Who was the Trojan elder who advised returning Helen to the Greeks? Antenor gave that advice in Homer’s Iliad. He was one of Troy’s wisest elders and counsellors, and he supported a negotiated end to the conflict rather than allowing the city to continue fighting over Helen.
Antenor appears prominently in Book 3, when Helen identifies the Greek leaders from Troy’s walls for King Priam. Antenor confirms Helen’s description of Odysseus because he had previously hosted Odysseus and Menelaus during their diplomatic mission to Troy. In Book 7, he urges the Trojans to return Helen to her husband, Menelaus, but Paris refuses.
This makes Antenor different from Priam, Troy’s king, and from Hector, the city’s leading warrior. Paris is also not the answer: he is the prince whose relationship with Helen helped trigger the war and who rejects Antenor’s counsel.
Later post-Homeric stories portray Antenor as a traitor who helps the Greeks and survives Troy’s destruction. Those later developments should not obscure his Homeric role as a respected elder advocating peace.