Corythus (son of Paris)

In Greek mythology, Corythus () is a minor Trojan man, the son of Prince Paris by either Oenone or rarely Helen of Troy, both women he was married to. In one account Corythus arrived at Troy in the mid of the decade-spanning Trojan War and there he charmed and was charmed by Helen, thus incurring Paris' wrath and jealousy. In the end, the angry Paris killed him, not knowing Corythus was his son. In version where he is son of Helen, he dies as result of roof collapse

Family

Corythus is the son of the Trojan prince Paris, either by his first wife Oenone or by his second wife Helen. As the son of Helen, he had four full-siblings, brothers Bunomus, Aganus and Idaeus, as well a sister named after her mother.

Mythology

According to most authors, Corythus was son of Oenone, Paris' previous wife before he deserted her for the love of Helen. The jealous and hurt Oenone sent Corythus to the Trojan court, with instructions to stir some trouble, planning ill for Helen and making Paris jealous.

Corythus, who had grown to be even more good-looking than his father, was received warmly by Helen and even fell in love with her. Paris grew envious, and slew him after seeing Coerythus next to Helen in her bedroom, not knowing this was his own son. Oenone then cursed Paris to be wounded severely by the Achaeans so that he would be at her need and ask for her. When that day came, Oenone refused to help. After Paris died, she repented and hung herself.

He was sent by Oenone to inform the Greeks of the prophecies required to take Troy: one of the Aeacidae, Pelops' bones, and Heracles' arrows. Lycophron further makes reference to Corythus to informing them about the land, and him being a spy or traitor, alluding to a version in which the Greeks found Troy thanks to Corythus' information.

In the versions where Corythus is the son of Helen and Paris, he is said to have died alongside his brothers after a roof in Troy collapsed on them. This parentage was also attested by the poet Nicander, who called him "the fruit of marriage-rape".

See also

Other stories with unwitting kinslaying include:

• Telephus
• Leucippus
• Procris
• Telegonus

References

Bibliography

• Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. Online text available at topos.text.
• Dictys Cretensis, from The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian, translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer Jr. (1931-), Indiana University Press. 1966. Online text at topos.text.
• Lycophron, Alexandra (or Cassandra) in Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair ; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive.
• Parthenius, Love Romances translated by Sir Stephen Gaselee (1882-1943), S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 69. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1916. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.
• Tzetzes, John, Scholia to Lycophron's Alexandra, marginal notes by Isaak and Ioannis Tzetzes and others, from the Greek edition of Eduard Scheer (Weidmann 1881) (downloadable at archive.org, translated by CHATGPT 4.0 with more speed than accuracy, with prompts and work-arounds by Bruce Hartzler and a few manual improvements (?) by Brady Kiesling. Online text available at topos.text.