Lycomedes

Relieve of a marble sarcophagus: Achilles in the court of Licomedes. 240 d. C.

In Greek mythology Lycomedes (in ancient Greek Λυκομήδης Lykomếdês), son of Apollo and Parthenope, is the king of Scyrus.

According to a post-Homeric legend, after Helen's kidnapping by Paris, Thetis entrusted her son Achilles to him. He disguises himself as a young girl and responds to the name of Pirra (Πύρρα Pýrra, 'the red one'). Thetis resorts to this subterfuge to prevent Achilles from going to the Trojan War, where she knows he must die. Achilles has relations with Deidamia, the daughter of Lycomedes, who will give him Neoptolemus. But Odysseus came to the court disguised as a merchant, offering the king's daughters various trinkets and feminine objects. Achilles discovered himself by choosing from among those present the weapons that Odysseus had placed among them and that is how he went to war. Other versions suggest that it was a trumpet blown by the cunning Odysseus or his companion Diomedes that produced an alarm situation and confusion in the house of King Lycomedes. Achilles, according to his manly spirit, was instinctively called to face the supposed "danger". In this way, Odysseus finds the hero and urges him to take an active part in the war.

Next, Lycomedes received into his kingdom Theseus, who was fleeing from Athens, ruled by the usurper Menestheus. According to some authors, Lycomedes pushed Theseus from the top of a precipice. For Pausanias and Apollodorus the fall was accidental.

Other characters of the same name

• A cretense that, according to a fragment of the EeasSometimes attributed to Hesiodo, he was one of Helena's suitors.