In the mythographic tradition summarized by modern references to ancient lexica and handbooks, Erymede is named as the daughter of Damasiclus (himself a son of Icarius) and as mother of Taenarus by Elatus (also a son of Icarius), making the parental pair an avunculate in that account. Her primary narrative function in these sources is etiological: her son Taenarus is the eponym for Cape Taenarum, Mount Taenarum, and the city Taenarus in the Peloponnese. Variant traditions recorded in the same body of material attribute Taenarus instead directly to Icarius in other genealogical versions (as noted in the primary ancient summaries cited in the modern sources). The principal attestations for these genealogical links are preserved in summaries of ancient authors such as Stephanus of Byzantium and in mythographic compilations cited by modern reference works.
No physical or iconographic description of Erymede survives in the attested ancient handbooks and lexica cited in the modern sources. The sources that record her name and relationships (e.g., summaries of Stephanus of Byzantium and related mythographic material) provide no details of age, dress, features, or distinguishing marks.
The cited sources record no supernatural powers, magic, or extraordinary deeds for Erymede. She appears solely as a mortal member of a mythic genealogy whose significance lies in familial relationships and eponymic function rather than in performed actions or abilities.
Damasiclus
Damasiclus (Ancient Greek: Δαμάσικλος / Δαμασίκλου), also called Amasiclus or Amasichus, is a mortal figure in Greek myth genealogies presented as a Spartan son of Icarius. He functions as a kinship node in variant traditions and is chiefly notable for his place in lineages that connect to the eponym Taenarus.
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]Erymede — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Erymede', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]Erymede — Wikidata entry. Wikidata entry Q138755197 for Erymedewiki
- [3]Damasiclus — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Damasiclus', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [4]Icarius in Greek Mythology — Greek Legends and Myths. GreekLegendsAndMyths.com, 'Icarius in Greek Mythology'other