Troilus is a character in medieval and Renaissance versions of the legend of the Trojan War. He is a Trojan prince who falls in love with Cressida, a Greek woman captured and enslaved by the Trojans. Cressida pledges her love to him, but when she is returned to the Greeks in a hostage exchange, she goes to live with the Greek hero Diomedes.
The best-known versions of Troilus's story are Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.