In the mythographic and topographical sources Cyllen appears as a member of an Arcadian genealogical cluster whose personal name was given to a prominent local landscape, Mount Cyllene (Kyllene). Pausanias and later compilers record that Cyllen is counted among the sons in local family-lists (for example the same networks that name Stymphalus, Aepytus and Pereus) and that ‘‘he is said to have given his name to Mount Cyllene in Arcadia’’ (Pausanias via modern summaries; see Pantheon reference to Pausanias). Geographic writers such as Strabo list Mount Cyllene among notable mountains of the region, which reinforces the antiquity and local prominence of the toponym associated with the figure. Some modern commentaries and secondary notes (summarized in a linguistic discussion) present the sequence the other way — that the mountain-name antedated and became a surname or cultic epithet — but the core tradition preserved in the primary topographical/genealogical sources treats Cyllen as the eponymous ancestor tied to the place-name.
The surviving topographical and genealogical sources that mention Cyllen provide no physical description or iconographic detail for him. In Pausanias-style accounts and in concise mythographic lists (as reproduced in reference summaries and encyclopedic entries) Cyllen appears only as a name within family-lists and as the eponym of Mount Cyllene; none of the cited materials furnishes clothing, stature, attributes, or visual markers for the figure. Therefore, on the basis of the available texts (Pausanias summaries, Apollodorean-style genealogies, and geographic listings such as Strabo's), no reliable physical appearance can be reconstructed.
No specific supernatural powers, deeds, or characteristic behaviors are attributed to Cyllen in the provided sources. Rather than being described as an active cultic god, daemon, or monster, Cyllen's functional role in the cited tradition is etiological: he explains a place-name and anchors kinship ties in Arcadian genealogies. Pausanias-type accounts and mythographic summaries list him among sibling figures who serve to name and personify local topography; beyond this toponymic and genealogical function there are no surviving narratives of particular acts, miracles, or cult-practices tied to Cyllen in the excerpts provided. Modern linguistic commentary (cited in the notes) discusses the relationship of name and place and even conjectures about possible linguistic roots, but that does not supply any account of abilities or agency beyond the role of eponym.
Weaknesses
- otherNo weaknesses recorded in the cited sources
Wards
- otherNo wards or apotropaic practices directed specifically at Cyllen are recorded in the cited sources
Aepytus
Aepytus (Ancient Greek: Αἴπυτος, Aíputos/Aípytos, lit. 'steep, high, lofty') is a personal name in Greek myth borne by several legendary kings tied to Arcadian and Heraclid genealogies. The figures named Aepytus function as ancestral/dynastic nodes in literary genealogies and later literary receptions rather than as supernatural beings.
Pereus
Pereus (Ancient Greek: Περέος) is an Arcadian prince in Greek myth attested in genealogical sources as a son of King Elatus and Laodice and father of Neaera. He functions as a mortal node in local dynastic myth rather than as a supernatural being.
Elatus
Elatus (Ancient Greek: Ἔλατος) is a personal name borne by multiple distinct figures in ancient Greek mythic tradition — including an Arcadian founder-eponym, a Lapith prince, a centaur slain in combat with Heracles, and several minor epic personae (charioteer, Trojan ally, suitor). The name functions as an onomastic label across genealogical, foundation, and heroic-age narratives rather than designating a single recurring supernatural class.
*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]Pausanias, Description of Greece (Book 8, Arcadia) — summary references. Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 8 (as cited in modern summaries noting Cyllen as eponym of Mount Cyllene)literary
- [2]Strabo, Geography — Book VIII (list of famous mountains including Cyllene). Strabo, Geography, Book 8 — listing Mount Cyllene among notable regional mountainsliterary
- [3]Pantheon (encyclopedic entry: Cyllen). Pantheon summary: 'He is said to have given his name to Mount Cyllene in Arcadia' (attributing the note to Pausanias-style tradition)wiki
- [4]Pereus (genealogical entry referencing shared siblings including Cyllen). Genealogical listing noting Pereus had brothers Stymphalus, Aepytus, Ischys and Cyllen (drawing on Apollodorus/Pausanias traditions)wiki
- [5]Linguistics discussion: Etymology of Kyllene (linguistics.stackexchange summary mentioning Beekes). Modern linguistic commentary noting that the mountain-name and the personal name are related and referencing Beekes' conjectural adjectival root (fragmentary/uncertain)other