Amphimachus is presented in Homeric and post-Homeric sources as a son of Nomion and, with his brother Nastes, as a captain of the Carian contingent fighting on the side of the Trojans during the Trojan War. His attestation derives from the Iliadic catalogue of troops and later summaries and commentaries; there is no independent founding or heroic-cycle narrative attached to him in the supplied materials. The transmission history preserves variant readings: a Homeric line describes a Carian who came 'all decked with gold' and was slain and stripped by Achilles, and later scholiasts and commentators dispute whether that line names Nastes or Amphimachus, leaving the identity of the slain brother unresolved in the sources used here.
The primary sources provide no sustained ekphrasis of Amphimachus himself. Homeric catalogue lines name him as a Carian captain but do not detail his armor, stature, or visage. A contested Homeric line describes a Carian 'all decked with gold, like a girl' who was stripped of his ornaments by Achilles; some commentators attribute that portrayal and death to Nastes rather than Amphimachus, making the description a debated and ambiguous element of the textual tradition rather than a secure personal portrait.
Amphimachus's role is that of a human martial leader: a captain of troops in the Homeric social-military order. Martial competence is implied by his captaincy and inclusion in the Iliadic roster of allies. Beyond standard Homeric warrior activity and his participation in the Trojan War narrative, the supplied materials do not ascribe supernatural powers, unique combat feats, or other extraordinary abilities. The only action linked to the pair of brothers in the sources is the battlefield episode in which one son of Nomion is slain and stripped by Achilles (the identity of that son varies among traditions).
*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]Amphimachus of Caria — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Amphimachus of Caria', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]Amphimachus (disambiguation) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Amphimachus', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (disambiguation entries)wiki
- [3]The Iliad — Homer (online editions/translations referenced). Homer, The Iliad (lines and catalogue material as cited in secondary sources and translations)literary
- [4]The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Iliad of Homer. Homer, The Iliad (Project Gutenberg / public-domain translation editions cited by secondary sources)literary
- [5]Greek myth reference notes and commentaries referencing Nomion, Amphimachus, and Nastes. Select online mythographic and scholarly commentary noting the Nomion/Amphimachus/Nastes tradition and variant readingsother
- [6]Supplementary web entries and commentary (scholia and modern notes). Modern web summaries and commentary referencing Homeric catalogue contexts and related traditionsother