Phylonomus is presented in the Perseid genealogical tradition as a son of King Electryon of Mycenae and Anaxo (daughter of Alcaeus), placing him in the generation after Perseus. The narrative context recounts a dispute between Electryon's house and the Taphians — descendants of Taphius and related to Mestor, brother of Electryon — over stolen cattle and claims to ancestral rights. In the resulting clash the sons of Pterelaus (claiming descent from Mestor) kill Phylonomus and many of his brothers; this sequence of events is given in the Apollodorian and Hesiodic-derived summaries and functions etiologically in the larger cycle that leads to Electryon's death, Amphitryon's exile, Alcmena's marriage, and ultimately the birth of Heracles.
No physical description of Phylonomus survives in the provided sources. He appears only as a named member of Electryon's household in genealogical lists and in narrative summaries of the cattle-raid conflict; there are no attested details of his bodily appearance, armor, or distinguishing marks in the cited materials.
The sources do not attribute any supernatural powers or specialized skills to Phylonomus. He is represented as a mortal Mycenaean prince and combatant: one of Electryon's sons who takes part in the fatal clash with the sons of Pterelaus over cattle and succession. His role is narrative and genealogical rather than magical — his death serves to illustrate dynastic vulnerability and to set up subsequent events in the Perseid cycle.
Weaknesses
- conditionmortality; vulnerability in battle
- otherexposure to inter-clan violence and claims over cattle/succession
Wards
None recorded.
Amphitryon
Amphitryon is a mortal nobleman of Greek mythic-historical tradition: son of Alcaeus of Tiryns, husband of Alcmene, and the acknowledged stepfather of Heracles. He appears in heroic-age narratives as a warrior, dynastic actor, and the human whose identity is impersonated by Zeus in literary treatments that explore paternity and identity.
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.
Electryon
Electryon (Ancient Greek Ἠλεκτρύων) is a mythic king of the Perseid line in Greek tradition, ruler of Mycenae and Tiryns whose conflict over stolen cattle, the deaths of his sons, and his own death set the succession events that lead to Amphitryon, Alcmena, and the birth of Heracles. He is presented in classical sources as a mortal dynast rather than a supernatural being; versions differ on whether his death was accidental or the result of homicide.
Mestor
Mestor (Ancient Greek: Μήστωρ, 'adviser, counsellor') is primarily an Ancient Greek personal name borne by several mortal figures in mythic genealogies (sons of Perseus, Pterelaus, Priam, Ajax and one of Poseidon's ten Atlantean princes in Plato). In modern popular culture the name was reused for a human antagonist in the Doctor Who serial 'The Twin Dilemma'.
Heracles
Heracles is the greatest hero of Greek myth whose career bridges mortal hero-cult and full divinization. Celebrated for his Twelve Labours, martial prowess, and travels between the mortal world, the underworld, and Olympus, he functioned as a civic patron, ancestor of royal lines (the Heracleidae), and object of cult that treated him both as chthonic hero and as god.
*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]Phylonomus — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Phylonomus' entrywiki
- [2]The Son of Amphitryon (Legendary Passages). Legendary Passages archive summary of the Perseid/Amphitryon traditionliterary
- [3]Phylonomus (Myths UVic). Mythology resource entry summarizing genealogical attestationsother
- [4]ToposText — People: Phylonomus. ToposText entry for Phylonomusother
- [5]Hesiod, Catalogues of Women (fragments) — Theoi Classical Texts Library. Hesiodic fragments and genealogical tradition as preserved in classical summariesliterary