Alcathous is presented in the surviving accounts as one of the sons of King Pelops of Pisa and Hippodamia and thus a member of the Pelopid genealogical generation that includes Atreus and Thyestes. Sources identify him specifically as the Alcathous who became associated with Megara: the citadel there was said to be called Alcathoe from its reputed founder, Alcathous, son of Pelops. He appears in these traditions as a dynastic figure whose marriages and progeny link ruling houses, and as an eponym used to explain local place-names. Variant local traditions and the recurrence of the name Alcathous for unrelated mythic figures require care in distinguishing this Alcathous by his parentage (son of Pelops) and Megarian association.
Ancient sources and the supplied summaries do not preserve a direct physical description of Alcathous son of Pelops. Instead, authors characterize him by his genealogy, civic eponymy, and deeds: he is known through his role as a Pelopid prince, his marriages (noted as to Pyrgo and later Euaechme in some accounts), his paternity of descendants, and his association with the Megarian citadel named Alcathoe. Thus classical representation frames him as a human heroic/founder figure recorded in topographical and genealogical contexts rather than by bodily detail.
Alcathous is portrayed as a mortal heroic warrior and dynast: some traditions credit him with martial exploits, notably the slaying of the Cithaeronian lion, situating him among hero-figures who achieved honor through dangerous feats. He has no attested divine powers in the supplied materials; his abilities are those of a heroic hunter/warrior and a dynastic founder whose marriages and offspring consolidate local ruling claims. Sources also emphasize his civic role as reputed founder-eponym of Megara's citadel (Alcathoe). The attribution of the lion-slaying to Alcathous is noted as one variant among competing traditions that assign such exploits to different heroes.
*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]Alcathous. Wikipedia, 'Alcathous' (general entry listing multiple bearers of the name)wiki
- [2]Alcathous (son of Pelops). Wikipedia, 'Alcathous (son of Pelops)'wiki
- [3]Megara (note on citadel Alcathoe). Thucydidean/ancient-place-note as archived at The Latin Library (noting the citadel called Alcathoe from Alcathous)other
- [4]Hercules and the Lion of Cithaeron (discussion of variant attributions). Popular summary noting that killing the Cithaeronian lion is attributed in some accounts to Alcathous son of Pelops (variant tradition)other
- [5]Alcathous in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. Popular compilation summarizing genealogical and local-foundation material for Alcathousother
- [6]Pelops - genealogical contexts. Genealogical compilation noting Pelops' children including Alcathous in the Pelopid houseother