In theIliad Thoas is the leader of the forty-ship Aetoilian contingent at Troy. He is mentioned several times in theIliad, where he is described as excelling both in fighting and in speaking. Other sources list Thoas as one of thesuitors of Helen, and as one of the warriors hidden inside theWooden Horse. He was one of the few Greeks to return home safely after the war.
Thoas's father wasAndraemon, whose birth and origin are unknown.[2] Andraemon marriedGorge, the daughter ofOeneus, who was the king ofCalydon, an ancientAetolian city-state, and the father of the heroesTydeus (one of theSeven against Thebes) andMeleager (the host of theCalydonian boar hunt, and one of theArgonauts), and grandfather of theTrojan War heroDiomedes. An aged Oeneus lost his kingdom to the sons of his brotherAgrius. But his grandson Diomedes was able to reclaim the kingdom, and install Oeneus's son-in-law Andraemon as the king of Calydon.[3]
Thoas had a sonHaemon, and an unnamed daughter.[4] Haemon was the father ofOxylus, who guided theHeracleidae in their invasion of thePeloponnese, and as reward for this, Oxylus was given the throne ofElis.[5] Thoas' daughter marriedOdysseus, by whom she had a son Leontophonus (Lion Slayer).[6]
By the time of the Trojan War, Thoas had apparently succeeded his father Andraemon to the Calydonian throne. TheIliad describes him as ruling Calydon and the nearby city ofPleuron, where, it says, he was "honoured ... even as a god".[7] According to theHesiodicCatalogue of Women, Thoas was one of thesuitors of Helen.[8] So he had, as had all the suitors, sworn an oath which obligated him to go to war with Troy to return Helen to her husbandMenelaus.[9] According to theIliad'sCatalogue of Ships, because Oeneus, his sons, and his grandson Meleager were all dead, Thoas led the forty-ship Aetoilian contingent fighting at Troy.[10]
In theIliad, though only a minor leader,[11] with neither individual character, nor particular achievements, Thoas is nevertheless well respected, with several occasional mentions.[12] He is described as
far the best of the Aetolians, well-skilled in throwing the javelin, but a good man too in close fight, and in the place of assembly could but few of the Achaeans surpass him, when the young men were striving in debate.
In Book 4, Thoas kills aThracian, but is unable to strip him of his armor, being driven back by several of the dead warrior's comrades.[13] in Book 7, he is one of the nine Greek warriors, who, after being rebuked byNestor, finally volunteer to fightHector in single combat.[14] In Book 13, Poseidon, going among the Greeks urging them to fight on, goes first toTeucer, then toLeitus,Peneleos, Thoas, Deïpyrus,Meriones, andAntilochus,[15] and later in the same Book, with the Greeks desperately battling to save their ships, Poseidon, under the guise of Thoas, asks the Greek heroIdomeneus: Where have all our proud Greek threats against the Trojans gone? And Idomenes responds, that Zeus must wish for all our deaths, far from home and unremembered, but:
Thoas, seeing that aforetime thou wast ever staunch in fight, and dost also urge on another, wheresoever thou seest one shrinking from fight, therefore now cease thou not, but call to every man.[16]
His only speech occurs in Book 15 where the Greeks, having seen Hector miraculously reappear on the battlefield, are "seized with fear".[17] But Thoas, addressing the Greeks, says:
"Now look you, verily a great marvel is this that mine eyes behold, how that now he is risen again and hath avoided the fates, even Hector. In sooth the heart of each man of us hoped that he had died beneath the hands of Aias, son of Telamon. But lo, some one of the gods hath again delivered and saved Hector, who verily hath loosed the knees of many Danaans, as, I deem, will befall even now, since not without the will of loud-thundering Zeus doth he stand forth thus eagerly as a champion. Nay come, even as I shall bid, let us all obey. The multitude let us bid return to the ships, but ourselves, all we that declare us to be the best in the host, let us take our stand, if so be we first may face him, and thrust him back with our outstretched spears; methinks, for all his eagerness he will fear at heart to enter into the throng of the Danaans."[18]
And finally, in Book 19, Thoas is one of the small delegations of Greeks who Odysseus took with him to the tent ofAgamemnon, to bring back the many gifts Agamemnon had pledged to giveAchilles, in reparation for his takingBriseis.[19]
After the Iliad in the Posthomerica, Thoas appears regularly throughout. In Book 4, he participated in the chariot race during the funeral games of Achilles, in which he came third after Menelaus and Sthenelus. In Book 6, after originally fleeing from Eurypylus, son of Telephus, he along with Teucer, Idomeneus, Meriones, and Thrasymedes, son of Nestor, go and save Agamemnon and Menelaus from being slain. In the process Thoas with his spear wounded Paris, the cause of the war, on the right thigh, after Eurypylus had killed his friend Echemmon. In Book 11, he killed Lamus and Lyncus. In Book 12, he is mentioned as one of the men inside the Trojan Horse.
Two other events concerning Thoas's involvement in the Trojan War, occurred after the events covered in theIliad, and are given in other later sources. In theLittle Iliad, a poem in theTrojan War Cycle covering the war from the death ofAchilles, to the building of theWooden Horse, Thoas woundsOdysseus, so as to make him unrecognizable on a spy mission inside Troy.[20] Several late sources name Thoas as was one of the Greek warriors who were hidden inside the Wooden Horse.[21]
Thoas was one of the few Greek leaders toreturn from the war unharmed.[23] According to some accounts he returned to Aetolia where, presumably, he resumed his rule, while according to others Thoas settled in Italy, in the land of theBrutti.[24]
Local tradition associated Thoas with the Greek city ofAmphissa, the main city ofWestern Locris. The geographerPausanias reports seeing a tomb at Amphissa, which was said to be the tomb of Thoas' parents Andraemon and Gorge, and a bronze statue of Athena in her temple on the acropolis of Amphissa, that was said to have been brought back from Troy by Thoas as a spoil of war.[25] Apollodorus reports that according to some, after Odysseus was exiled fromIthaca in punishment for his killing thesuitors of Penelope, he sought refuge with Thoas in Aetolia. There he married Thoas' daughter, had a son Leontophonus with her, and died of old age.[26]
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