Perimede does not have a single consolidated origin narrative in the surviving sources but recurs as a named woman in multiple regional genealogical traditions. In Thessalian genealogies she is recorded as a daughter of King Aeolus (Aeolus son of Hellen) and therefore placed among Aeolian-descended houses (source: etymology/identification and Aeolian lists). In other accounts she is linked with the river-god Achelous: several summaries state that 'Perimede had Hippodamas and Orestes by Achelous' and that in one variant she was hurled from a cliff by her father and was caught (and later associated) with Achelous (sources: summaries of genealogical variants, cited web summaries). Additional variant attestations connect a Perimede figure with island dynasties (for example, as mother of Astypalaia in one strand) or appear as an alternate name alongside similar maternities in different local lists. These occurrences indicate onomastic multiplicity rather than a single continuous life-story (sources: comparative onomastic notes and multiple compiled lists).
The sources provide no consistent physical description or iconography for Perimede. She is treated as a named mortal woman appearing in genealogical catalogs, with narrative attention concentrated on relationships (parentage, marriage, offspring) and occasional incidents (a summarized variant reports she was hurled from a cliff and rescued by Achelous). No surviving source gives standardized bodily features, costume, or supernatural visage (sources: genealogical lists and summarized accounts).
No supernatural powers or special behaviors are ascribed to Perimede in the cited materials. Her name is etymologized as 'very cunning' or 'cunning all round' (from peri 'around' + medea 'cunning'), which places the name in the semantic field of craftiness, but the surviving citations do not narrate acts of sorcery, magic, or other abilities tied to that meaning. Her functional role in the tradition is reproductive and relational—serving to connect lineages—rather than endowed with demonstrated powers (sources: etymology and genealogical summaries).
Weaknesses
- othernone attested in sources
Wards
- othernone attested in sources
Achelous
Achelous is the personified river-divinity of the Achelous River in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Regarded among the potamoi (river-gods), he is portrayed as a shape-changing elemental deity associated with springs, naiads, and the production of abundance (the horn/cornucopia motif); he appears in myths chiefly as suitor to Deianeira and as Heracles' opponent.
Aeolus
Aeolus is a name applied to multiple related figures in Greek myth: an eponymous son of Hellen (founder of the Aeolian people), a son of Poseidon who led colonial ventures to Tyrrhenian islands, and a son of Hippotes depicted in epic as a ruler or keeper of the winds. Ancient mythographers note confusion and overlap among these persons.
Perseus
Perseus is a legendary hero of ancient Greek myth, a mortal son of Zeus and Danaë famed as a slayer of monsters and founder of the Perseid dynasty; his narrative emphasizes divine intervention (gifts from Hermes, Athena, and Hades), heroic cunning, and eventual placement among the stars as a constellation.
*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]Perimede (Wikipedia). Perimede (mythology), Wikipedia entry summarizing variant genealogical attestations and etymologywiki
- [2]Perimede (Wikipedia general page). Perimede, disambiguation/summary page with etymology notewiki
- [3]Aeolus (son of Hellen) (Wikipedia). Provides context for Aeolian genealogical lists that include a daughter named Perimedewiki
- [4]Archive: LP0003 The Son of Amphitryon (archive snapshot). Archive item containing compiled classical and modern materials where Perimede appears in genealogical contextother
- [5]Archive: LP0003 Son of Amphitryon (alternate mirror). Alternate archive mirror used among supplied materials referencing surrounding genealogical narrativesother
- [6]Web summaries and onomastic notes (compilation of variant attestations). Wikidata entry linked from supplied materials; compilation corroborating multiple attestations and variantsother
- [7]Assorted web compilations and myth summaries cited in research notes. Web compilation of Aeolian genealogies listing daughters and associated variant namesother
- [8]Astypalea (island genealogy summary). Background on island genealogical traditions; cited in notes as context for a variant linking Perimede to Astypalaiaother