In Greek mythology, Thoas a king ofAetolia, was the son of Andraemon and Gorge, and one of the heroes who fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War. Thoas had a son Haemon, and an unnamed daughter. In the Iliad Thoas is the leader of the forty-ship Aetoilian contingent at Troy. He is mentioned several times in the Iliad, where he is described as excelling both in fighting, and in speaking. Other sources list Thoas as one of the suitors of Helen, and as one of the warriors hidden inside the Wooden Horse. He was one of the few Greeks to return home safely after the war.
Family
Thoas's father was Andraemon, whose birth and origin are unknown. Andraemon married Gorge, the daughter of Oeneus, who was the king of Calydon, an ancient Aetolian city-state, and the father of the heroes Tydeus and Meleager, and grandfather of the Trojan War heroDiomedes. An aged Oeneus lost his kingdom to the sons of his brother Agrius. But his grandson Diomedes was able to reclaim the kingdom, and install Oeneus's son-in-law Andraemon as the king of Calydon. Thoas had a son Haemon, and an unnamed daughter. Haemon was the father of Oxylus, who guided the Heracleidae in their invasion of the Peloponnese, and as reward for this, Oxylus was given the throne of Elis. Thoas' daughter married Odysseus, by whom she had a son Leontophonus.
By the time of the Trojan War, Thoas had apparently succeeded his father Andraemon to the Calydonian thrown. The Iliad describes him as ruling Calydon and the nearby city ofPleuron, where, it says, he was "honoured... even as a god". According to the HesiodicCatalogue of Women, Thoas was one of the suitors of Helen. So he had, as had all the suitors, sworn an oath which obligated him to go to war with Troy to return Helen to her husband Menelaus. According to the Iliad's Catalogue of Ships, because Oeneus, his sons, and his grandson Meleager were all dead, Thoas led the forty-ship Aetoilian contingent fighting at Troy.
In the ''Iliad''
In the Iliad, though only a minor leader, with neither individual character, nor particular achievements, Thoas is nevertheless well respected, with several occasional mentions. He is described as In Book 4, Thoas kills a Thracian, but is unable to strip him of his amour, being driven back by several of the dead warrior's comrades. in Book 7, he is one of the nine Greek warriors, who, after being rebuked by Nestor, finally volunteer to fight Hector in single combat. In Book 13, Poseidon, going among the Greeks urging them to fight on, goes first to Teucer, then to Leitus, Peneleos, Thoas, Deïpyrus, Meriones, and Antilochus, and later in the same Book, with the Greeks desperately battling to save their ships, Poseidon, under the guise of Thoas, asks the Greek hero Idomeneus: Where have all our proud Greek threats against the Trojans gone? And Idomenes responds, that Zeus must wish for all our deaths, far from home and unremembered, but: His only speech ocuurs in Book 15 where the Greeks, having seen Hector miraculously reappear on the battle field, are "seized with fear". But Thoas, addressing the Greeks, says: And finally, in Book 19, Thoas is one of the small delegation of Greeks who Odysseus took with him to the tent of Agamemnon, to bring back the many gifts Agamemnon had pledged to give Achilles, in reparation for his taking Briseis.
Thoas was one of the few Greek leaders to return from the war unharmed. According to some accounts he returned to Aetolia where, presumably, he resumed his rule, while according to others Thoas settled in Italy, in the land of the Brutti. Local tradition associated Thoas with the Greek city of Amphissa, the main city of Western Locris. The geographer Pausanias reports seeing a tomb at Amphissa, which was said to be the tomb of Thoas' parents Andraemon and Gorge, and a bronze statue of Athena in her temple on the acropolis of Amphissa, that was said to have been brought back from Troy by Thoas as a spoil of war. Apollodorus reports that according some, after Odysseus was exiled from Ithica in punishment for his killing the suitors of Penelope, he sought refuge with Thoas in Aetolia. There he married Thoas' daughter, had a son Leontophonus by her, and died of old age.
