In the Trojan War tradition, Protesilaus was the first Greek warrior to set foot on Trojan soil.
A prophecy warned that the first Greek to land from the ships would be the first to die. Protesilaus, leader of the Phylacians, deliberately or bravely jumped ashore before the other Greeks. Hector then killed him, making the prophecy come true.
Protesilaus appears in the Iliad’s Catalogue of Ships as a leader who brought troops from Phylace. His death became one of the war’s famous opening episodes, even though Homer’s surviving narrative begins later, during the tenth year of the conflict.
His wife, Laodamia, is central to later stories about his death. In one tradition, the gods briefly allow Protesilaus to return from the underworld so that he can see her again. The myth helped establish Protesilaus as a tragic heroic figure rather than merely an obscure early casualty.