Astyanax for if he were allowed to live, it was feared he would avenge his father and rebuild Troy. In the version given by the "Little Iliad" and repeated by Pausanias (x 25.4), he was killed by Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus), who threw the infant from the walls. Another version is given in "Iliou persis", in which Odysseus kills Astyanax. 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 Ovid's "Metamorphoses", the
Neoptolemus (general) Neoptolemus (general) Neoptolemus (in Greek Νεoπτόλεμος; died 321 BC) was a Macedonian officer who served under Alexander the Great. According to Arrian he belonged to the race of the Aeacidae, so he was probably related to the family of the kings of Epirus. Neoptolemus is mentioned as serving in the Macedonian royal guards (εταιρoι) and distinguished himself particularly at the siege of Gaza, 332 BC, of which he was the first to scale the walls. Little has been written about him during the subsequent campaigns of Alexander, however he appears to have earned a reputation as an able soldier. Dexippus