Pandarus

Or Pan·da·ros

[pan-der-uhs]

noun

Classical Mythology.

1. a Trojan who attempted to assassinate Menelaus, thereby violating a truce between the Greeks and the Trojans and prolonging the Trojan War: in Chaucerian and other medieval accounts, he is the procurer of Cressida for Troilus.

Pandarus

/ ˈpændərəs /

noun

1. Greek myth the leader of the Lycians, allies of the Trojans in their war with the Greeks. He broke the truce by shooting Menelaus with an arrow and was killed in the ensuing battle by Diomedes

2. (in medieval legend) the procurer of Cressida on behalf of Troilus

Example Sentences

Pandarus is now a bookend of sorts: He gets to declaim the prologue and at the end of the play jauntily bids the audience adieu with a promise to “bequeath you my diseases.”

Read more on New York Times

As Greek and Trojan nobles “clapperclaw” one another, and as Prince Troilus woos Cressida through the agency of her debauched uncle, Pandarus, then wins and loses her, Thersites wanders on and off the stage like an envenomed tragic chorus.

Read more on The New Yorker

Suzzy Roche, in a frizzy fright wig, shows up as the doom-saying Cassandra; Greg Mehrten, looking like Bloody Mary from “South Pacific,” is Cressida’s prurient uncle Pandarus; and Ari Fliakos, with a Scottish burr and a welcome light wit, is the martyred Hector.

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But it is Dudley Sutton – a veteran of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop – who stands out with a fascinatingly cynical portrayal of Lesley, a portly, expat Pandarus who remains blithely complacent to any threat facing his way of life.

Read more on The Guardian

The truce of the third book is broken by Pandarus, and Agamemnon passes along the Greek ranks with words of encouragement, but without a hint of the treachery just committed.

Read more on Project Gutenberg