Pandarus (Ancient Greek: Πάνδαρος), son of Lycaon, was a skilled Lycian archer from Zeleia in the Troad who fought for Troy in Homer's Iliad. He is infamous for breaking the Achaean–Trojan truce by wounding Menelaus under Athena's deceit, and later dies attempting to kill Diomedes. Medieval and Shakespearean tradition recast him as the go-between of Troilus and Cressida — the source of English "pander."
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Pandarus" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.In the Iliad
Homer introduces Pandarus in the Catalogue of Ships as leader of the contingent from Zeleia under Mount Ida, famous for his bow. In Book 4 Athena, wishing Troy's destruction, takes the form of Laodocus son of Antenor and persuades him to shoot Menelaus during a truce that might have returned Helen peacefully. The arrow wounds Menelaus; the truce collapses and battle resumes.
Later, with Aeneas as charioteer, Pandarus tries to kill Diomedes at close range when Athena shields the Greek from his arrows. Diomedes strikes him dead and knocks him from the chariot, then pursues Aeneas until Aphrodite intervenes. Virgil mentions a brother Eurytion, also an archer; a different Pandarus dies in Italy when Turnus cleaves his skull — kept distinct from the Iliadic Lycian.
II.Medieval and later reception
Boccaccio's Il Filostrato and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde make Pandarus the witty facilitator of the love affair between Troilus and Criseyde — a plot foreign to Homer. Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida sharpens him into an aged, lecherous bawd. From that role English took pander / panderer for one who furthers illicit sexual intrigue, and the legal sense of trafficking another's sexual services.