Sources Quoted
Attempted Slaughter of Newborn Paris
Priam should have learned, through the needless killing of Munippus, that the will of the gods would not be easily turned aside. Still, Priam had a duty to protect his kingdom, and so he ordered a servant to take the child's life, and to provide the infant's tongue as proof. Although a tongue was delivered, the baby was later discovered, whole and healthy, in the servant's quarters alongside an oddly tongueless dog.
Paris is sent to be killed [not exposed], but is spared by the servants when they see the infant smile. The servants pity him and allow him to live, after which they bring back the tongue of a dog as evidence that they have obeyed.— Konrad von Würzburg Der Trojanische Krieg paraphrased
c. 1287
Paraphrase from Atwood and Whitaker, Introduction [chapter].
PRIAM (to Hecuba):
It's not as bad losing a son than having the city face great danger in war.— El Libro de Alexandre
c. Mid 13th Century CE
Translated by Crystal and Alfredo Illescas.
Retrieved from
medievalacademy.org
It is much better to lose one son than a whole city with a great multitude of people.— Leomarte Sumas de Historia Troyana
c. Late 13th Century
Translated by Crystal and Alfredo Illescas.
Retrieved from
medievalacademy.org
Exposure of Infant Paris
It seemed that a child of prophecy could not be directly killed, but the king and queen agreed that the boy could not stay in the city that he would eventually doom, to be raised by heartbroken parents who knew too much of his fate.
One available option would be for them to leave the infant on the wilderness slopes of Mount Ida, pitting the forces of Fate and Nature against each other in the hope that Ilion might yet be spared.
CHORUS (to Andromache):
Oh but if only his mother had broken the sorry creature’s skull at once before he settled there on Ida’s side.— Euripides: Andromache 293-295
c. 428-425 BCE
Nims, p.575.
IPHIGENEIA (to Clytaemnestra):
O snow-beaten Phrygian glen and Ida’s Hill: there on a day was the tender suckling thrown, Priam’s child, from his mother torn, for the doom of death.— Euripides: Iphigeneia at Aulis 1283-1287
c. 405 BCE
Walker, p.283.
When the baby was born, Priam gave it to a slave to take to Mount Ida and expose. The slave was named Agelaus.— Pseudo-Apollodorus: Library 3.149
c. 61/60 BCE-2nd Century CE
Smith and Trzaskoma, p.63.
When Hecuba bore Alexander, she handed him over to some of her men to be put to death, but out of pity they only exposed him. Shepherds found the exposed infant, raised him as one of their own, and named him Paris.— Hyginus: Fabulae 91
c. 2nd-3rd Century CE
Smith and Trzaskoma, p.127.
Fearing that [prophecy about Paris], when she gave birth to him, due to the augury, in order that the augury may altogether be taken away from Troy with him, she ordered maidservants to abandon him outside the city in the mountain— which was done. And after he had been abandoned by those maidservants, he was taken up by a shepherd who was in that mountain, and he was reared by him.— Rawlinson's Excidium Troiae
c. 6th Century CE
Fadhlurrahman, p. 2.
Exile of Newborn Paris
Another option would be to send him away to a set of known foster parents, to ensure that he would not receive the battle training that would make him a military threat.
Accordingly, they [the interpreters] had decided to kill the baby at birth. But Hecuba, with a woman’s tenderness toward her child, had given him secretly to shepherds to rear on Mount Ida.— Dictys Cretensis Journal of The Trojan War
as cited in Septimius' Abridged Translation Dictys Latinas 3.26
c. 1st Century CE
Frazer.
Hearing this [Hecuba's dream and the oracle that Paris will destroy the Phrygian Empire on his 30th birthday], Priam renamed him Alexandros and sent him to the countryside to be brought up, a place called Amandros and renamed Parion.— Dictys Cretensis Journal of The Trojan War BNJ 49F3
as cited in John of Antioch fragment F40.4
c. 1st Century CE
Jacoby.
On hearing this [the oracle that Paris will destroy the Phrygian Empire on his 30th birthday] Priam immediately renamed him Alexander and sent him to an estate named Amandra, to be nursed by a farmer until he had passed the 30 years referred to by the oracle.— John Malalas Chronicles 5.2 (92)
c. 563-574 CE
Jeffreys et al., p.45.
When the father ordered that his son [Paris] die, the mother handed him over secretly to a shepherd to be raised.— The Second Vatican Mythographer 225
c. 11th Century CE
Pepin, p.187.
[After Hecuba's dream and interpretation by prophets] then, Hecuba gave birth to a child who would bring disaster to Troy. She named him Paris, although she shouldn't have brought him to this world. Then, fearing for his family Priam took the child and brought him to the altar of Helios to consult the oracle. There was the excellent prophet for the Trojans, Apollo, in the most holy temple of the Helios, who brings light to the mortals. According to the prophecy, he said the following oracle. Go, tell my word, the word of Phoebus, you, leader of the Trojans! Because of Paris, your new-born baby son, the city of Troy will be utterly destroyed by the suffering-bringer Ares, when your son will complete his thirtieth year of life. After king Priam heard this, he sent his son to the fields to grow up by himself.— John Tzetzes Antehomerica 46-58
c. Mid 12th Century-1180 CE
Untila, pp.2-3.
Priam wants to expose the infant but Hecuba sends him secretly to a fóstr [foster parent]— Trójumanna Saga
c. Mid 13th Century CE
Paraphrase from Atwood and Whitaker.
Priam, on hearing about Hecuba’s evil dream, resolves that the child must be sent away; and he turns him over to a forester [corrupted form of foster?] named Dardanus to be brought up.— Jansen Enikel Weltchronik paraphrased
c. Late 13th Century CE
Paraphrase from Excidium Troiae, Introduction [chapter]
Atwood and Whitaker.
The king ordered the queen to kill the child, but Hecuba had pity on the infant and secretly sent him to a vavasor who adopted him and named him Alexander.— Second Redaction of Histoire Ancienne
c. Mid 14th Century CE
Paraphrased by Ehrhart, p.63.
Exile of Paris as a Child
Perhaps he was sent away as a newborn, or perhaps Hecuba insisted that he remain with her for at least a few years. Regarless, Paris eventually ended up in the care of shepherds, and was trained to tend flocks on the mountainside.
[After Hecuba's Dream and interpretation by masters] When the child was born of that lady, fairer might no man see with eyes. Nurses many to him were sought; The child seemed fair and soft. When the child was seven years old, he was fair and of speech bold. His mother thought on her dreaming that she met in her sleeping, and thought he should slay no men. No the city of Troy makes boys slain; and a servant makes the child's clothes tight, curtel and tabard and hod all white. [Hecuba] made him to the fields to go to keep swine with staff and stone under a man that could better know the fields by north and south. The queen sent her own child into a country vast and wild, and made him keep swine there as he a poor man's son were, for he should see no armor bright, nay no battle, nay no fight.— Seege or Batayle of Troy: Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript
c. Early-Mid 14th Century CE
Barnicle.
In Troy lived Priam’s son, Duke Paris, who pastured beasts in the field, this being in ancient times a privilege accorded only to knights.— Robert Mannying: Story of England
c. 1338 CE
Paraphrase from Ehrhart, p. 66.
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