  thumb|200px|neoptolemus killing priam.  neoptolemus (; greek: ÎÎµÎ¿ÏÏÏÎ»ÎµÎ¼Î¿Ï, neoptolemos, "new warrior"), also called pyrrhus (; Î ÏÏÏÎ¿Ï, purrhos, "red", for his red hair), was the son of the warrior achilles and the princess deidamia in greek mythology, and also the mythical progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the molossians of ancient epirus. achilles' mother thetis foretold many years before achilles' birth that there would be a great war. she saw that her only son was to die if he fought in the war. she sought a place for him to avoid fighting in the trojan war, due to a prophecy of his death in the conflict. she disguised him as a woman in the court of lycomedes, the king of scyros. during that time, he had an affair with the princess, deidamea, who then gave birth to neoptolemus. neoptolemus was originally called pyrrhus, because his father had taken pyrrha, the female version of that name, while disguised as a woman. the greeks captured the trojan seer, helenus, and forced him to tell them under what conditions could they take troy. helenus revealed to them that they could defeat troy if they could acquire the poisonous arrows of heracles (then in philoctetes' possession); steal the palladium (which led to the building of the famous wooden horse of troy); and put achilles' son in the war. neoptolemus killed six men on the field of battle.hyginus, fabulae 114. in response to the prophecy, the greeks took steps to retrieve the arrows of heracles and bring neoptolemus to troy. odysseus was sent to retrieve neoptolemus, then a mere teenager, from scyros. the two then went to lemnos to retrieve philoctetes. years earlier, on the way to troy, philoctetes was bitten by a snake on chryse island. agamemnon had advised that he be left behind because the wound was festering and smelled bad. this retrieval is the plot of philoctetes, a play by sophocles. euripides, in his play hekabe (also known as hecuba), has a moving scene (ll 566â575) which shows neoptolemus as a compassionate young man who kills polyxena, hekabe's daughter with ambivalent feelings and in the least painful way. neoptolemus was held by some to be brutal. during and after the war, he killed priam, eurypylus, polyxena, polites and astyanax, among others, captured helenus, and made andromache his concubine. the ghost of achilles appeared to the survivors 
Ancient_Epirotes Characters_in_the_Aeneid Greek_mythology Greek_regicides People_of_the_Trojan_War Skyros