Acanthus (son of Autonous)

In the account preserved by Antoninus Liberalis, Autonous and his wife Hippodamia had children whose names were taken from the poor vegetation of their neglected lands (Acanthus meaning 'thorn', alongside siblings named after rushes, thistles, and eroded soil). After a fatal incident in which the family's herds and a servant figure into the narrative (Anthus being attacked by horses), Zeus and Apollo, 'feeling pity', transformed the family members, the servant, and others into birds. Autonous became a quail, Hippodamia a crested lark, Anthus an eponymous anthus-bird, and Acanthus was turned into a bird thereafter called by his name; the tale serves as an aetiology for contemporary bird species and their behaviors.

The source gives no detailed physical description of Acanthus as a human beyond his genealogy (son of Autonous and Hippodamia; brother to Acanthis, Erodius, Anthus, Schoeneus). Antoninus Liberalis reports only that he was 'turned ... into birds called by the same names as they had before they were metamorphosed.' Later commentators have speculatively identified the bird called Acanthus with species such as the siskin, linnet, or blue tit, but these identifications are modern and uncertain and do not appear in the ancient text.

Antoninus Liberalis attributes no supernatural powers to Acanthus beyond the fact of metamorphosis itself. The narrative's general pattern is that transformed humans persist in the world as birds and that their human history can be reflected in species-specific behaviors (the text gives a behavioral example for Anthus: an aversion to horses and imitation of horse cries). No unique behaviors or ongoing supernatural faculties are recorded for Acanthus in the source.