Laodamīa
(
Λαοδάμεια).
1.
A daughter of Acastus and Astydamia, and wife of Protesilaüs. (See
Protesilaüs.) When she received
intelligence of the death of her husband in the Trojan War, she caused an image of him to be
formed, which she would never allow to be out of her sight. Her father ordered the image to
be burned, that her thoughts might be diverted from her loss; but Laodamia
threw herself into the flames, and perished along with it. Thence probably the tradition
adopted by some poets that the gods restored life to Protesilaüs for three hours,
and that this hero, finding the decree irreversible, by which he was to return to the shades
below, prevailed on Laodamia to accompany him thither. She was also called Phylaces (
Verg. Aen. vi. 447; Ovid,
Her. 13;
Hyg. Fab.
104).
2.
A daughter of Bellerophon by Achemoné, the daughter of king Iobates. She had a
son by Zeus called Sarpedon. See
Sarpedon.