Astyanax

[1] His birth name was Scamandrius (in Greek: Σκαμάνδριος Skamandrios, after the river Scamander[2]), but the people of Troy nicknamed him Astyanax (i.e. high king, or overlord of the city), because he was the son of the city's great defender (Iliad VI, 403) and the heir apparent's firstborn son.

His fate was debated by the Greeks, for if he were allowed to live, it was feared he would avenge his father and rebuild Troy.

It has also been depicted in some Greek vases that Neoptolemus kills Priam, who has taken refuge near a sacred altar, using Astyanax's dead body to club the old king to death, in front of horrified onlookers.

In Seneca's version of The Trojan Women, the prophet Calchas declares that Astyanax must be thrown from the walls if the Greek fleet is to be allowed favorable winds (365–70), but once led to the tower, the child himself leaps off the walls (1100–3).

For Hector's mother, Hecuba, Astyanax was the only hope and consolation, and his death's announcement was a terrible climax of the catastrophe.