxy/The codex of Laodamia

In Greek mythology, Laodamia daughter of Acastus and Astydamia was the wife of Protesilaus, the first Greek to die at Troy. The gods briefly restored her husband from Hades; when he returned below she could not bear the loss, clung to his image, and died — by suicide in the fire with his statue, or by kindred versions. Distinct from Bellerophon's Lycian daughter Laodamia and other homonyms.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Protesilaus" and "Laodamia" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Widow of the first to fall

Protesilaus of Phylace leapt first ashore at Troy and was slain — by Hector in the usual account — fulfilling the oracle that the first Greek to touch Trojan soil would die. The gods pitied Laodamia and brought him up from Hades for a short reunion; when he was taken back she found the second loss unbearable.

She had a bronze (or wax) image of him made and devoted herself to it until her father destroyed the statue; she then leapt into the fire with it. Ovid's Heroides gives her a letter to the still-living Protesilaus; Catullus and later poets treat the pair as a paradigm of conjugal grief. One minority tradition names his wife Polydora instead.

II.Homonyms

The atlas id laodamia-protesilaus is Acastus's daughter, not laodameia-lycian (Bellerophon's daughter, mother of Sarpedon in Homer), nor the Arcadian queen sometimes called Laodamia, nor other minor Laodamias in the catalogues.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameLaodameia (Λαοδάμεια)
Typemortal
Domainswife of Protesilaus · the image of the dead · daughter of Acastus
ParentageAcastus
Cult centersPhylace (Thessaly; mourning and games for Protesilaus) · Elaeus (Thracian Chersonese; hero-tomb)
EtymologyAncient Greek Λαοδάμεια (Laodámeia), "tamer of the people" or "people-subduing."
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