Named in the epic tradition as Μέγης (Meges) and commonly given the patronymic Phyleïdês (son/descendant of Phyleus), Meges is presented as an aristocratic commander from Dulichium associated with the Epeans of Elis. In the collective origin of the Trojan War saga he is listed among the Greek captains who mustered ships (traditional counts indicate forty or sixty) and is included among the suitors of Helen in some summaries of the pre-war catalogue, situating him within the pan-Hellenic cohort of leaders who sail to Troy.
Classical sources provide only episodic, martial portrayals rather than a consistent physical portrait. Homeric passages depict Meges in the thick of battle as a heavily armed aristeuōn (leader of men). A specific material detail preserved in the tradition is his corselet (body-armour) — described as a gift to his father from Euphetes of Ephyra — which is said to have saved him when Dolops tried to strike him with a spear. Pausanias records a painting depicting Meges wounded in the arm by a Trojan (Admetus son of Augeas) during the fall of Troy, indicating at least some iconography emphasizes his status as a combatant pictured with battle wounds.
Meges is a capable human warrior and commander: sources credit him with leading the Dulichian/Epean contingent to Troy and with slaying several named opponents in battle (traditions list victims such as Pedaeus son of Antenor and others summarized in epic summaries). He is reported to have assisted Odysseus in gathering gifts for Achilles and is named among the Greeks who entered the Trojan Horse, actions that mark him as trusted and effective within the Greek leadership. All attested capacities are human martial and leadership skills rather than supernatural powers.
Weaknesses
- conditionmortal vulnerability (death or wounds in battle)
- otherreliance on corporeal armour (corselet as physical protection)
Wards
None recorded.
*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]Meges - Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Meges', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]The Iliad, Book XV (online translations). Homer, Iliad, Book XV (online translation excerpt)literary
- [3]MEGES - Dulichian King of Greek Mythology (Theoi.com). Theoi Project, 'Meges'literary
- [4]Meges in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. GreekLegendsAndMyths.com, summary entry 'Meges'other
- [5]Pausanias (description of paintings and local traditions). Pausanias, as referenced in compiled summaries noting a painting of Meges wounded in the fall of Troy (summary in secondary sources)literary
- [6]Dictys Cretensis (summary tradition). Dictys Cretensis account as summarized in modern compilations stating that Meges fell at Troyliterary
- [7]Tzetzes (later mythographic tradition). John Tzetzes, as referenced in modern summaries noting a tradition that Meges perished at Euboealiterary