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Tyndareus is the king of Sparta and Helen’s father. When Helen is ready to marry, he summons a group of suitors to woo her—but he ends up taking Odysseus’s advice to allow Helen to choose her own husband and to force her other suitors to vow that they’ll defend the selected man. Odysseus eventually marries Tyndareus’s other daughter, Penelope, and Tyndareus finds him amusing. However, he doesn’t trust Odysseus’s charm completely and forces him to swear the oath as well.
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Tyndareus Character Timeline in The Song of Achilles
The timeline below shows where the character Tyndareus appears in The Song of Achilles. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
One day, Patroclus’s father summons him to tell him that King Tyndareus’s daughter will soon marry. Tyndareus is the king of Sparta, and his daughter is known...
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...him in royal garb and orders him not to disgrace the family; they head into Tyndareus’s great hall, gifts in hand. Inside, hundreds of kings introduce themselves one by one to...
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Patroclus kneels as his father presents him. Tyndareus wonders why such a young boy is there, but Patroclus’s father says he’s “man enough...
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...themselves, including the giant-like Ajax. The man with the scar on his calf goes last; Tyndareus identifies him as Odysseus, and he asks what Odysseus thinks of the proceedings as an...
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Tyndareus and Helen agree, and the men sacrifice a white goat to seal the oath. Then,...
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