PROTESILAUS, pro-tes-i-lVis, Greek hero, son of Iphiclus, king of Phylace, Thessaly, He fed a band of Thessalian warriors against Troy and was the first of the Greeks to land on the Trojan coast, whereupon he was killed by Hector. Another tradition makes Achates slay him. He is famed in ancient story for the affection which existed between him and his wife, Laodamia, who, when she learned of his death, prayed that he might return to her for three hours. The prayer was granted and Hermes conducted Protesilaus to the upper world. At the end of the three hours Laodamia died with her husband and returned with him to the lower regions. How ever, there are also some other versions of his life and death. His tomb was near Eleus in the Thracian Chersonesus, a temple was erected to him there, and at Phylace a sanctuary was built in which funeral games were played in his honor. The story is told by Wordsworth
in one of his most beautiful poems, written in 1814. It was also the subject of a tragedy by Euripides of which only some frag ments remain. In more recent times the Polish poet, S. Wyspianski, wrote a tragedy in verse (Krakow 1901) which has been translated into French by A. de Lada and L. Maury as 'Prot& Silas et Laodamie) (Paris 1913). Two ancient Roman sarcophagi, showing the history of the hero's life and death, have been preserved, one in the Vatican and the other in the church of Santa Chiara at Naples. Consult PreIler, L., 'Griechische Mythologies (2 vols., Berlin 1872 75) ; Roscher, W. H., ed., (Ausftihrlichen Lexi kon derchischen and rOrnischen My thologie) (Vol.CV III, pt. 2, p. 3155, Leipzig 1902-09).