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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Priam
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
• Priam

(Gr. IIpiap.os), in Greek legend, the last king of Troy, son of Laomedon and brother of Tithonus. Little is known of him before the Trojan War, which broke out when he was advanced in years. According to Homer (Iliad, iii. 184) in his youth he fought on the side of the Phrygians against the Amazons. He had fifty sons and fifty daughters, and possessed immense wealth. He appears only twice on the scene of action during the war - to make arrangements for the duel between Paris and Menelaus, and to beg the body of Hector for burial from Achilles, whom he visits in his tent by night. He was said to have been slain by Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, during the sack of Troy (Virgil, Aeneid, ii. 512). See under Troy, on the legends.