Rhesus was a king of Thrace. According to Homer, he was the son of Eioneus, whereas in Euripides he is the son of the river-god Strymon and a Muse. He was famous for his horses, which were as white as snow and faster than the wind. He entered the Trojan War in its tenth year as an ally of King Priam and camped outside the city walls. On the very night of his arrival, however, he and twelve companions were killed by Odysseus and Diomedes. According to a tradition related by Virgil (Aen. 1. 473), if his horses had had time to drink from the river Scamander, the Greeks would not have been able to take Troy. After his death, he became an anthropodaemon and returned to live among the Thracian mountains where, according to Philostratus, he raises horses and hunts: that is, he retains his human nature but has become a god and is venerated. According to Parthenius, Rhesus was married to Arganthone, whom he met at Kios when he was campaigning against the Scythians. Arganthone would not let him take part in the Trojan War, because she had a premonition that he would be killed. He, however, could not stay away, and thus in the tenth year of the war he finally reached Troy. Arganthone herself died upon learning of his death, as did his father Strymon. According to Polyaenus, the Athenian general Agnon ordered that Rhesus’ bones be buried on the banks of the river Strymon, where the city of Amphipolis was to be founded.
