According to the genealogical and local-history accounts summarized in the supplied materials, Phorbas is the son of Lapithes and Orsinome and a member of the Thessalian Lapith stock. In traditions focused on Elis he emigrates from Thessaly and is received by the local ruling house (accounts differ): some texts describe Alector of Elis summoning him and sealing an alliance, while other summaries report that he was granted land or shared rulership with Alector. Sources vary in detail and some later summaries conflate or attach additional episodes to the name Phorbas; the core, attested theme is that of a Thessalian prince who migrates and becomes integrated into the legendary royal network of Elis.
The supplied sources do not provide physical descriptions or distinctive iconographic attributes for Phorbas son of Lapithes. Narrative attention in the sources is directed toward genealogy, migration, and political/military roles rather than clothing, stature, or visual markers.
No supernatural abilities are attributed to Phorbas in the provided materials. His 'powers' are social and political: acting as a migrant-founder, martial participant within the heroic-age narratives (some summaries link Lapiths and their kin to martial episodes such as the Centauromachy, but direct attribution of that episode to this specific Phorbas is uncertain), and serving as an eponymous ancestor whose descent legitimizes ruling lines. He functions as a conduit of kinship-based authority and territorial legitimation rather than as a magical being.
*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]Phorbas (son of Lapithes) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry 'Phorbas (son of Lapithes)' (summary and name/etymology)wiki
- [2]Phorbas — Wikipedia (disambiguation and general entry). Wikipedia, 'Phorbas' (name forms, meaning 'giving pasture', and note on multiple figures bearing the name)wiki
- [3]The Kingdom of Elis (archive summary of Pausanias material). Archive summary and material drawing on Pausanias' local-history treatment of Elis (placement of Phorbas in Elis genealogies and migrations)other
- [4]Elis — Plato/Dialogues-related locality note. Dialogues/locality note referencing the alliance narrative in which Alector 'sealed an alliance with Phorbas' and shared rule (summary of tradition)other
- [5]Phorbas in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. Modern summary that notes migration to Elis and (in some variants) participation among Lapith martial cycles; used here to indicate variant attestations and later summariesfolk
- [6]Diodorus Siculus — Books IV–V (LacusCurtius translations). Diodorus (as presented in the supplied LacusCurtius links) — cited in the notes as a source for migration/colonization motifs associated with figures named Phorbas in variant traditionsliterary
- [7]Orsinome (mythology) — Wikipedia. Entry noting Orsinome as mother of Phorbas and listing related sibling figures (used for genealogical context)wiki