Oenone

Oenone was a nymph of Mount Ida near Troy and the first wife of Paris, the Trojan prince who grew up as a herdsman. When Paris left her for Helen she warned him of the war to come, and when he was fatally wounded she at first refused to heal him. She then repented, and killed herself over his body.

Who Was Oenone?

Origins and Lineage

Apollodorus calls Oenone the daughter of the river Cebren, a stream of the Troad (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6). He gives no mother. Quintus of Smyrna calls her a nymph and shows her living on Ida with a household of handmaids and her own father nearby, so that she hides her grief from him on the night of Paris’s death (Quintus, Fall of Troy 10). No ancient source calls her immortal; both Apollodorus and Quintus end her story with her death.

Gift of Healing

Apollodorus says that Oenone learned the art of prophecy from Rhea. He adds that she told Paris that she alone could heal him if he were ever wounded (Library 3.12.6). In Quintus the same idea appears as a decree of fate: no doctor’s drugs could help Paris, and only Oenone’s hands could save him from death if she chose (Fall of Troy 10). Neither author names Apollo or Chiron as her teacher.

Relationship with Paris

Love on Mount Ida

Because Hecuba had dreamed that she bore a firebrand that would burn the city, the infant Paris was exposed on Ida. The servant Agelaus found him alive and raised him as his own son on his farm; the young man was surnamed Alexander because he drove off robbers and defended the flocks (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.5). Apollodorus then lists Alexander’s marriage to Oenone, daughter of Cebren (Library 3.12.6). It was also on Ida that Hermes brought Hera, Athena and Aphrodite to him for judgment, and Aphrodite promised him Helen (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2).

Paris’s Departure

According to Apollodorus, Oenone warned Alexander not to sail to fetch Helen. When she failed to persuade him she told him to come to her if he were wounded (Library 3.12.6). Quintus has her recall the separation bitterly, calling herself a “wailing wife in a desolate home” while Paris went to his “Tyndarid darling” (Fall of Troy 10).

The Tragic Turn

Paris’s Wounding and Return

After Paris had carried Helen from Sparta and Troy was under siege, Philoctetes shot him with the bow of Heracles. Apollodorus says he went back to Oenone on Ida (Library 3.12.6). Quintus describes the wound in detail: Philoctetes’s first arrow grazed Paris’s wrist and the second struck him between flank and groin. He was carried from the battle, and since no physician could help him he went, unwillingly, to the wife he had left (Fall of Troy 10).

Oenone’s Refusal and Regret

Oenone, nursing her grievance, refused to heal him. In Quintus she tells him to go to Helen and drives him from her door (Fall of Troy 10). Paris was carried to Troy and died there, according to Apollodorus (Library 3.12.6). Quintus instead has him die on Ida as he stumbled down the mountain, mourned by the nymphs who had nursed him and by the herdsmen.

Death of Oenone

Oenone repented, Apollodorus says, and brought the healing drugs; finding Paris dead she hanged herself (Library 3.12.6). In Quintus she hears of his death while alone in her house, slips out at night while her father and maids sleep, and runs through the mountains to the pyre where other nymphs and herdsmen are gathered. She veils her face with her mantle and leaps into the fire, and the two are burned together. The herdsmen quench the embers with wine and place their bones in one golden vase under a burial mound with two pillars (Fall of Troy 10).

Oenone in Ancient Sources

The two fullest ancient accounts differ on where Paris died and how Oenone died: Apollodorus has him die at Troy and her hang herself, while Quintus has him die on Ida and her burn on his pyre. Apollodorus also lists her in the genealogy of Priam’s family, as a river’s daughter who was married before the abduction of Helen. The name Oenone was also an old name of the island Aegina (Herodotus 8.46; Pausanias 2.29.2), a different person and place.

Oenone Sources

Apollodorus, Library 3.12.5–6; Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2; Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 10; Herodotus 8.46; Pausanias 2.29.2.

See Also: Paris, Helen, Priam, Hecuba, Philoctetes, Heracles, Rhea, Aphrodite