Pylaeus is presented in the epic-genealogical networks of Greek tradition as the son of Lethus and grandson of Teutamides, making him a descendant of Pelasgus — an ancestral figure associated with early autochthonous peoples in Greek myth. Within the Trojan War cycle he appears as one of King Priam's allies, commanding the Pelasgian forces alongside his brother Hippothous. Later commentators record local traditions: Strabo reports that on Lesbos Pylaeus was said to have commanded the Lesbian army and that a mountain on the island bore his name; Ausonius, in a later Latin poetic context, reports that Pylaeus and his brother were buried "in a garden," while Dictys Cretensis relates that the brothers fell together in battle.
The consulted sources do not provide a physical or iconographic description of Pylaeus. He is attested only through genealogical listings and martial role — named as a commander and son/descendant in epic and local traditions — and no details of stature, armor, facial features, or distinctive attributes are given in the cited material.
Sources attribute secular/military capacities to Pylaeus: he is recorded as a commander of the Pelasgian contingent in the Trojan War and, in a Lesbos tradition, as commander of the Lesbian army. There is no indication in the provided material of any supernatural powers, prophetic faculties, or magical abilities. The same name appears elsewhere as an epithet of Hermes, but the sources do not connect that divine usage to the historical/mythic person Pylaeus or ascribe divinity to him.
Hippothous
Hippothous (Ancient Greek: Ἱππόθοος, romanized Hippóthoos, lit. 'swift-riding') is not a single supernatural being but a personal name borne by multiple mortal figures in Greek myth and literature, who appear as princes, warriors, hunters, and kings across traditions such as the Danaid cycle, the Calydonian boar hunt, the Trojan War, Arcadian and Athenian genealogies, and Hellenistic romance.
Pelasgus
Pelasgus (Πελασγός) is a mythic ancestral and eponymous founder figure in ancient Greek tradition credited in various local accounts with founding cities, teaching agriculture, receiving Demeter, and giving his name to the Pelasgians and regions such as Pelasgiotis. He appears across competing regional genealogies (Argive, Arcadian, Thessalian) rather than as a standardized supernatural being.
Priam
Priam is the legendary king of Troy in Greek and Roman epic tradition, an aged sovereign and father figure whose grief, supplication, and death are central episodes in the narratives of the Trojan War. He is portrayed as a mortal ruler embedded in a cosmos of gods and fate rather than as a supernatural being.
Hermes
Hermes is an Olympian god in ancient Greek religion who functions as the herald of the gods, an intermediary between mortal and divine realms, and a psychopomp guiding souls to the afterlife. He is associated with travel, boundaries, commerce, thieves, oratory, and liminality; in Hellenistic contexts he is syncretized with Egyptian Thoth as Hermes Trismegistus.
*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.
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
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.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
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.
Aborigines (mythology)
A mytho-historical label used in Roman and general reference sources to denote the oldest inhabitants of a region (specifically central Italy in the cited Roman context). The term functions as an identity/category for original human populations rather than as a characterized supernatural being in the provided sources.
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.
Abundantia
Abundantia is the Roman divine personification of abundance and material plenty, used primarily in imperial propaganda and public iconography to signify secure grain supplies, wealth, and the promise of a 'Golden Age' under the emperor. She also appears in later medieval European folklore as Domina Abundia / Dame Habonde, a household benefactor in accounts condemned by ecclesiastical writers.
Community Record
- [1]Pylaeus — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Pylaeus'wiki
- [2]Dictys Cretensis, The Trojan War. Dictys Cretensis, account of the Trojan War (as cited in source notes stating Pylaeus and Hippothous "fell in battle together")literary
- [3]Strabo, Geographica. Strabo, Geographica (comment on Homeric passage noting Lesbos tradition that Pylaeus commanded the Lesbian army and a mountain named Pylaeus)literary
- [4]Ausonius (late Latin poet). Ausonius, noted as stating Pylaeus and his brother were buried 'in a garden' (late poetic tradition)literary
- [5]Wikidata: Pylaeus. Wikidata entry Q7263074 for Pylaeuswiki