Idomeneus

A grandson of Minos with 80 ships

Idomeneus came from the ruling family of Crete. The ancient writer Apollodorus gives the line: Minos was the father of Deucalion, and Deucalion was the father of Idomeneus.

In the Iliad, Homer’s poem of the Trojan War, Idomeneus leads the Cretans at Troy. The Catalogue of Ships, the poem’s list of the Greek forces, names Knossos first among their cities. Gortyn, Lyctus, Miletus, Lycastus, Phaestus and Rhytium follow, with the other towns of Crete’s hundred cities. Idomeneus and his fellow commander Meriones bring them in 80 ships.

Homer does not describe a throne at Knossos. Even so, the list ties this descendant of Minos to forces drawn from across the island, and it names his city first. The size of that command matters later in the poem. In its 13th book, Idomeneus is no general watching from behind the line. He fights at the front.

Called back to the fighting

The 13th book finds Idomeneus away from the battle for a short time. He has taken a wounded companion back to the ships. On his way back, the god Poseidon meets him, disguised as Thoas, a leader from Aetolia. He asks what has become of the threats the Achaeans, the Greek army, made against Troy. He means it as a challenge.

Idomeneus answers that no warrior is holding back out of fear. He thinks the god Zeus may intend the Achaeans to die far from home. Even so, he urges the stranger to encourage anyone whose effort fails. Poseidon tells him to arm. Idomeneus reaches his shelter, takes up two spears and runs back towards the field.

Homer mentions his grey hair. Idomeneus is old enough to claim the safety of age or of command, and he refuses both. The rest of the book tests how far experience can carry him as his strength begins to fail.

A spear for Meriones

Near the ships Idomeneus meets Meriones, whose spear has broken against the shield of the Trojan Deiphobus. Idomeneus offers him one spear, or 20 if he wants them. The captured spears stand inside his shelter, he says, because he fights the enemy at close range instead of keeping his distance.

His store holds spears, shields, helmets and armour taken from Trojans he has killed. It is a boast, but Meriones can see the proof for himself. The younger man chooses a strong bronze spear, and the two Cretan commanders go back to the battle together.

The exchange shows how the two work as companions. Idomeneus gives Meriones what he has lost. Meriones then follows him into the part of the fighting where the older man’s age begins to show. Neither man serves the other. They lead the Cretans as a pair.

Standing against Aeneas

Idomeneus kills Alcathous, a Trojan. Deiphobus then brings Aeneas, another Trojan leader, against him. Idomeneus does not retreat. Homer compares him to a wild boar turning to face the hunters. Yet he also calls five companions to his side: Ascalaphus, Aphareus, Deipyrus, Meriones and Antilochus.

He tells them why. Aeneas has the full strength of youth, and Idomeneus does not. If the two of them were the same age, he says, one of them would quickly win. Saying so does not make him smaller. He knows the difference between holding his ground and pretending he can stand alone.

His companions gather round him. Idomeneus dodges Aeneas’s spear and kills Oenomaus, but weapons fall so thickly that he cannot strip the body of its armour. His legs are no longer quick enough to charge and fall back again and again. When Deiphobus throws at him, Meriones covers him, then kills Adamas after that Trojan misses.

The voyage home

Later, in the Odyssey, Homer’s poem about the hero Odysseus, the Greek leader Nestor tells Odysseus’s son Telemachus what became of the leaders who left Troy. Diomedes reached Argos on the fourth day. Menelaus was separated from his brother. Idomeneus brought all his surviving company home to Crete, and the sea took none of them.

The Odyssey adds no storm, shipwreck or loss to that report. The old commander who called for companions when Aeneas came at him does not go home alone. Homer first counts his Cretan forces in 80 ships. At the end he measures Idomeneus by the men the sea did not take.