Acastus is presented in the sources as the son of Pelias (with mothers variably named in traditions such as Anaxibia/Philomache in source genealogies) who, after the return of the Argonauts, buried his father when Pelias was killed by the trickery associated with Medea. After burying Pelias he expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus and instituted funeral games in honor of his father; he subsequently became king of Iolcus. He is also placed in the heroic network as a companion of Jason (an Argonaut) and as husband to a wife variously named Astydamia (also attested as Hippolyte/other variants). Genealogical lists and mythic summaries in the attested sources place him in the generation of heroes immediately prior to the Trojan War-era figures.
The supplied sources do not offer a detailed physical description of Acastus (no measurements, distinctive marks, or costume particulars). He is portrayed through social role and actions—princely/kingly functions, participation among the Argonauts, and involvement in ritual acts such as burial and purification—rather than through explicit physical description. By contextual implication he would be depicted in the iconographic idiom of heroic-age aristocrats (armed and garbed as a warrior-prince in narrative accounts), but the primary sources cited here record deeds and offices rather than bodily detail.
Acastus possesses no supernatural powers in the attested narratives; his abilities are political, martial, and ritual-social. He sails as one of the Argonauts, exercises royal authority in Iolcus (burying Pelias, instituting funeral games, driving Jason and Medea from the city), performs or hosts rites of purification (he is recorded as purifying Peleus for the homicide of King Eurytion of Phthia), and engages in ordinary martial/political reprisals (he attempts to have Peleus killed by abandoning him on Mt. Pelion after removing his sword). Where extraordinary outcomes occur in episodes involving Acastus (e.g., a sword returned by Chiron or Hermes; Medea’s drugs or tricks) those are the acts of other supernatural figures rather than Acastus himself.
Weaknesses
- conditionMortal vulnerability (subject to human revenge and political overthrow)
- conditionSusceptibility to narrative variation and conflicting accounts (sources differ on outcomes such as whether Acastus himself is slain after Peleus sacks Iolcus)
Wards
None recorded.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
Acacallis
Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς; also Acalle) is a mythological princess of Crete in Greek tradition, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She functions primarily as a dynastic and etiological figure: in varying accounts she is mother, by gods such as Hermes (Mercury) or Apollo, of eponymous or founder-figures like Cydon (founder of Cydonia), Miletus, or Lydon/ Lydus.
Acacus
Acacus (Ancient Greek: Ἄκακος) is, in Arcadian Greek tradition, a mortal eponymous founder-king of Acacesium and is remembered as the foster-father who reared the infant Hermes (Mercury) in that local tradition. He is presented in genealogies as a son of Lycaon and functions as a local ancestral/onomastic figure rather than a supernatural spirit.
Academus
Academus (Greek: Akádemos / Hekádemos) is an Attic hero-eponym tied to a sacred grove (Akademeia) on the Cephissus near Athens. In myth he revealed where Helen was hidden to the Dioskouroi, an act said to have saved the city, and the place bearing his name became a long-lived sacred precinct, later the site of Plato's Academy.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Acantha
Acantha (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάνθα, 'thorn') is a late or secondary mythological figure known from modern retellings as a nymph transformed into the acanthus plant. The tale that she scratched Apollo and was changed into a spiny-leaved plant is not attested in surviving classical corpora and appears to be a modern compilation or invention rather than a firmly documented ancient myth.
Community Record
- [1]Acastus (Wikipedia). Wikipedia entry 'Acastus' (summary of mythic traditions, including role as Argonaut, son of Pelias, burial of Pelias, purification of Peleus, and the Pelion/Peleus episode).wiki
- [2]Acastus - Wikidata. Wikidata item for Acastus (identifier and linked summaries).other
- [3]LP0033 Medea and the Argonauts (Archive.org Legendary Passages summary). Archive: 'Medea and the Argonauts' (Legendary Passages summaries based on Apollodorus), recounting Medea's role in Pelias's death and the Argonautic return episodes involving Acastus.literary
- [4]LP0098 -XXIV ARGO- Medea & The Argo, from The Library of Apollodorus (Archive.org). Archive: Apollodorus-based legendary-passage recording summarizing Argo/Medea material connected to Acastus's narrative.literary
- [5]Astydamia (wife of Acastus) (Wikipedia). Wikipedia entry on Astydamia (accounts of her love for Peleus, false accusation, and violent fate connected to Peleus's revenge on Iolcus).wiki
- [6]Acastus - in ancient sources @ attalus.org. Collective listing of ancient source attestations for Acastus (genealogical and narrative references).academic