Stentor is mentioned briefly in Homer's Iliad in which Hera, in the guise of Stentor, whose "voice was as powerful as fifty voices of other men",[2] encourages the Greeks to fight.
Elsewhere, Stentor is said to have died after challenging Hermes to a shouting contest and losing.[3] This explains why Stentor disappears from the rest of the poem.[1]
Stentor's story is the origin of the term "stentorian", meaning loud-voiced, for which he was famous. Aristotle uses the concept in his Politics Book 7, Chapter IV saying, "For who can be the general of such a vast multitude, or who the herald, unless he have the voice of a Stentor?"
Nünlist, René (1 October 2006). "Stentor". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Translated by Christine F. Salazar. Basle: Brill Reference Online. ISSN1574-9347. Retrieved 2 September 2025.