Than Kosis

Than Kosis, Jeddak of Zodanga, is the ruler whose proposed marriage settlement makes Dejah Thoris’s choice a matter of state, and whose death during the assault on his palace abruptly transfers the throne to his son. His brief appearance at the center of diplomacy and then violence links the war between Zodanga and Helium to the intimate struggle over Dejah Thoris’s freedom and allegiance.

Identity and Political Position

Than Kosis rules Zodanga and is Sab Than’s father. In the account of the conflict given by Kantos Kan, he has made Dejah Thoris’s voluntary marriage to his son the price of peace with Helium. The arrangement is not simply a private match: it makes the princess’s consent the stated condition for ending hostilities between the two states.

The proposal is opposed by Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium. Kantos Kan explains that Tardos Mors would rather see Dejah Thoris dead than have her married to anyone other than the man she chooses, and would sooner see Helium reduced to ashes than unite his house with that of Than Kosis. The refusal, though an affront to the Zodangan ruler, has strengthened Tardos Mors’s standing among his own people. Than Kosis’s marriage policy thus meets resistance not only from Dejah Thoris’s uncertain consent, but from a rival ruler willing to place political honor and his daughter’s choice above a negotiated peace.

The Palace and the Marriage Proposal

When John Carter is assigned to guard Than Kosis, he is brought to the ruler’s apartment, where Than Kosis is speaking with Sab Than and courtiers. Carter is instructed to remain concealed in a passage behind the room’s tapestries, out of sight while the ruler stays there. The arrangement places the ruler at the center of a guarded court, but also gives Carter an unseen vantage point from which to witness the negotiations surrounding Dejah Thoris.

Dejah Thoris tells Than Kosis that she has changed her mind and now believes in Sab Than’s love. She says she has come to ask him to accept her assurance that she will marry the prince. Than Kosis welcomes the promise, saying that he does not wish to prolong the war against Helium and that the promise will be recorded and proclaimed to his people. His response shows that he regards the announcement as both a personal settlement and a public instrument for ending the conflict.

Dejah Thoris then asks him to delay the proclamation until the war is over. An immediate announcement, she argues, would appear strange to both peoples: the Princess of Helium would seem to give herself to an enemy while hostilities continued. Sab Than presses his father to end the war at once, since peace requires only Than Kosis’s word. The exchange reveals the difference between Than Kosis’s readiness to accept the marriage promise and Dejah Thoris’s management of its timing. Her apparent agreement does not immediately settle the political crisis; the promise remains entangled with the ongoing war.

Carter’s Exposure and the Search for Him

After Carter fights the Zodangan guards, Than Kosis learns that the Princess of Helium has been questioned about the encounter. She says she saw part of it, but that only one man was fighting the guards and that she did not recognize him. The cousin of Than Kosis, whom Carter had previously rescued from the Green Martians, identifies the description as fitting his rescuer. Than Kosis orders Carter brought before him and observes that the man is an unknown fighter in Zodanga, with an unfamiliar name: John Carter.

Carter is nowhere to be found in the palace or at his former quarters with the air scouts. Kantos Kan is found and questioned, but says he knows nothing of Carter’s past and had only recently met him during their captivity among the Warhoons. Than Kosis responds by ordering surveillance rather than treating the disappearance as incidental: he commands that the air patrol be quadrupled and that everyone leaving the city, by air or land, be closely scrutinized. He suspects the two strangers may both come from Helium and expects that tracking one may lead to the other. His authority is expressed through the machinery of the city’s patrols, even as Carter’s movements frustrate the search.

Death and Transfer of the Throne

During the later assault on the Zodangan palace, Carter enters the audience chamber as a procession is underway. Than Kosis and his consort sit on massive golden thrones set with diamonds, while officers and dignitaries fill the hall. A ceremonial display includes a golden chain with a collar and padlock at each end, together with the ornaments of a Zodangan prince and princess. The staged court ceremony is interrupted when Carter reveals that the advancing Tharks are arriving outside.

When the alarmed assembly turns toward the entrance, Carter thrusts Sab Than from the platform and draws Dejah Thoris to his side. Than Kosis, standing behind the throne with a drawn sword, faces Carter in combat. The fight is therefore not a formal judgment or a negotiated conclusion: the ruler personally takes up arms against the intruder who has disrupted the ceremony and reclaimed the princess.

As the two men circle on the platform, Sab Than rushes up to help his father. Dejah Thoris springs in front of him, and Carter’s sword strikes Sab Than, making him Jeddak of Zodanga. Than Kosis rolls dead on the floor. His death does not end the violence: the new ruler tears himself free of Dejah Thoris, joins a quartet of officers against Carter, and is followed by further attackers. Carter fights while trying not to kill Sab Than, because Sab Than’s death would remove his last chance of winning Dejah Thoris. Than Kosis’s demise thus converts a confrontation with the reigning Jeddak into a struggle against his successor, with the princess caught at its center.

Narrative Role and Significance

Than Kosis’s function in the story is concentrated in the consequences of rule. He makes marriage the proposed price of peace, accepts Dejah Thoris’s apparent assent as something to record and proclaim, and then meets Carter with drawn steel when the palace order is breached. The political decision and the personal confrontation converge in the same space: the ruler’s audience chamber, where dynastic ceremony gives way to combat.

His death also produces an immediate reversal rather than a settled outcome. Sab Than inherits the title in the instant Carter kills his father, but remains an active adversary; Carter must defend himself without striking down the new Jeddak, and Dejah Thoris must avoid the threat posed by the gathered Zodangan fighters. Than Kosis therefore matters not as a prolonged point-of-view character, but as the ruler whose marriage policy shapes the crisis and whose death changes its stakes without resolving it.