Eurymenes appears in classical genealogical tradition as one of the sons of Neleus and Chloris of Pylos; in that mythic account he, his father, and his brothers (save Nestor) are killed by Heracles during the sack of Pylos. Separately, later biographical tradition (as preserved in Diogenes Laertius citing Favorinus) names an Eurymenes who submitted to a Pythagorean dietary regimen and is credited in those accounts with increased athletic strength and success. Epigraphic evidence (IG I3 961) records an Eurymenes son of Meleteon as choregos for the City Dionysia in Athens (after 450 BCE). The sources do not present these attestations as necessarily the same historical individual but as multiple bearers of the name across mythic, literary, and civic contexts.
The supplied sources do not provide physical or iconographic descriptions of Eurymenes. In mythic genealogy he is presented as a named royal son within Pylian lineage but without individual bodily detail; the biographical and epigraphic attestations treat Eurymenes as an ordinary historical person (athlete or civic sponsor) and likewise give no descriptive portrait in the surviving accounts.
No supernatural powers are attributed to Eurymenes in the provided sources. In mythic narrative he functions as a member of Neleus's household who suffers death at Heracles' hands. In the biographical tradition preserved by Diogenes Laertius (via Favorinus) an Eurymenes is described as the earliest reported adherent of a Pythagorean diet; these accounts claim that the regimen produced superior strength and an athletic advantage that led to victories (a literary claim about regimen and performance, not an ascription of magical power). Epigraphic evidence records a civic role (choregos) in which Eurymenes financed and sponsored theatrical chorus performances for the City Dionysia.
*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]Eurymenes (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, entry 'Eurymenes' (accessed via provided research notes).wiki
- [2]Life of Pythagoras, by Diogenes Laertius (favorinus citation). Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pythagoras (citing Favorinus) — account that an Eurymenes submitted to a Pythagorean diet and gained superior strength.literary
- [3]Choregic dedication of Eurymenes (IG I3 961). Inscription IG I3 961 — records Eurymenes son of Meleteon as choregos for the City Dionysia (after 450 BCE).academic
- [4]Isotenes eurymenes (moth). Modern taxonomic use of the name 'eurymenes' in species epithet Isotenes eurymenes.wiki
- [5]The Philosophers' Magazine — Ancient Arguments For Vegetarianism (summary). Modern summary noting the claim that a Pythagorean diet gave Eurymenes athletic advantage (secondary commentary on classical sources).other
- [6]Apollodorus, The Library (argonauts intro/archive reference). Library of Apollodorus (genealogical/mythic material referencing Neleus's sons and the sack of Pylos).literary
- [7]Myths UVic — EURY22 (person entry). Reference entry summarizing attestations of Eurymenes in mythic and historical sources.other