Acamas

Ακαμας

The name of several heroes.

1. A Trojan, the son of Antenor and Theano, who played a particularly brilliant part in the attack on the Greek camp. He was killed by Meriones.
    
2. The uncle of Cyzicus, who also fought for the Trojans, and was leader of a Thracian contingent. He was killed by Ajax, the son of Telamon.
    
3. The son of Theseus and Phaedra and the most famous Acamas. He gave his name to the Attic clan of the Acamantides. This particular Acamas does not feature in the Homeric epic, though legends created after the composition of the Iliad give him, together with his brother Demophon, a part in the capture of Troy. Acamas is said to have accompanied Diomedes to Troy before the war broke out in an attempt to demand the return of Helen. While there he was seen by Priam's daughter Laodice, who fell in love with him. She confided her feelings to Philobia, the wife of Perseus, who immediately decided to help. Philobia persuaded her husband, who ruled the town of Dardanus in the Troad, to invite the two young people to a feast separately and to make them sit side by side, Laodice pretending to be a member of Priam's harem. By the end of the feast Laodice had become Acamas' wife. Their marriage resulted in a son, Munitus, who was brought up in Priam's palace by his great-grandmother Aethra, the mother of Theseus, who was at that time Helen's prisoner. After the fall of Troy Munitus returned to Acamas and they set out for Attica, together with Aethra who had finally regained her freedom. Munitus died on the way after being bitten by a snake while hunting at Olynthus.
   
   There is a story that Acamas was one of those inside the wooden horse at the capture of Troy and that as his share of the booty he received the captured Clymene. On his way home from Troy he spent a long time in Thrace on account of his love for Phyllis. Later he founded a colony in Cyprus where he is said to have died when his horse fell and he was impaled on his own sword. This legend is more generally thought, though, to refer to Acamas' brother Demophon.
   
   According to still other legends, Acamas took part in the capture of Troy with Demophon and returned with Aethra to Attica, where he reassumed power and reigned peacefully.

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources:

1. - Homer, Il. 2, 819ff.; 12, 99ff.; 14, 476ff.; 16, 342ff.
    
2. - Homer, Il. 2, 844; 6, 5ff.
    
3. - Sophocles Phil. 562
   - Euripides Hec. 123ff.
   - Plutarch Thes. 35
   - Parthen. Erot. 16
   - Virgil, Aen. 2, 262
   - Hyg. Fab. 108
   - Apollod. Epit. 1, 18; 1, 23; 5, 22
   - Paus. 1, 5, 2; 10, 10, 1; 10, 26, 2
   - Tzetzes on Lyc. Alex. 496

From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (London, 1880)

A'CAMAS ('Akamas). 1. A son of Theseus and Phaedra, and brother of Dernophoon. (Diod. iv. 62.) Previous to the expedition of the Greeks against Troy, he and Diomedes were sent to demand the surrender of Helen (this message Homer ascribes to Menelaus and Odysseus, Il. xi. 139, &c.), but during his stay at Troy he won the affection of Laodice, daughter of Priam (Parthen. Nic. Erot. 16), and begot by her a son, Munitus, who was brought up by Aethra, the grandmother of Acamas. (Schol. ad Lyouphr. 499, &c.) Virgil (Aen. ii. 262) mentions him among the Greeks concealed in the wooden horse at the taking of Troy. On his return home he was detained in Thrace by his love for Phyllis; but after leaving Thrace and arriving in the island of Cyprus, he was killed by a fall from his horse upon his own sword. (Schol. ad Lycophr. l. c.) The promontory of Acamas in Cyprus, the town of Acamentium in Phrygia, and the Attic tribe Acamantis, derived their names from him. (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Akamantion; Paus. i. 5. § 2.) He was painted in the Lesche at Delphi by Polygnotus, and there was also a statue of him at Delphi. (Paus. x. 26. § 1, x. 10. § 1.)

2. A son of Antenor and Theano, was one of the bravest Trojans. (Hom, Il. 1 823, xii. 100.) He avenged the death of his brother, who had been killed by Ajax, by slaying Promachus the Boeotian. (Il. xiv. 476.) He himself was slain by Meriones. (Il. xvi. 342.)

3. A son of Eussorus, was one of the leaders of the Thracians in the Trojan war (Hom., Il. ii. 844, v. 462), and was slain by the Telamonian Ajax. (Il. vi. 8.)

L.S.

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