Asteropaios

Achilles fights by the river, 18th-century engraving-etching Johann Balthasar Probst (1673 - 1748)

In the Iliad, Asteropaios (Greek: Ἀστεροπαῖος; Latin: Asteropaeus) was a leader of the Trojan-allied Paeonians along with fellow warrior Pyraechmes. Asteropaios was the son of Pelagon, who was the son of the river god Axios and the mortal woman Periboia, daughter of Akessamenos (Greek: Ἀκεσσάμενος). Asteropaios was a newcomer to the war at the start of the Iliad; he had only been in Troy for less than two weeks.^[1]

Asteropaios had the distinction in combat of being ambidextrous and would on occasion throw two spears at once. In Book XII of the Iliad as the Trojans attacked the Achaean wall, Asteropaios was a leader of the same division as the Lycian warriors Sarpedon and Glaucus, the division which pressed hard enough to allow Hector and his division to breach the wall.^[2]

In Book XXI, as Achilles is mercilessly slaughtering Trojan warriors alongside the river god Scamander and polluting the waters with dead bodies (including one of Priam's sons, Lycaon). With the river god pondering how he might stop Achilles, Achilles in turn attacks Asteropaios (himself the grandson of a river god) whom Scamander instills with courage to make a stand against Achilles.^[3]

Achilles and Asteropaios thus engage in one-on-one combat, Asteropaios throwing two spears at the same time at Achilles. One spear hit Achilles' shield, while the other reached his right forearm and drew blood.^[4] Asteropaios was the only Trojan in the Iliad who was able to draw blood from Achilles. However, he fails to kill Achilles, and is slain. And Achilles boasts that though Asteropaios may be descended from a river-god, that he, Achilles, is descended from a mightier god, Zeus.^[5] Later, in the funeral games for the slain Patroclus, the bronze and tin corslet^[6] and the silver-studded sword^[7] of Asteropaios are awarded as prizes.

The asteroid 4805 Asteropaios is named after the hero.

Notes

↑ Homer, Iliad 21.140–160
↑ Homer, Iliad 12.101–104
↑ Homer, Iliad 21.136–
↑ Homer, Iliad, 21.161–169
↑ Homer, Iliad, 21.170–199
↑ Homer, Iliad, 23.560–564
↑ Homer, Iliad, 23.805–809

References

Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924.

Characters in the Iliad

Achaeans	Acamas Achilles Agamemnon Agapenor Ajax the Greater Ajax the Lesser Alcimus Anticlus Antilochus Arcesilaus Ascalaphus Automedon Balius and Xanthus Bias Calchas Diomedes Elephenor Epeius Eudoros Euryalus Eurybates Eurydamas Eurypylus Guneus Helen Ialmenus Idomeneus Leitus Leonteus Lycomedes Machaon Medon Meges Menelaus Menestheus Meriones Neoptolemus Nestor Nireus Odysseus Palamedes Patroclus Peneleos Philoctetes Phoenix Podalirius Podarces Polites Polypoetes Promachus Protesilaus Prothoenor Schedius Stentor Sthenelus Talthybius Teucer Thersites Thoas Thrasymedes Tlepolemus

Trojans	Aeneas Aesepus Agenor Alcathous Amphimachus Anchises Andromache Antenor Antiphates Antiphus Archelochus Asius Asteropaios Astyanax Atymnius Axylus Briseis Calesius Caletor Cassandra Chryseis Chryses Clytius Coön Dares Phrygius Deiphobus Dolon Epistrophus Euphemus Euphorbus Glaucus Gorgythion Hector Hecuba Helenus Hyperenor Hypsenor Ilioneus Imbrius Iphidamas Kebriones Laocoön Lycaon Melanippus Mentes Mydon Mygdon of Phrygia Othryoneus Pandarus Panthous Paris Pedasus Peirous Phorcys Polites Polydamas Polybus Polydorus Priam Pylaemenes Pylaeus Pyraechmes Rhesus of Thrace Sarpedon Theano Ucalegon

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