Glenus is recorded in modern summaries and genealogical lists as one of the children of Heracles (Hercules) — appearing alongside siblings such as Hyllus, Ctesippus, Oneites/Onites and Macaria — and therefore as a member of the Heraclidae, the descendants who in mythic tradition are associated with attempts to reclaim Heracles' domains in the Peloponnese. Some localizing traditions note that Abia, a nursemaid connected to founding lore, nursed a son of Heracles who in some translations is named Glenus (see Abia entries and genealogical compilations). The sources are modern summaries of classical genealogies and do not provide a fuller independent origin narrative or consistent mother attribution beyond placement in Heracles' progeny.
No ancient physical description or iconography of Glenus is attested in the provided materials; the references are strictly genealogical list entries and localizing notes (ToposText, Wikidata, Wikipedia entries). The secondary modern sources do not record distinctive bodily features or visual attributes for Glenus.
The supplied sources do not ascribe supernatural powers, distinct deeds, or cultic functions to Glenus. His role in the extant references is genealogical: he is named among Heracles' children and thus functions as part of the Heraclidae lineage that mythically transmits authority and provides founding/eponymous links for local traditions (History Cooperative, Heracles family tree summaries). No individual exploits or behaviors for Glenus are recorded in the cited material.
*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]Abia (mythology) — Wikipedia. Abia (mythology) entry, noting 'the nursemaid of Glenus, the son of Heracles.'wiki
- [2]Abia — Wikipedia. Abia article summarizing localizing tradition that links a nursemaid to a son of Heracles (some translations name Glenus).wiki
- [3]Glenus (Wikidata). Wikidata item for Glenus: modern cataloguing of the name as a Heraclid figure.other
- [4]Hercules Family Tree: The Lineage of the Legendary Hero | History Cooperative. Genealogical listing noting Hyllus and other sons including Ctesippus, Glenus, and Oneites as the Heraclidae associated with efforts to reclaim the Peloponnese.other
- [5]ToposText — Glenus / people entry. ToposText catalog entry for Glenus as a named figure within Greek genealogical records (used as evidence that no substantive independent narrative is provided in those listings).other
- [6]Deianira (Wikipedia) (contains Glenus mention). Deianira page and related Glenus mention used in modern summaries of Heracles' children.wiki
- [7]Macaria in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. Secondary summary of Heracles' offspring including variants that list Glenus among siblings such as Macaria.other
- [8]Arthur's Twelve Battles — Excerpt from Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum. 'The first battle was fought near the mouth of the river which is called Glenus.' — demonstrates a homonymous river name in medieval British sources separate from the Heraclid Glenus.literary
- [9]Glenus page — Myths UVic. Modern mythography entry listing Glenus as a son of Heracles; used as a cataloguing reference for the name's attestation in genealogical lists.other