NEOPTOLEMUS was the son of Achilles and Deidamia, one of the daughters of Lycomedes of Scyros, at whose court Achilles was concealed by his mether in female attire to keep him away from the Trojan War. He was brought to Troy in the last year of the war by Ulysses, whom he helped in persuading Philoctetes to come from Lemnos to aid the Greeks, and he was one of the warriors in the wooden horse. It was he who killed Priam during the sack of the city. Apart from these Trojan tales, Neoptolemus is a prominent figure in the 340

legends of Epirus and of Delphi. He was the ancestor of the Molossian kings, who therefore claimed to be of pure Hellenic stock. His grave was at Delphi, and the festival in his honour every eighth year is described in the romance of Heliodorus as one of the most beautiful ceremonies in the Delphic ritual. It was said that he protected the temple in the Gaulish invasion.