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Pandrasus is the fictional king ofGreece and father ofInnogen inGeoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-historyHistoria Regum Britanniae (c. 1136).
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In theHistoria Regum Britanniae, Pandrasus is king of the Greeks, and has enslaved the Trojan descendants ofHelenus (who had been captured byPyrrhus as punishment for the death of his fatherAchilles in theTrojan War). After being exiled from Italy,Brutus of Troy arrives in Greece and becomes the leader of the enslaved Trojans.[1]
Assaracus – a Greek noble who owns three castles, and is of Trojan descent through his mother's side – sides with the Trojans after Pandrasus allows Assaracus' fully Greek half brother to take these castles.[2][3] Brutus agrees to support Assaracus, gathers all the Trojans and fortifies Assaracus' towns, then retreats with Assaracus and the Trojans to the woods and hills. Brutus sends a letter to Pandrasus, requesting that the Trojans be freed and allowed either to remain living in the woods, or to depart from Greece.[1]
Pandrasus consults with his nobles, then gathers an army to march on the town of Sparatinum where he suspects Brutus to be. Brutus ambushes them on their way to Sparatinum with three thousand men, and slaughters the Greeks as they try to fall back to the far side of the river Akalon (possibly theAchelous orAcheron[1]). Pandrasus' brother Antigonus attempts to rally the Greeks, but ends up being captured along with his companion Anacletus. Brutus reinforces the town with six hundred men then retreats to the woods, while Pandrasus reassembles the Greek forces and then lays siege to the town.[1]
While the Greeks are encamped around Sparatinum, Brutus forces Anacletus to trick the night sentries into leaving their posts to help Antigonus, and then attacks the sleeping Greeks, massacring nearly all of them, except Pandrasus, who is kept alive. The Trojans hold a council, and decide that they have to demand their freedom to leave Greece, with plentiful resources to do so, as Pandrasus would regain his strength and have them all killed if they remained. Pandrasus is then brought in, and threatened with a cruel death if he does not agree to this, in addition to giving Brutus the hand of his eldest daughterInnogen in marriage. Pandrasus complies, offering to remain a hostage until they leave, and says that he was glad his daughter was to be married to such a great leader as Brutus.[1][4]
Pandrasus is one of several characters that appear to have been invented by Geoffrey for theHistoria. Academic Jacob Hammer suggests that he may have had in mind one of the two characters namedPandarus fromVirgil'sAeneid (29–19 BCE).[5] One manuscript of theDares Phrygius (c. fifth century CE) even spells the name Pandarus as "Pandrasus".[6]
Peter Roberts suggests that because Greek legends state thatPyrrhus took Helenus toEpirus, Pandrasus should be considered king of Epirus, which would tally with the river Akalon mentioned in the story being theAcheron. He continues by noting that as the events of Pandrasus are said to have taken place about eighty years after theTrojan War, it also matches the timeframe of other accounts of the expulsion of theAchaeans from thePeloponnese around this time, which could have led them to build the "Spartan Castle" (Sparatinum) mentioned in theHistoria, possibly aroundPandosia.[7]
Geoffrey reused the name Pandrasus later in theHistoria as the name of the king of Egypt at the time ofKing Arthur.[5][8]
John of Hauville'sArchitrenius (c. 1184) describes the marriage of Innogen and Brutus, saying they "joined the royal house ofAnchises to that of Greece. Pandrasus extended the royal line in one direction,Silvius in another, and the star derived from this union of stars poured forth the fuller radiance of a triple light."[9]
Scholars from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century who studiedEustache Deschamps' ballad in praise ofGeoffrey Chaucer (c. 1380 on) interpreted a difficult line of the poem "aux ignorans de la langue pandra" as meaning "for those ignorant of the tongue of Pandrasus". Later scholarship suggested that "a Pandarus for those ignorant of the language" was more likely, referring toPandarus from Chaucer'sTroilus and Criseyde (c. 1380s).[10]