Palamedes, a Greek hero in the Trojan War, has been described as a counterpart to Odysseus. Both men were clever. Palamedes came from the fertile area of Euboea to the east of mainland Greece, whereas Odysseus came from rocky Ithaca, to the west. [See Map of Greece.]

Enmity with Odysseus: Palamedes earned Odysseus' enmity when he figured out that Odysseus was only feigning madness as a draft dodge.

[See The Madness of Odysseus.] Odysseus took his revenge on a man smarter than he was by finding an appropriate person to forge an incriminating letter and planting a bribe that was found in Palamedes' possession. Palamedes was stoned to death for treason.

Revenge: Palamedes' father Naupilus tried to get satisfaction for the miscarriage of justice that resulted in his son's death. When Agamemnon backed Odysseus, Naupilus is said to have caused the wives of the Achaean leaders to be unfaithful to their husbands. He also lit false beacons leading to the shipwreck of the Greek fleet returning from Troy.

Prometheus and Cadmus: Prometheus is called Palamedes' divine counterpart. Prometheus is the immortal credited with giving arts and science to mankind; Palamedes is credited with similar benefits. He is also said to have taught mankind about dice and draughts, numbers, navigation, astronomy and the seasons, perhaps medicine, and the alphabet or certain letters thereof, making him a Greek counterpart to the Phoenician Cadmus who is credited with teaching the Greeks the Semitic system of letter writing.

Sources:

• _{Theoi - Aeschylus Fragments}
• _{Theoi - Hyginus Fabulae}
• _{Theoi - Ovid Metamorphoses}
• _{Herbert Jennings Rose, Jennifer R. March "Palamedes" and "Nauplius, (1)" The Oxford Classical Dictionary}
• _{"From the Civilization of Prometheus to Genetic Engineering: The Role of Technology and the Uses of Metaphor"
  Claude Calame
  Arion, 2005.}
• _{The Attic Prometheus
  C. B. Gulick
  Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 1899.}
•  

Go to Other Ancient / Classical History Glossary pages beginning with the letter

a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | wxyz