Palamedes The Just Pre-Christian Martyr, Our Father Palamedes.. a real super case.. a real superman!!!
To begin with, we present a very significant observation that explains much regarding the Trojan War epic, as well as Palamedes: - Homer was none other than Odysseus himself... This truth explains precisely the unified and exceptionally detailed descriptions found within the Homeric epics, which would be inexplicable if they were the experiences of anyone other than Homer. He is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and only as Odysseus could he have lived through and known all these situations, events, personalities, objects, and details so clearly and from such close proximity. - The second—and perhaps most important—point is that Odysseus—or rather, Homer—makes no mention of Palamedes anywhere in his epics (for exactly the reasons vividly set forth in the text that follows). In contrast, the historical truth of Palamedes' presence in the Trojan War is absolutely verified and confirmed by Plato—who preserved the life, teachings, apology, and martyrdom of Socrates—as well as by a host of other philosophers and historians whose names are listed in the subsequent text. So, let us make the acquaintance of this pre-Christian Hero and Just Martyr for Virtue and Fatherland. He suffered martyrdom through the most horrific death by stoning, following a dishonorable, inhuman, and vindictive conspiracy born of jealousy. Not only is he almost entirely unknown, but one might add that while official history buried him as deep as possible, he nonetheless sprouted, branched out, bore fruit, and today offers abundant, rich, and freely given fruits of his virtue, heroism, and justice to the entire world.
The Just pre-Christian Martyr, our father Palamedes
Palamedes was a hero of the Trojan expedition, an inventor, writer, and creator. He was the son of Nauplius and Hesione and stood out for his wisdom.
To Palamedes are attributed the invention of measures and weights, the division of the year into hours, days, and months, and the invention of various games (board games and strategy games) also called "of Palamedes," or amusements (athyrmata), or pessoi, or pettoi.
The Name Palamedes
As is well known, the names our ancestors gave to their newborn children during the naming ceremony usually expressed the parents' wish for the fulfillment of some desire concerning the gifts and qualities that would characterize them in their later life, or for distinction in the profession they would follow.
King Nauplius, as it appears, wanted his firstborn son, who would succeed him on the throne, to be endowed with wisdom, inventiveness, and practical intelligence. For this reason, he gave him the name Palamedes (palamē + mēdomai).[1]
And as it turned out, Palamedes responded to the wishes of his namer, honoring worthily this name so representative of him, in which person and action are identified. And he was the first but also the only one in History to bear this name, from the most ancient times.
Thus, the name Palamedes combines practical (palamē) with intellectual (mēdis) wisdom.
From the preceding analysis, therefore, emerges the image of a commanding figure who inspires respect and imposes himself on others thanks to his abilities to simplify even the most difficult problems, providing wise practical solutions.[2]
Adolescent Years
Nauplius, since he destined his firstborn son to be his successor on the throne, took care to provide him with all the equipment that would make him a leader worthy of the divine ancestral heritage and of his land. For this reason, as was the custom of the rulers of that time, when Palamedes reached the stage of adolescence, he sent him to the Centaur Chiron, the wise pedagogue of Pelion, near whom all generations of heroes studied whose names remained immortal.
"The fact that he is included in the list of Chiron's famous pupils shows that the hero was established as equal to the most famous heroes of Greek mythology."[3]
Philostratus in the Heroikos (IX, 1) presents him as resembling a man (homoion anthrōpō), distinguished by wisdom in words and deeds. He had varied hunting knowledge, taught the arts of war, trained doctors and musicians, and formed just characters. There he met the other royal descendants of the Argonauts and later leaders of the Achaeans, who together starred in Troy.
Near Chiron, Palamedes learned the art of war together with Achilles, Nestor, Odysseus, Diomedes, Antilochus, Aeneas, Patroclus, Protesilaus, and the Ajaxes, and medicine, in the company of the sons of Asclepius, Machaon and Podalirius, but also Achilles. Besides surgery, they learned the use of mountain herbs to soothe pains and heal wounds. Chiron also taught them astronomy, music, divination, and the art of hunting.
Returning to Nauplia after his apprenticeship with the wise teacher, he began to show the unique gifts with which he was endowed. People spoke of him with admiration, and quickly his fame as an "educated and learned wise man," inventive mind, and ready for war, crossed the borders of Nauplia.
What Palamedes Looked Like
Philostratus[4] and A. Stagirites give us a description of Palamedes, as narrated by Protesilaus, the first dead of the Trojan War:
"His height was almost like that of the great Ajax, and his beauty comparable to that of Achilles, Antilochus, Protesilaus—as he himself says—and the Trojan Euphorbus.
He had soft beard gradually forming curls, short hair, and eyebrows that gave nobility to his face; they were straight and met above his symmetrical and well-formed nose. His gaze in battles was steadily fixed and terrible, in the respite of battle friendly and glances full of kindness; they even say he had the largest eyes of all men.
He also says that Palamedes naked was something between a heavy and light athlete, and his head was more beautiful than the golden curls of Euphorbus. He had dirty hair, and this was because he slept wherever he happened, for completely neglecting himself, he turned all his care to wars, phalanxes, and the salvation of the army. Many times indeed during periods of truce, he camped on the summit of Ida, because the wise from the peaks can study and understand celestial phenomena.
He had no follower nor any slave girl nor Tecmessa or Iphis[5] to bathe him or make his bed, but he did everything himself and without the necessary utensils.
When once Achilles said to him, 'Palamedes, people will consider you boorish because you have no one to serve you,' he replied: 'And what are these, Achilles?' stretching out his two hands to him."
Also, Athan. Stagirites (Ogygia Book III, p. 460) writes:
"Palamedes was tall, fair-skinned, blond-haired, and with dirty hair (pinarochaītēs), because he did not care for adornment, but for war and phalanxes and the salvation of the soldiers."
In the Lesche of the Cnidians that existed in Delphi, Palamedes was the only hero of the Trojan War depicted without a beard:
"Above the Cassotis is a building with paintings by Polygnotus. It is a dedication of the Cnidians and is called by the inhabitants of Delphi Lesche, because in ancient times in this building they used to gather and discuss the more serious matters and mythical stories... Entering this building, the whole painting to the right depicts the fall of Troy and the departure of the Greeks. All of them except Palamedes are depicted with beards."[6]
The Trojan War
Palamedes – The above frontispiece was created by F. Bleys Wijck (1671-1746).
As Dictys informs us, in Aulis he was considered the most worthy to replace Agamemnon, especially thanks to his intellectual and leadership qualities. When the ships with the Achaean armies departed for Troy, the leaders placed most of their hopes for a victorious outcome of the enterprise on the prudence and genius of Palamedes.
With the landing of the Achaeans on the Trojan shores and from the first hostilities, the inventive mind, the organizational and strategic genius of Palamedes dominated, overshadowing the other leaders. He takes care of the fleet, the fortification works, inspects the guards.
His first concern was the construction of a strong defensive wall that would check the Trojan attacks and prevent their access to the place where the Achaean ships were anchored.
Before each battle, he drew up the plan for its conduct and the way of arraying the troops to ensure a victorious outcome with the fewest losses. As Philostratus writes in the "Heroikos" and Ath. Stagirites in the "Ogygia," he completely neglected himself, and the only thing that occupied him, especially on the eve of battles, was the planning of the battle so that it would have a happy outcome and the salvation of the men.
As a war leader, he arrays and encourages the Nauplian army for battle, fights with bravery but also prudence. For this reason, even Achilles sought to have him near him in battles and expeditions against islands and coastal cities and rejoiced when they fought side by side.
Between Palamedes and the bravest hero of the Trojan War had developed a close friendly relationship and cooperation. They had undertaken the expeditions that the Achaeans carried out in the surroundings of Troy, and according to Homer (Il. I, 328-9) – who as always omits Palamedes' participation – they had sacked 23 cities:
"When Achilles was preparing the expedition against the islands and coastal cities, he asked the Achaeans to campaign together with Palamedes. Palamedes fought bravely and prudently, while Achilles was unrestrained, and his excessive impulse led him to disorder. For this reason he rejoiced when he fought with Palamedes, because he restrained his impetuosity and showed him how he should fight.
He resembled a beast-tamer who can calm and rouse a brave lion, and he did all this without leaving his position, but shooting at the same time and protecting himself from arrows, repelling with his shield and pursuing the hordes of enemies."[7]
With his medical knowledge, he effectively dealt with a deadly plague epidemic that plagued the surrounding area and threatened the Achaean army with destruction. With the invention of beacon fires, he established a pioneering communication network with Mycenae for his time and emerged as the precursor of telecommunications.
At the same time, Palamedes continued to have the commissariat, that is, the responsibility for the provisioning of the entire army, which was another cause of his conflict with Odysseus.
With his various inventions, emanations of his "artistic wisdom," he offered consolation, entertainment, and peaceful occupation to the warriors when they were not on the battlefields, removing the unpleasant consequences of epidemics that broke out in the camp and of idleness: quarrels, acts of disobedience, crises of nostalgia for the homeland.
Palamedes was "the god from the machine," the personification of inventiveness with a unique ability to give the ideal solution even in the most difficult situation, both on the battlefield and outside the war. Every time the Achaeans encountered some difficult obstacle that brought them to a dead end and sometimes to despair, they ran to Palamedes. And he simplified even the most difficult problem in his own ingenious way that no one else could: By inventing a new invention, the birth of his genius, which bore the seal of perfection.
And when the cares of war left his wise mind free for a while, he turned his face high to the starry sky, from where "the wise achieve the understanding of celestial phenomena from the highest places...," Sometimes again he immortalized the heroic deeds he lived in epics in the company of his pupil Corinnus, or bent over the abacuses, he pondered and designed letters, numbers, pessoi, to make human life better.
With the many services he offered, he had won the love and respect of all the men. Achilles and Ajax honored him as their equal and had formed a close friendship with him.
However, he provoked the hatred of Odysseus when he revealed that his madness was a trick to avoid the war, but also his envy, as Odysseus felt diminished before the wisdom and strategic genius of Palamedes during the Trojan War:
"Have you not heard of the sufferings of Palamedes? For him all compose hymns that he perished because he was envied by Odysseus for his wisdom."[8]
(Have you not heard of Palamedes' sufferings? For him all compose hymns, that he was lost because he was envied by Odysseus for his wisdom.) (free rendering)
Using his favorite methods of intrigue and slander, Odysseus managed to present him as guilty of high treason, resulting in the dishonorable and martyred death of the wise young man.
The Death of Palamedes
The beginning of the cause that led to the unjust and dishonorable death of Palamedes starts from the relentless hatred of the destroyer of heroes and enemy of the aristoi Odysseus, to which envy was later added. The opportunity that Odysseus was seeking to exterminate Palamedes with intrigues did not take long to be given to him.
Once Odysseus captured a slave who was bringing gold to the Trojan ally Sarpedon, the leader of the Lycians. He then forced the slave to write in his language a letter in which Priam, addressing Palamedes, said that he had sent what they had agreed and thanked him for helping the Trojans. He let the slave go, but sent someone who killed him before he could go far.
He then sent a message to Agamemnon that he had seen a significant dream that indicated to him to move the entire army from its permanent installations to another position for military exercises. While the army was away, Odysseus had someone bury the gold he took from the slave in Palamedes' tent. When the slave's body was found and the letter written in his language was read, suspicions naturally arose against Palamedes.
To clear things up, Agamemnon, naturally on Odysseus' suggestion, ordered a search in Palamedes' tent. The gold found buried there constituted irrefutable proof of the hero's guilt.
A court was immediately convened that declared him guilty of treason and condemned him to death by stoning, without allowing him the elementary right to defend his innocence.
Thus, without defense, the innocent wise hero, after so many services he offered to leaders and army, was led to the place of death, stained with the heavy stain of traitor.
Only the army of Agamemnon and Odysseus lined up for the stoning of Palamedes. The other men refused to participate and watched with their souls filled with anger and sorrow for the unholy act.
The unrestrained love of power of Agamemnon and the fear of loss of authority, the darkness of the soul, the cunning and favorite habit of Odysseus to weave underground machinations to exterminate the best of his, with the envious Diomedes as accomplice, in an unholy alliance, had prevailed over the virtue, intellectual superiority, and purity of wisdom of Palamedes.
The Revenge of Nauplius
The second most tragic person of the conspiracy was Palamedes' brother Oiax. Knowing better than anyone that his brother fell victim to a vile intrigue, he sought revenge, but he was powerless before the all-powerful conspirators. The Nauplian army was now commanded by Diomedes, by order of Agamemnon. His only hope was to find a way to inform his father Nauplius of the horrible death of the innocent Palamedes.
The old seafarer and former pirate[9] would find a way to take revenge and get back the blood of his child. By tragic irony, the only way he could communicate with the distant homeland was the beacon fires invented by his wise brother. But he needed Agamemnon's permission, who was now his worst enemy.
As he wandered despised and alienated on the beach around the Nauplian ships, the brotherly demon spoke within him! He gathered some oars and began to carve with his sword on their wide part the sad news. Then he threw them one by one into the sea, hoping that one would reach the hands of their king father.
Indeed, one oar reached the shores of Euboea where Nauplius was. Reading the carved painful message, he boarded a ship and set off for Troy. There he appeared to the culprits and demanded that they restore his child's honor. He met, however, the rude behavior of Agamemnon and his accomplices. As for the other leaders, none dared to oppose the king general and ignore his orders.
Achilles and Ajax were dead.
Convinced of his child's innocence, Nauplius took Oiax and left, after swearing that he would severely punish the conspirators by causing them as much harm as he could.
Upon arriving in his homeland, he immediately put his vengeful plans into action. His first action was to visit the palaces of the guilty kings who were fighting in Troy, and accuse them everywhere, first to their wives, whom he urged to be unfaithful, revealing to them that their husbands had formed relations with other women and concubines, whom they would even bring with them when they returned.
Oiax did the same, starting with Clytemnestra. The results of these interventions were disastrous for the guilty leaders...
When the war ended and the Achaeans returned victorious to their homelands, he had his men light large fires on the rocky and precipitous shores of Caphereus, which he knew was the sea route of their return.
These fires were traps that misled the passing ships. The helmsmen steered the ships toward them, believing they were sheltered bays, resulting in them crashing on the sharp rocks. Those shipwrecked who survived and the waves brought them to land found a more horrible death. Nauplius' men cut them to pieces with their swords.
Since then, the phrase "Nauplius' Euboean burnings" became proverbial, which our ancient ancestors used when they saw fires on the shores at night.
Mounted on a high rock, Nauplius "as a sea demon"[10] as those who knew his bad side characterized him, watched with wild satisfaction the destruction of the ships and the extermination of the men.
Among the few ships that escaped Nauplius' vengeful mania was that of Odysseus, the one he wanted to crash more than any other. At the last moment it was carried away by an opposing wind.
When Nauplius saw that the main responsible for his child's death was saved, overcome by despair, he threw himself into the sea to find the same end as his victims. As for Odysseus, he found the punishment he deserved from Poseidon.
The god of the sea, angry not because of the man-eating Polyphemus as Homer wants, but for the intrigues he had woven against Palamedes, who as we saw was his descendant, condemned him to wander the seas for ten whole years, and finally sent him death from within his sea kingdom.
The story of Nauplius, the tragic father, whom fate struck so hard as he approached the sunset of his life, did not leave unmoved our three great tragic poets. However, the works they wrote about him had the same fate as those with the theme of Palamedes, except for a few fragments.
The Inventions of Palamedes
To the wise son of Nauplius and tragic hero of the Trojan War Palamedes, besides his occupation with sciences and epic poetry, a large number of important inventions are attributed, products of his artistic wisdom, characterized by their immediate practical application.
These inventions have ranked him among the first inventors as mythical but also historical persons, gods and heroes, to whom various inventions were attributed, such as Apollo, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ergane Athena, Linus, Daedalus, Prometheus, Phoroneus, etc.
He was a physician, astronomer, and excellent epic poet, but as the Suda lexicon and ancient tradition inform us, his epics disappeared by the descendants of Agamemnon out of envy, that is, jealousy.
He also invented alphabetic writing, numbers, pessoi and dice, measures and weights, invented beacon fires, the abacus, coins, and the subdivision of time.
The End of a Glorious Lineage
After the tragic loss of Palamedes and his king father, in Nauplia the remaining children ruled, Oiax and Nausimedon. But the misfortune that plagued the Nauplian house did not end. Orestes considered king Nauplius and Oiax responsible for his father's death, because they had seduced his mother and urged her to infidelity. After returning to Mycenae and punishing his father's murderer, he wanted to complete his vengeful work by exterminating this hostile lineage as well.
Another reason was that the brothers had allied with Aegisthus. An older tragedy by Stesichorus, of which few fragments have survived, mentioned that Oiax had taken as his wife the daughter of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, Erigone. The opportunity was given when in the battles that followed, the brothers lined up on Aegisthus' side. There they fell fighting by the sword of Pylades.
In the Pinakotheke of the Acropolis of Athens, there was a pictorial composition depicting Orestes killing Aegisthus and Pylades killing the sons of Nauplius:
"There is also to the left of the Propylaea a building with paintings... here among the paintings is also this one depicting Orestes killing Aegisthus and Pylades killing the children of Nauplius, who came to the aid of Aegisthus."[11]
The divinely born Nauplian dynasty that had started from the son of Oceanus Inachus, ancestor of Amymone and she with Poseidon gave birth to the first Nauplius, found this pitiful and inglorious end, from the scheming Odysseus who made the beginning, for the hateful to the gods race of the Atreids to continue.
Source
Ioannis K. Bibis, "Argolica Palamedes," Progressive Association of Nauplia "O Palamedes," Nauplia, 2003.
Footnotes
[1] Palamē: the inner surface of the hand \ work of the hand \ intelligence \ art \ invention \ plan \ device \ work of art. "palamai ai cheires kai ai technai epei di'autōn polla maiometha" (we seek, construct) Hesychius. "theou syn palama" (device of god). Sophocles. "ō palamai (works, inventions) theōn" Pindar. "tektanos en palamēsi daēmonos, hos ra te pasēs eu eidē sophiēs..." (Il. Ο, 412) (in the palms of a skilled craftsman who knows every wisdom well...) "...syllexas elege sphin hōs dokeoi echein palamēn, tē elpizoi tōn basileōs symmachōn apostēsein tous aristous" (Themistocles gathered the generals and told them he had a sure plan to induce the desertion of the king's best allies) (of the Persians). The word palamē therefore means the dexterity of the hands, inventiveness but also intelligence and wisdom, especially practical wisdom. Correspondingly, the word sophia means experience, dexterity. Palamēma: invention, plan, device. palamaomai: execute, contrive. medomai, mēdomai: rule, care, think, protect, contrive, invent.
[2] To his other children Nauplius gave the names Oiax (rudder of the ship but also helmsman). Nausimedon = the governor of the ship (naus (ship) + medō, medomai = govern, protect, care). Damastor (tamer \ civilizer).
[3] From the doctoral dissertation of Geras. Zografou-Lyra.
[4] Heroikos, 715, 9 trans. philological team Kaktos.
[5] Tecmessa was a slave and wife of Telamonian Ajax, who accompanied him to Troy. Iphis was a companion of Patroclus in Troy, a slave given to him by Achilles from the spoils of Skyros.
[6] Pausanias Phocica 25,1 and 31,3 Library of the Greeks trans. A. Papandreou: "Hyper de tēn Kassotida estin oikēma graphas echon tou Polygnotou, Anathēma men Knidiōn, kaleitai de hypo Delphōn Leschē, hoti entautha syniontes to archaion ta te spoudaiotera dielegonto kai hoposa mythōdē… Es touto oun eiselthonti to oikēma to men sympan to en dexia tēs graphēs Ilios te estin ealōkyia kai apoplous ho Hellēnōn… toutois plēn tō Palamēdei geneia estin tois allois."
[7] Philostratus, Heroikos X, 5, trans. philological team Kaktos: "ton Achillea strateuomenon epi tas nēsous kai tas aktaias poleis aitēsai tous Achaious xyn Palamēdei strateusai. Emachonto de ho men Palamēdēs gennaiōs kai sōphronōs, ho de Achilleus ou kathektōs, ho gar thymos exairōn auton es ataxian ēgen hothen echare tō Palamēdei xynaspizonti kai akagonti men auton tēs phoras, hypotithemenō de, hōs chrē machesthai kai gar dē kai eōkei leontokomō leonta gennaion praynoni kai egeironti, kai oude ekklinōn tauta epratten, alla kai ballōn kai phylassomenos belē kai aspida antereidōn kai diōkōn stiphos."
[8] Socrates in Euthydemus. Xenophon Memorabilia, IV,33.
[9] Piracy in those years had nothing reprehensible and was equated with fishing and hunting. It was even the most enviable professional choice of the aristoi, who wanted to acquire fame as great men.
[10] The fame of Nauplius' deadly anger and wild revenge caused him to be considered a sea demon and pirate, and when sailors were in danger, they made sacrifices to appease him.
[11] Pausanias Attica, 22, 6 ed. Library of the Greeks, trans. A. Georgiadou: "…esti de en aristera tōn Propylaiōn oikēma echon graphas… entautha en tais graphais Orestēs estin Aigisthon phoneuōn kai Pyladēs tous paidas Naupliou, boēthous elthontas Aigisthō." Anyway, inglorious was also the end of Orestes. While he was in Arcadia, a snake bit him and he died. (Apollodorus "Epitome," VI, 28)
Posted in Mythology | Tagged alphaline, Argolikos Arghival Library History and Culture, History, Argos, Argolida, Agamemnon, Cyclic Epics, Nauplius, Palamedes, Trojan War | 2 Comments
2 Comments
- on November 2, 2012 at 18:28 | Reply THALIA ARGYRIOU Excellent information about the wise unjustly lost hero PALAMEDES! Add that the three tragic poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote a tragedy "PALAMEDES" but unfortunately only a few lines survive. Good continuation to your important work. Thalia Argyriou
- on October 31, 2016 at 18:04 | Reply ΙΣΤΟΡΙΚΟ
From the magazine: "MYSTIKI ELLADA" No 65 agnosto@otenet.gr
The first recorded case of preventive therapy through two basic physiotherapeutic methods (raw food diet and exercise) appears during the Trojan War, where the wise hero and general of the Achaeans Palamedes the Nauplian, due to the approaching plague in his camp, changed the soldiers' diet resulting in immunity: "Palamedes was self-taught and, when he went to the Centaur Chiron, he was already wise and knew more than him" (par. 708). At some point he realized that a plague epidemic was approaching the coasts of Asia Minor: "He said to Odysseus: 'We Greeks must take care of ourselves, because those who intend to protect themselves from epidemics must eat lightly and exercise daily. I do not possess medicine, but with the wisdom I have learned everything becomes understandable.' With these words he prevented the purchase of meats and told them not to use the military foods. He also took care that his soldiers eat dry fruits, wild fruits and vegetables and all obeyed, because whatever Palamedes said they considered god-sent and with the force of an oracle. Indeed the epidemic he predicted appeared first in the cities of the Hellespont, as they say, and then struck Ilium. But from the Greeks it attacked almost no one, even though they had their camp in an infected area." (Philostratus, "Heroika," par. 712.) Here we see the two basic principles of Physiotherapy, the prevention of the plague epidemic and the state of immunity through diet with raw "living" foods, always combined with daily exercise. Raw foodism and exercise constitute two basic natural methods of prevention in Physiotherapy.
