Lāŏmĕdon

, son of Ilus king of Troy, married Strymon, called by some Placia, or Leucippe, by whom he had Podarces, afterwards known by the name of Priam, and Hesione. He built the walls of Troy, and was a isted by Apollo and Neptune, whom Jupiter had banished from heaven, and condemned to be subservient to the will of Laomedon for one year. When the walls were finished, Laomedon refused to reward the labours of the gods, and soon after his territories were laid waste by the god of the sea, and his subjects were visited by a pestilence sent by Apollo. Sacrifices were offered to the offended divinities, but the calamities of the Trojans increased; and nothing could appease the gods, according to the words of the oracle, but annually to expose to a sea monster a Trojan virgin. Whenever the monster appeared, the marriageable maidens were a embled, and the lot decided which of them was doomed to death for the good of her country. When this calamity had continued for five or six years, the lot fell upon Hesione, Laomedon’s daughter. The king was unwilling to part with a daughter whom he loved with uncommon tenderne , but his refusal would irritate more strongly the wrath of the gods. In the midst of his fears and hesitations, Hercules came and offered to deliver the Trojans from this public calamity, if Laomedon promised to reward him with a number of fine horses. The king consented, but when the monster was destroyed, he refused to fulfil his engagements, and Hercules was obliged to besiege Troy and take it by force of arms. Laomedon was put to death after a reign of 29 years, his daughter Hesione was given in marriage to Telamon, one of the conqueror’s attendants, and Podarces was ransomed by the Trojans, and placed upon his father’s throne. According to Hyginus, the wrath of Neptune and Apollo was kindled against Laomedon, because he refused to offer on their altars, as a sacrifice, all the first-born of his cattle, according to a vow which he had made. Homer , Iliad , bk. 21 .— Virgil , Æneid , bks. 2 & 9.— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 11 , fable 6.— Apollo dor us , bk. 2 , ch. 5 .— Pausanias , bk. 7 , ch. 20 .— Horace , bk. 3 , ode 3.— Hyginus , fable 89.――A demagogue of Me ina in Sicily.――A satrap of Phœnicia, . Curtius , bk. 10 , ch. 10 .――An A then i an, . Plutarch. ――An Or cho men i an. Plutarch.