In the mythic narratives that follow the fall of Troy, Cestrinus is presented as a son born to Helenus — and in some accounts to Andromache as well — after Helenus and other Trojan survivors established themselves in Epirus. When Helenus died, his son Molossus is said to have succeeded him to the Epirotan throne; upset by this succession, Cestrinus gathered a band of Epirotian volunteers, seized territory north of the River Thyamis, and thus became the eponymous ancestor of the district called Cestrine. Pausanias is cited in the tradition that locates Andromache and her family in Epirus and records related commemorative practice; the identification of Cestrinus with a Bosporan king named Genger is recorded as an alternate, less corroborated tradition.
Ancient sources provide no physical description of Cestrinus. He is attested only through genealogical records and foundation narratives; classical authors portray him in terms of lineage, political action, and eponymy rather than by bodily appearance or dress.
Sources attribute no supernatural powers to Cestrinus. His recorded roles are political and genealogical: he is born into the Trojan royal line in Epirus, disputes the succession when Molossus takes the throne of Helenus, organizes and leads a group of Epirotian volunteers to claim territory north of the Thyamis, and functions as the eponymous founder whose name explains the toponym Cestrine. One tradition (less well attested) identifies him with a ruler of the Cimmerian Bosporus called Genger; otherwise the accounts present him as a legendary mortal leader and colonizer.
*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]Cestrinus - Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Cestrinus' entrywiki
- [2]Cestrinus is born to Andromache and Helenus (event). Myths of the World (UVic), event entry for Cestrinus' birthother
- [3]Cestrinus overtakes the region beyond the Thyamis river (event). Myths of the World (UVic), event entry for Cestrinus' settlement/claimother
- [4]Helenus 1 - Greek Mythology Link. Greek Mythology Link, Helenus entryother
- [5]Andromache - Greek Mythology Link. Greek Mythology Link, Andromache entry (records household and commemorative practices)other
- [6]Helenus in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. Greek Legends and Myths, Helenus overviewother
- [7]Andromache in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. Greek Legends and Myths, Andromache overview (mentions post‑Troy settlement and offerings)other
- [8]Andromache (museum-digital references). museum-digital: Andromache relations entry (contextual material)other