Paeonians () — a Homeric kingdom of the Odyssey, c. 1200 BC

Paeonians — Paeonians of the bended bow — the far-north allies whose two war-lords both fell at Troy.

A Trojan-allied contingent of archers and long-spearmen from Amydon on the Axios in far Paeonia. Its first lord Pyraichmes was slain by Patroklos at the ships; his successor Asteropaios, grandson of a river-god, wounded Achilles before dying in the Scamander — no Paeonian king returned home.

Leader at Troy: Pyraichmes.

Ruler in the Odyssey's present: Pyraichmes.

Role in the Trojan War: Allies of Troy from the far north, "Paionians of the bended bow," posted on the sea-ward flank of Priam's line. They lost both commanders to the Myrmidons — Pyraichmes to Patroklos at the ships, Asteropaios to Achilles in the river — the latter the only mortal to wound Achilles.

The homecoming: No homecoming — both war-lords dead at Troy, the host strewn in the Scamander.

Out of the far north came the Paeonians — allies of Troy from a land the Achaeans scarcely knew, "deep-soiled Paionia, a land far off," watered by the Axios "whose water is the fairest that floweth over the face of the earth." They mustered at Amydon on that broad stream and marched the long road to Ilios to stand with Priam. In Homer's roll of the Trojan allies they are the men "of the bended bow," archers and long-spearmen and horsemen, set by the sea-ward flank of the allied line; Dolon, betraying the watch to Odysseus and Diomedes by night, names them among the outermost guard: "Towards the sea lie the Karians, and Paionians of the bended bow."\n\nTheir first war-lord was **Pyraichmes**, who led the Paionian horsemen out of Amydon. His war and his return ended in the same stroke. When Hektor's fire reached the ships and Patroklos came raging in Achilles' armour, it was Pyraichmes he cut down first of all — "he smote him on the right shoulder, and he fell on his back in the dust with a groan, and his comrades around him, the Paionians, were afraid, for Patroklos sent fear among them all, when he slew their leader that was ever the best in fight." With that blow the Myrmidons (see **MYR**) drove the Trojans from the beached ships and quenched the burning. So the ruler of the Paeonians never saw the Axios again: his nostos is the dust by the stern of Protesilaos' ship.\n\nBut the contingent did not break. Command passed to **Asteropaios**, son of Pelegon and grandson of the river-god Axios himself — an ambidextrous spearman, hurling with both hands alike, whom Sarpedon of the Lycians (see **LYC**) had chosen, together with Glaukos, as the bravest of all the allies after himself. Eleven days after landing he made his stand where Achilles was choking the Scamander with Trojan dead. Alone of mortals in the whole war he drew the son of Peleus' blood — one spear grazed Achilles' right elbow "and there leapt forth dark blood" — before Achilles gutted him beside the navel and left him in the sands for the eels to gnaw, boasting that the seed of Zeus outmatches the seed of a river. Then Achilles went on "after the charioted Paiones," slaughtering their captains — Thersilochos, Mydon, Astypylos, Mnesos, Thrasios, Ainios, Ophelestes — until the Paeonian best lay strewn along the eddying water.\n\nSo the fate of this realm at the dramatic present of the returns is simple and total: both its war-lords dead at Troy, its captains drowned in the Scamander, no king sailing home to Amydon. Where the great houses of Achaea count murdered lords and avenging sons, Paeonia counts only the missing. Its cross-links are the men who destroyed it — the Myrmidons (**MYR**) whose Patroklos and Achilles killed both its leaders — and the men it stood beside: the Lycians (**LYC**) under Sarpedon who prized Asteropaios; the Trojans (**TRO**) whose cause it served; the Paphlagonians (**PAP**) of Pylaimenes, marshalled next to them in the catalogue of allies; and the Carians (**CAR**), their neighbours on the sea-ward wing of the allied host.

“But Pyraichmes led the Paionians with curving bows, from far away in Amydon, from the broad stream of Axios, Axios whose water is the fairest that floweth over the face of the earth.” — Iliad 2.848-850