Αντηνωρ
An old Trojan, a companion and advisor to the aged Priam. Before the Trojan War he had some close friends among the Greek chiefs, including Menelaus and Odysseus who visited him before the siege on a mission to negotiate a friendly settlement. In the Iliad Antenor can be seen urging moderation on the Trojans. As a believer in peaceful solutions he tried to get the war decided by a duel between Paris and Menelaus. When Troy fell Lycaon, one of his sons who had been wounded, was recognized by Odysseus who conducted him, together with his brother Glaucus, through the Greek army to a safe place. While the city was being sacked the Greeks hung a leopard-skin over the door of Antenor's house, to show that it should be spared.
With the development of the Trojan cycle Antenor appears as an entirely different character: he became a traitor to his country who helped the Greeks to steal the Palladium and opened the gates of the wooden horse for the soldiers who were shut inside. After Troy was captured he and his son were said to have gone through Thrace and from there to have reached northern Italy. He was said to be the ancestor of the Veneti, who lived in the lower valley of the Po.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Hom. Il. 3, 148; 203ff.; 262; 7, 347ff.
- Paus. 10, 26, 7; 10, 27, 3ff.
- Serv. on Virgil, Aen. 1, 246; 651
- Livy 1, 1
- Strabo 13, 1, 53, p. 608
- Sophocles, Antenoridae (Lost tragedy, Jegg-Pearson I, p. 86)