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Home , Abantes, Abas (mythology), Abas (son of Lynceus), Abderus, Acamas, Acamas (son of Antenor)

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Abantes. A Euboean tribe. The were named for , about whom little is known. Under Abas’ son , they engaged in an unsuccessful struggle for power with Thebes. Chalcodon’s son, , later gave sanctuary in to the two sons of , king of . Still later, he led the Euboean forces to the . Large numbers of Abantes were among the Greek migrants who colonized various cities of , in Asia Minor.

Abas. A king of Argos. Abas, a son of Lynceus and , was a great warrior and succeeded his father on the throne. He married , a daughter of Mantineus, who bore him twin sons, and , and a daughter, Idomene. Abas also had a bastard son, Lyrcus. Hyginus mentions that Abas avenged Lynceus by killing Megapenthes, but nothing more is known of the incident. , in Phocis, is said to have been named for Abas.

Abas. A son of and . Abas was the father of and of Lysimache, who married .

Abas. The eponym of the Abantes tribe of Euboea. Little is known of Abas except that he was the father of Chalcodon, the Euboean hero.

Abdera. A Thracian city near the mouth of the Nestos river (now the Mesta) opposite the island of Thasus. Abdera was founded by in honor of Abderus.

Abderus. A son of from Opus, in . Abderus is generally said to have been a young lover of Heracles. Heracles left him to guard the notorious man-eating mares of the Bistonian king and returned to find that the youth had been eaten. He built the city of Abdera in Abderus’ memory.

Abydus. A city on the Asian side of the Hellespont. Abydus, like many other cities on either side of the Hellespont, was allied with in the Trojan War. It is better remembered, however, as the home of Lenander, in the Hellenistic romance of Hero and Leander, than as hte site of events in mythology.

Acacallis or Acalle. A daughter of and Pasiphae. Acacallis became pregnant by and was banished by her father to Libya. There she bore Amphithemis, who is also called Garamas. The Cretans claimed that she was also the mother, by Hermes, of , eponym of the Cretan city of Cydonia, although the Arcadians say that Cydon was a son of and migrated to . Some say that Acacallis also had a son, , by Apollo.

Acamas. A son of Theseus and . When Theseus was exiled from Athens, and his brother Demophon were sent for safety to King Elephenor in Euboea. They grew up there and accompanied Elephenor to the Trojan War, where they were able to rescue their grandmother, , from Helen. On the return voyage Acamas stopped in and married , daughter of the Bisaltian king. He declined the kingdom, which was offered as a dowry, and, leaving Phyllis behind, sailed away, promising to return at a specified time. As he left, Phyllis gave him a box which, she said, contained an object sacred to the goddess . She warned him never to open it unless he had given up the intention of returning. Acamas sailed to and, finding it pleasant, settled there. When he did not return at the appointed time, Phyllis cursed him and hanged herself. Eventually Acamas opened the box and, terrified by its contents, galloped wildly away on his horse until he was thrown and died by falling on his own sword. According to another version of the tale, Acamas returned to Thrace. When he embraced the bare almond tree that grew on Phyllis’ grave, it burst into leaf.

The same story is told of Demophon in some sources, but it conflicts in that case with the usual tradition that Demophon ruled Athens after and also with the fact that a promontory in Cyprus was named for Acamas. On the other hand, Acamas was named by the Athenians among the eponyms of the ten tribes.

Acarnan. A son of Alcmeon and Callirrhoe. After avenging their father’s death, Acarnan and Amphoterus settled Acarnania with colonists from Epeirus.

Acarnania. That part of the Greek coastal territory on the opposite the islands of Cephallenia and Leucas. Acarnania was traditionally settled by the sons of Alcmeon with colonists from Epeirus, to the north.

Acastus. A king of . was the only son of , king of Iolcus. His mother was either , daughter of , or Phylomache, daughter of . In defiance of his father’s orders, Acastus sailed with the under Pelias’ enemy . Some say that, on their return, Jason, after taking Iolcus, generously turned it over to Acastus. The more usual story is that Acastus and the Iolcans expelled Jason and his wife, , for their treacherous murder of Pelias. In any case, Acastus’ first act as king was to hold funeral games for his father, which were attended by all the Argonauts. Later, he went on the .

Acastus married Astydameia or else , daughter of , and had three daughters – Laodameia, , and Sthenele – and sons whose names are unknown. , Acastus’ fellow Argonaut, came to Iolcus after murdering Phocus or accidentally killing , and Acastus purified him. When the guest spurned the advances of Acastus’ wife, she told Acastus that he had tried to violate her. Acastus would not kill a man whom he had purified, but, as they were hunting on Mount , he stole Peleus’ sword, hoping that the would kill him. The Cheiron saved Peleus, however, and he returned. With the aid of Jason and the Dioscuri, he destroyed Iolcus and killed Acastus’ wife. Some say that he killed Acastus as well, but others claim that Acastus, or his sons, later exiled Peleus from his kingdom of . Acastus was still alive when Laodameia’s husband, , was killed in the Trojan War.

Acestes. A king of Eryx, in western . Acestes, the son of a Trojan mother and the river-god Crinisus, was descended from Eryx, the eponym of his land. He entertained and his followers on their way to Italy. The less vigorous members of Aeneas’ company remained in Eryx and founded a town that they named Acesta in the king’s honor.

Achaea. A region in the Peloponnesus on the Gulf of Corinth between Elis and Sicyonia and north of Arcadia. was originally named Aegialus, perhaps for Aegialeus, an early king of Sicyonia. When the Thessalian was banished from Athens, he settled in Aegialus with his sons, and , and died there. Achaeus went to Thessaly and succeeded, with the aid of Aegialian and Athenian allies, in recovering the throne that his father had lost. He named that part of Thessaly Achaea, for himself. Ion, meanwhile, began gathering forces to seize power in Aegialus, but King Selinus forestalled this move by marrying his only daughter, Helice, to Ion and adopting him as heir to the throne. Upon Selinus’ death, Ion became king and renamed the land Ionia.

The sons of Achaeus, Archander and Architeles, went to Argos and married and Automate, daughters of King . The brothers became so influential there that the Argives were called . Much later, at the return of the Heraclids, these Achaeans were driven from the region about Argos. They moved northward, under the leadership of Tisamenus, and offered to settle peaceably in Ionia. But the , fearing that Tisamenus’ prestige would soon make him dominant in the state, refused his request. The Achaeans then invaded the land and drove out the Ionians, who took refuge in . Tisamenus died in the fighting; his sons survived and renamed the land Achaea. They shared the rule with two Spartans of ancient lineage, Preugenes and his son Patreus; the latter founded Patrae.

Achaea. A region in southern Thessaly. According to , this Achaea was near Phthia and Pelasgian Argos. These three territories participated in the Trojan War under ’ leadership. Achaea was named for Achaeus, son of Xuthus, who had been expelled from Thessaly by his brothers. When Xuthus died, Achaeus returned to Thessaly and, on the death of , regained his father’s lost throne and renamed the territory for himself.

Achaeans. The inhabitants of either of the two Greek regions known as Achaea. Homer, however, regularly applied the name Achaeans to all the Greek forces in the Trojan War; but he also said that the name was particularly used for a people of southern Thessaly who, together with to other local tribes, the and the Hellenes, were led to the Trojan War by Achilles. It is not known how common was Homer’s broader use of the name. In spite of the respect generally shown to Homeric traditions, later writers generally used the name Hellenes to distinguish from foreigners. Many modern scholars assign arbitrary meanings to the two words, calling “Hellens” all the Indo-European tribes that are believed to have invaded from the north over a period of many centuries and reserving the term “Achaeans” for a particular wave in the tide of emigration. Just when the Achaeans arrived, to what degree they differed from earlier or later Hellenic groups, and what happened to the mare questions that remain to be answered. Greek traditions traced the Achaeans to the same source as the other main branches of the Hellenes: the family of Aeolus, king of Thessaly. Aeolus, a son of , gave his name to the Aeolians; the were named after his brother ; Aeolus’ nephews Ion and Achaeus were eponyms of the Ionians and the Achaeans. According to Pausanias, writing a thousand years after the was written, Achaeus ruled the Thessalian Achaea known to Homer. His sons emigrated to Argos and became some prominent there that they were able to rename the Argives Achaeans in honor of their father. The Greek troops at Troy were presumably called Achaeans because they were dominated by Argive leaders. At the time of the Dorian invasion, the Argive Achaeans were driven to the northern part of the Peloponnesus, known as Aegialus, and conquered it. They expelled the Ionians and gave the region the name of Achaea, which it retained under the Romans.

Although it is hard to see why there is no mention of local Achaeans in the many myths of the southern Peloponnesus, the broad outlines of this tradition lend some support to the historical view that the people whom scholars call the Achaeans were a group of Hellenic tribes that entered Greece through Thessaly after the Ionian invasion and before that of the Dorians. During the last few centuries of the Mycenaean era, probably the fourteenth through the twelfth centuries B.C., they formed the ruling classes of many regions of Greece and, perhaps, of certain coastal areas of Asia Minor, where they came into contact with the Hittite Empire. They were the leaders of the Greeks who attacked Troy. The Dorian invasion drove a considerable group of them to their last stronghold in the northern Peloponnesus, to which they bequeathed their name. Traditions recorded by Pausanias of relations between the rulers of Peloponnesian cities and the Dorian invaders suggest that, in many regions, the Achaean population, doubtless combined with many survivors from earlier inhabitant groups, remained where it was and accommodated to the Dorian newcomers.

Achaeus. The eponym of the Achaeans. Achaeus and Ion, eponym of the Ionians, were sons of the Thessalian Xuthus. They were to Aegialus, in the Peloponnesus, with their father. Ion eventually became king of the land. Achaeus gathered allies from both Athens and Aegialus and recovered the Thessalian throne of which their father had been deprived long before. This region, or a part of it, came to be called Achaea. Achaeus’ sons, Archander and Architeles, migrated to Argos, where they married daughters of Danaus and rose to such prominence that the Argives too came to be called Achaeans, after their father.

Achates. A friend of Aeneas. Achates is Aeneas’ loyal companion through Vergil’s .

Achelous. The principal river of the southwestern mainland area of Greece, and its god. The flows southward, dividing Acarnania from Aetolia, to empty into the Ionian Sea near the entrance to the series of gulfs that separate the Peloponnesus from the mainland to the north. It was noted in Classical times for the rapidity with which silt carried downstream was extending the land of the delta to include some of the Echinadian Islands. This phenomenon, mentioned by , had been considerably reduced a half century later because the near depopulation of Aetolia by wars had prevented cultivation of the area. The rapid spread of the alluvial deposits lent plausibility to the myth of Alcmeon, who found refuge from the of his mother on this new land because it had not existed when she cursed the earth that might shelter him after he killed her.

Achelous, god of one of the most turbulent of Greek rivers, played a role in several myths. When five local failed to honor him sufficiently, he swept them away, and they became the Echanadian Islands. He fell in love with Perimele and seduced her. Her father flung her from a cliff, but Achelous persuaded to transform her into an island. The river-god himself had the power to change his shape, but it did not help him when he wrestled Heracles for the hand of Deianeira. After several changes, he became a bull. Heracles not only vanquished him but broke off one of his horns. Achelous was the father of Alcmeon’s second wife, Callirrhoe; of Peirene, of the famous spring at Corinth; of Castalia, nymph of the even more famous spring at ; and of the Sirens. Achelous was frequently represented in art, often in the form of a bull with the horned head of a man.

There were two other rivers named Achelous, one in Lydia, the other a small stream in Arcadia.

Acheron. A river of the Underworld. The , rather than the , was sometimes said to be the boundary of across which souls were ferried by . It was sometimes conceived of as a swampy lake, such as the Acherusian Lake near . Acheron was often used, by extension, as a name for Hades itself. Several actual rivers bore the name. The Acheron was, like other rivers, sometimes personified. As a god, Acheron was the father of Ascalaphus by either Orphne or Gorgyra.

Achilles. The son of Peleus, king of Phthia, and .

A. Peleus’ marriage to a sea-goddess, after a wedding that had been arranged and attended by the gods, was a happy one until the birth of their first child, Ligyron. Thetis, wishing to make her son immortal like herself, anointed him with during the day and laid him in the embers of the fire by night. When her husband saw her one evening placing their baby in the fireplace, he cried out in alarm. Thetis, annoyed, left both husband and child and went back to her home in the sea. (According to a much later version of the story, Thetis dipped the baby in the waters of the river Styx, making his body invulnerable except for the heel by which she held him.)

Peleus turned the child over to the wise Centaur Cheiron, who gave him a new name: Achilles. Cheiron taught him manly arts and instilled courage in him by feeding him on the entrails of wild animals. Achilles became so swift that he could overtake a deer. He was still living with Cheiron on Mount Pelion while Helen’s suitors were making the rash promise to Tyndareus that was to send so many Greeks to their deaths at Troy. While still quite young, he returned to his father’s court and was placed under the tutelage of , a suppliant from Ormenium whom Peleus had made king of the Dolopians. At about the same time, also came as a suppliant to Phthia with his young son, , who had accidentally killed a playmate in Opus. Peleus made Patroclus a squire to Achilles, who was several years younger .The two youths became constant companions and, in time, devoted lovers.

According to an alternative tradition, which was never reconciled with that of Achilles’ training under Cheiron and Phoenix, Thetis knew that her son was fated to die if he went to Troy. She sent him to the court of Lycomedes on the Aegean island of Scyrus, east of Euboea. He was only nine years old when , the seer attached to the Greek forces, announced that Troy could not be taken without the boy’s aid. At Thetis’ insistence, Lycomedes dressed Achilles as a girl and reared him under the name of Pyrrha along with his own daughters. The girls must have been in on the secret, for Lycomedes’ daughter Deidameia later bore Achilles a son, who was named or Pyrrhus.

Thetis’ precautions were of no use, for Achilles’ disguise was penetrated by , who came with a recruiting expedition to Scyrus in search of him. Lycomedes denied that the boy was there, and allowed the ambassadors to see for themselves by searching the palace. Odysseus wasted no time in this pursuit. He placed on the porch of the palace various feminine trinkets, together with a spear and a shield. While the girls were examining the baubles, he had a trumpet blown at a distance, as if in warning that he island was being invaded. Achilles instantly stripped off his girl’s clothing and snatched up the spear and shield. Once discovered, Achilles paid no further attention to his mother’s fears but volunteered eagerly for the war, even though, not having wooed Helen, he had not taken the vow to defend her husband that bound most of the other Greek leaders. At the age of fifteen Achilles was made admiral of the Greek fleet.

B. When was forced to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia in order to insure favorable winds for sailing, he lured her to the port of Aulis with a promise of marriage to Achilles. According to , the young man was unaware of this ruse and defied the entire Greek army in an attempt to save the girl’s life, but finally offered herself for the sacrifice. The Greeks were able to sail, but not to find Troy. Landing by mistake in Mysia, they were met by a force led by , king of Teuthrania (later named ). Telephus, a son of Heracles, quickly drove the Greeks, except for Achilles, back to their ships. Achilles stood his ground and wounded Telephus in the thigh. The Greeks returned to their homes or to Argos, the kingdom of their commander-in-chief. Telephus meanwhile consulted an oracle about his wound and was told that only the inflictor could cure it. Dressed in rags, the Teuthranian king journeyed to Argos as a suppliant and begged Achilles to heal him. Achilles, who knew nothing of medicine, was willing but puzzled, until Odysseus pointed out that the true “inflictor” of the wound was the spear. Achilles scraped rust from the weapon into the wound and Telephus quickly recovered. In return for this favor, he guided the Greeks to Troy ten years, according to some accounts, after their first embarkation.

Thetis had warned her son that he was fated to spend either a long, comfortable life at home in Phthia or a short, glorious one in the Trojan War. Achilles chose glory. Thetis also warned him that he must not kill Tenes, king of the island of Tenedos, for the young man’s father, Apollo would be sure to avenge him. The Greeks landed on the island, which was just off the coast of the Troad, and Achilles killed Tenes almost immediately, perhaps because he did not recognize him. He listened more carefully to his mother’s next warning: that he must not be the first to land at Troy. Protesilaus disembarked first, and was the first Greek to be killed. In this opening battle Achilles was pitted against , king of Colonae. Discovering that this son of Poseidon was invulnerable to weapons, Achilles strangled him with the thongs of his own helmet. Not long after arriving at Troy, Achilles conceived a desire to see Helen, who was the ostensible cause of the war. She he obviously could not say much of this wish to the other Greek leaders, Thetis and somehow arranged for him to meet the former Spartan queen. In spite of these excellent auspices, however, nothing seems to have come of this historic encounter.

The city of Troy seemed impregnable within its great walls, so the Greeks set about systematically reducing the surrounding towns, whose rulers were vassals of , the Trojan king. This operation, which took nine years, seems to have been under the command of Achilles. The young man proved to be as ruthless as he was powerful. He sacked twelve cities by sea, including several islands, and eleven more by land. Among these were and Hypoplacian Thebes. The latter city was ruled by Eetion, the father-in-law of , commander of the Trojan forces. Achilles killed the king and his seven sons in one day and held the queen for . Out of respect for Eetion’s prowess, however, he did not plunder the corpse but buried the king in his armor. According to Homer, Scyrus was one of these captured Trojan cities – not the place of Achilles’ upbringing; and its king was not Lycomedes but Enyeus. Achiles drove Aeneas from his home on Mount Ida and killed Priam’s son Troilus. Later he captured another of Priam’s sons, , while he worked in an orchard, and sold him and his brothers Isus and for ransom, only to kill them all later in battle.

C. During his attack on Lyrnessus, Achilles had killed and , sons of King , and had carried off a beautiful Lyrnessan woman named as his concubine. Some time later Agamemnon was forced by the insistence of Achilles and the other leaders to give up his own concubine, , to save the Greeks from a plague. Enraged, he took Briseis from Achilles. Achilles surrendered her but refused to fight any longer or to allow his troops to do so. His mother appealed to to give the Trojans victory so that the Greek should be forced to heap honors on Achilles in order to win his help. Zeus consented. As a result, the Greeks were gradually beaten back to their ships in an assault led by Hector. Agamemnon sent old Phoenix, together with Odysseus and Ajax, to offer not only Briseis but a great deal of treasure as well if Achilles would rejoin the fighting. Achilles refused, and kept Phoenix with him. Shortly thereafter Patroclus, seeing the Trojans threatening to burn the Greek ships, begged to be allowed to wear Achilles’ armor into battle. Achilles consented. Patroclus, after distinguishing himself in a spectacular manner, was killed by Hector.

Filled with grief and rage, Achilles turned back the Trojans with a shout and rejoined the fighting. Insatiable eager for revenge, he killed dozens of Trojans and even fought the river when the river-god, finding his waters choked with Achilles’ victims, rose against him. Achilles would have been drowned had not dried up the river. Undaunted, Achilles continued his onslaught until the Trojans were driven back within their walls. Hector alone turned to meet Achilles before the gates. Achilles, aided by , killed him and, stripping him of his armor, dragged his body behind his chariot to the ships. Some say that he first pulled it three times around the city. He then further defiled the corpse and refused to give it up for burial. Achilles slaughtered twelve Trojan youths on Patroclus’ pyre and held elaborate funeral games in his honor. At last, when Priam came to him alone at night and pleaded to be allowed to ransom Hector’s corpse, Achilles consented, heeding the advice of Thetis.

D. Not long after Hector’s death, the Amazon queen Penthesileia came to Troy as an ally of Priam. She killed many Greeks and gained a great reputation by her prowess. Achilles killed her but fell in love with her corpse. When the sharp-tongued taunted him for this, Achilles killed him. Although Thersites had been unpopular, Achilles nevertheless had to sail to Lesbos, sacrifice to , Apollo, and , and be purified of murder by Odysseus before he could rejoin the Greek host.

In one of his last single combats, Achilles killed Memnon, an Ethiopian or Assyrian ally of the Trojans. He was himself killed by , who shot him with an arrow from the safety of the Trojan walls. Paris’ hand was guided by Apollo, either because Achilles had killed his son Tenes, or at the request of Poseidon, father of Achilles’ victim Cycnus, or merely because Apollo had sided with the Trojans from the first. There was a terrible struggle over the corpse. Ajax finally carried it from the field, while Odysseus defended his rear. Achilles’ ashes were buried in a golden urn, mixed with those of Patroclus, and a great barrow was raised over them by the sea.

Ajax and Odysseus vied for Achilles’ armor, which Hephaestus had made for him. When the other Greek leaders awarded it to Odysseus, Ajax went mad and killed himself. The captured Trojan prophet predicted that Troy would fall only if Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus, fought with the Greeks. Odysseus and Phoenix went to Scyrus to ask his aid, and Odysseus gave him his father’s armor. After the fall of Troy, when the Greeks were preparing to sail for home, the ghost of Achilles appeared to them to demand that they sacrifice Priam’s daughter on his tomb. Late Classical writers invented a reason for this: Achilles had been in love with the girl. He had, in fact, gone to her home to sue for her hand, but her brothers Paris and had ambushed and killed him. When Odysseus visited the Underworld, het Achilles’ ghost there and cheered him somewhat with news of the prowess of his son. According to a later tradition, Achilles lived forever, together with Patroclus, both Ajaxes, and , on the White Island, in the western Black Sea. Some say, surprisingly, that he was married there to Medea.

E. Achilles is the principal hero of Homer’s Iliad and appears after death in his . He is an important character in Euripdies’ Iphigeneia at Aulis. Many of his adventures are summarized by Apollodorus. Details of his discovery on Scyrus and of his love for Polyxena are given by Hyginus.

Acoetes. A Tyrrhenian sailor. When Acoetes’ fellow seamen kidnapped , Acoetes tried to defend him and was saved by the god from the fate of the rest of the crew, who were changed into dolphins. Acoetes became a follower of the god and may have been the leader of his maenads when Pentheus, king of Thebes, unsuccessfully tried to imprison them.

Acrisius. A king of Argos. Descended from Danaus, Acrisius was a son of Abas and Aglaea. His early life was occupied from the womb with quarrels with his twin brother, Proetus, whom he drove from Argos. Later he was forced to divide Argolis with Proetus, who thereafter ruled in .

Acrisius married Eurydice, a daughter of , and she bore him a single daughter, Danae. When he inquired of an oracle how he might have sons, he was told merely that a son of Danae would one day kill him. To prevent this, Acrisius built either a tower or an underground chamber of brass and imprisoned his daughter in it. But Zeus, in the form of a shower of gold, poured through the roof into her lap and Danae bore a child, whom she named . There were rumors that not Zeus but Proetus had found his way into her cell and taken revenge on his brother. Acrisius punished Danae by shutting her and the child in a chest and throwing it into the sea.

The king heard no more of them for many years. Meanwhile the god Dionysus came to Argos with his wild band of and bacchants, and Acrisius barred the gates against them. Although he is said to have regretted the act later, there is no record that he was severely punished for his defiance. In time Acrisius learned of Perseus’ survival and his heroic exploits. Hearing that the youth was returning to Argos, he fled to Larisa in Thessaly. says that he had been driven from his throne by Proetus and that Perseus avenged him. Hyginus tells a different story, claiming that Acrisius pursued Perseus to Seriphus, but was there reconciled with him. All versions agree, however, that the king was accidentally killed by a discus thrown by Perseus, and the oracle was thus fulfilled. acropolis. The highest part of a Greek city; literally, “highest city.” Many ancient cities were built on hills for defensive purposes. As they grew larger, the cities spread outward on the plains, but the original fortified hilltop was retained as a citadel. Examples of such citadels were the Cadmeia of Thebes, the Acrocorinth of Corinth, and the Larisa of Argos. The word pergamon, which had much the same meaning as akropolis, was used for the citadel at Troy and for the entire city of Pergamon, the site of which was a steep mountainside. In common parlance today, the word Acropolis refers to the old citadel of Athens. In Mycenaean times this steep, rocky, and well-fortified hill was the site of the king’s palace. Later it became the principal religious center of the city, on which were built the , the Erechtheum, and many other temples.

Actaeon. The son of Aristaeus and Autonoe. was taught the art of hunting. Several explanations are offered of how he fatally offended the goddess Artemis. Some say that he claimed to be a better hunter, others that he offered to violate Artemis in her temple, still others that she destroyed him at Zeus’s biding because he wanted to marry his aunt , whom Zeus was currently suiting. According to the most usual account, Actaeon’s crime was the accident of coming upon the goddess as she was bathing with her nymphs on Mount Cithaeron. To prevent him from telling others of the indignity that she had suffered, Artemis changed him into a stag, or else threw a deerskin around him, and he was torn to pieces by his own hounds. The hounds, who could not now find their master, howled in grief until the Centaur Cheiron took pity on them and made a statue of Actaeon to soothe them.

Actaeus. An early king of Attica. Attica was originally called Acte or Actaea, after . Cecrops married Actaeus’ daughter Agraulus and, on succeeding to the rule, renamed the region Cecropia. According to some accounts, Attica took its final name directly from Actaeus, instead of from Atthis, daughter of Cecrops’ successor, .

Actor. A son of Deion and Diomede, daughter of Xuthus. was the father, by , of the Argonaut Menoetius, father of Patroclus.

Actor. A son of and Hyrmina, and brother of Augeias. An Eleian, Actor is known mainly as the father, by , of the twins Cteatus and , called the Moliones or Molionides. Tradition denied him even this distinction by making Poseidon their true father.

Actor. An Argonaut. Apollodorus idenetified this Actor merely as a son of , but did not specify to which of many mythical characters named Hippasus he was referring. Actor. A king of Phthia. Actor was a son of Myrmidon and Peisidice, daughter of Aeolus. According to some accounts, it was he who welcomed Peleus to Phthia. Dying childless, he left the rule to Peleus. More usually, Actor is said to have had a son, Eurytion, who befriended Peleus.

Admetus. A king of Pherae. was the elder son of – founder and king of Pherae, a city in Thessaly – and Periclymene, a daughter of . When Jason, son of Pheres’ brother , came to nearby Iolcus to claim his father’s throne from the usurper Pelias, Admetus went with Pheres to support Jason at the confrontation. He joined Jason’s crew of Argonauts in search of the , and the cousins both took part in the Calydonian boar hunt. According to Diodorus Siculus, it was Jason who gave Pelias’ daughter to Admetus as his bride, the usual story is quite different.

Pheres resigned his throne to his son while Admetus was still young. The new king gained a reputation for piety that made the gods regard him favorably. When Zeus condemned Apollo to spend a year in servitude to a mortal, it was to Admetus’ court that the god came. The king treated him with such kindness and respect that Apollo made all his cows bear twins, and remained eternally grateful. He had an opportunity to show his gratitude again when Admetus determined to win the hand of Alcestis. This young man, the eldest, most beautiful, and most pious of Pelias’ daughters, had so many suitors that her father set an almost impossible task for her hand: the man who would win her must first yoke two wild beasts to a chariot. Admetus asked Apollo for help, and the god quickly harnessed a lion and a boar for him. Admetus took them to Pelias and brought Alcestis home to Pherae. During the marriage rites he forgot to pay the proper honors to Artemis. That night he was dismayed to find the bridal room filled with snakes. Apollo explained his mistake and Admetus hastily appeased the goddess with sacrifices.

Alcestis bore a son, , and a daughter, and seemed the model of a proper wife. It was not until later, however, that Admetus realized the extent of her wifely piety. While still in the prime of life, he fell ill and was about to die. Apollo once more came to his aid. Either by persuading Artemis or by tricking the Fates, after first inducing them to drink too much wine, he won a special dispensation for Admetus: the king need not die if someone else would consent to die in his place. Admetus appealed first to his aged parents, but they were unwilling to give up the few years left to them. Alcestis, though still young, agreed to die for her husband and accompanied , the implacable god of death, when he came to escort her to the Underworld. Admetus, though plunged into grief, did not refuse his wife’s self-sacrifice. She was saved from her fate either because Heracles wrestled with Thanatos and brought her back or because , queen of the Underworld, sent her up again to the world of the living.

Admetus and Alcestis are principal characters in Euripides’ play Alcestis, which tells of her death and resurrection. The other most extended account of Admetus’ life is given by Apollodorus. Adonis.