Antilochus of Pylos

For the asteroid, see 1583 Antilochus. For the ancient Greek historian, see Antilochus (historian).

Antilochus on an Attic red-figure amphora ca. 470 BC from the Louvre

In Greek mythology, Antilochus /ænˈtɪləkəs/ (Greek: Ἀντίλοχος, Antílokhos) was the son of Nestor, king of Pylos, and was one of the Acheans in the Trojan War.

One of the suitors of Helen of Troy, he accompanied his father and his brother Thrasymedes to the Trojan War. He was distinguished for his beauty, swiftness of foot, and skill as a charioteer. Though the youngest among the Greek princes, he commanded the Pylians in the war and performed many deeds of valour. He was a favorite of the gods and a friend of Achilles, to whom he was commissioned to announce the death of Patroclus.

When his father Nestor was attacked by Memnon, Antilochus sacrificed himself to save him. thus fulfilling an oracle which had warned to "beware of an Ethiopian." Antilochus' death was avenged by Achilles. According to other accounts, he was slain by Hector or by Paris in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo together with Achilles His ashes, along with those of Achilles and Patroclus, were enshrined in a mound on the promontory of Sigeion, where the inhabitants of Ilium offered sacrifice to the dead heroes. In the Odyssey, the three friends are represented as united in the underworld and walking together in the Asphodel Meadows. According to Pausanias, they dwell together on the island of Leuke.

Among the Trojans he killed were Melanippus, Ablerus, Atymnius, Phalces, and Thoon, although Hyginus records that he only killed two Trojans. At the funeral games of Patroclus, Antilochus finished second in the chariot race and third in the foot race.

Antilochus left behind in Messenia a son Paeon, whose descendants were among the Neleidae expelled from Messenia, by the descendants of Heracles.

Sources

• Homer. Odyssey, IV, 188.
• Homer. Iliad, XXIII, 423, 541, 556.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece. W. H. S. Jones (translator). Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. (1918). Vol. 1. Books I–II: ISBN 0-674-99104-4.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Antilochus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.