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Listed 34 sub titles with search on: Mythology  for wider area of: "IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU Municipality ETOLOAKARNANIA" .


Mythology (34)

Ancient myths

Hercules & Deianira

KALYDON (Ancient city) IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU
Hercules married a second wife, Deianira. He won her hand in marriage by wrestling with the river-god Acheloos, who took the form of a centaur. During the fight, Hercules broke off one of Acheloos' horns.
Once, when Deianira and Hercules were traveling, they came to the Evenus River. A centaur, Nessos, had been appointed ferryman there. As he carried Deianira across, he tried to assault her, and Hercules, hearing her screams, ran to rescue his damsel in distress. Hercules shot the centaur in the heart with one of his arrows.
Just before he died, Nessos set up his revenge by telling Deianira that the blood spilling from his wound could be used as a love potion, if need be. Deianira picked up some of the centaur's blood and saved it. Later, she put it onto a cloak she'd woven for Hercules, hoping it would renew his love for her.
The blood, of course, was not a love potion, but a deadly poison instead, and its touch burned Hercules' skin. His eventual death is described in the biography section (see ancient Argos).
The story of Deianira and Hercules became the subject of one of Sophocles' tragic plays, Trachiniae (The Women of Trachis). Like many Greek tragedies. this play explored the disruptive and horrible consequences when gods and mortals interacted.

This text is cited July 2004 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Deianeira. The daughter of king Oeneus of Calydon and Althaea, but sometimes it was whispered that Dionysus was her real father. Deianeira had many sisters and brothers: Toxeus, Agelaus, Thyreus, Clymenus (or Periphas), Meleager, Gorge, Eurymede and Melanippe.
  Althaea died of grief when Meleager died, still a young boy, and his sisters turned into guinea hens out of sorrow. Dionysus then intervened and spared Deianeira and Gorge.
  Deianeira was very beautiful, and both Heracles and the river god Achelous wanted to marry her. A fight broke out between the two, and Achelous transformed himself into a snake and then a bull. Heracles managed to break off one of the bull's horn, and so won the battle.
  The couple lived in Calydon for a few years, but when Heracles killed a local boy by mistake, they were forced to leave. When they reached the Euenus river they met the Centaur Nessus. When he saw the beautiful Deianeiera he tried to rape her after he had carried her across the river, but Heracles killed him with an arrow, its tip had been dipped in the blood of the Hydra. The dying Centaur gave Deianeira a piece of cloth soaked with his blood, and told her to keep it. With it, he said, she would have Heracles' love if she ever came near to losing it.
  Heracles and Deianeira settled in Trachis where they had several children: Hyllus, Ctesippus, Glenus, Hodites and Macaria. Heracles often went away on various adventures, but he always came back.
  After many years, Deianeira was horrified to hear that her husband had taken a young wife, and that he was coming back with her. The young bride, Iole, was also rumoured to be very beautiful, and Deianeira was at her wits end. When she had made sure her husband was really coming with Iole through a servant, she put the Centaur's cloth in a barrel of water, and then put a shirt in it that she sent to Heracles.
  When Heracles put the shirt on it stuck on his skin and caused him great pain. When he tried to take it off, pieces of his own flesh came with it. He made it to Trachis, only to find that Deianeira had hung herself when she had realised what she had done.
  Heracles made a funeral pyre for himself by Mt. Oeta, and then ascended it.

This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.


Callirrhoe and Coresus

Coresus was a priest of Dionysus. He was in love with Callirhoe, a maiden. But his love for her was equalled by her hatred of him. When she refused to change her mind, he went as a suppliant to the image of Dionysus. The god listened to his prayer and death overtook the Calydonians. So they appealed to the oracle at Dodona. It declared that it was the wrath of Dionysus that caused the plague, which would not cease until Coresus sacrificed to Dionysus either Callirhoe herself or one who had the courage to die in her stead. When everything was ready for the sacrifice according to the oracle from Dodona, the maiden was led like a victim to the altar. Coresus stood ready to sacrifice, when, his resentment giving way to love, he slew himself in place of Callirhoe. When Callirhoe saw Goresus lying dead, she repented and cut her throat at the spring in Galydon and later generations call the spring Callirhoe after her.

Callirrhoe, a maiden of Calydon, who, when she was loved by Coresus, a priest of Dionysus, rejected all the offers he made to her. At length, he implored his god to punish the cruel maid. Dionysus now visited the people of Calydon with a general madness, which raged there like a plague. The Dodonaean oracle, which was consulted about the mode of averting the calamity, answered, that Dionysus must be propitiated, and that Callirrhoe must be sacrificed to him, or some one else in her stead. The maiden endeavoured in vain to escape her fate; but when she was led to the altar, Coresus, instead of performing the sacrifice, felt his love for her revive so strongly, that he sacrificed himself in her stead. But she also now put an end to her life near a well which derived its name from her (Paus. vii. 21.1). There are two more mythical personages of this name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Alabanda; Plut. Parallel. Gr. et Rom. 23)

This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Epic poems

Lists of the heroes who hunted the Calydonian boar

Apollodorus, Library and Epitome 1.8.2 & P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses 8.260

Eponymous founders or settlers

Calydon

Calydon (Kaludon), a son of Aetolus and Pronoe, married to Aeolia, by whom he became the father of Epicaste and Protogeneia. He was regarded as the founder of the Aetolian town of Calydon. (Apollod. i. 7.7; Steph.Byz. s. v. )

Pleuron

PLEVRON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
A hero, his shrine, son of Aetolus, husband of Xanthippe, ancestor of Dioscuri.

Gods & demigods

Aphrodite Arakunthias

ARAKYNTHOS (Mountain) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Arakunthias, a surname of Aphrodite, derived from mount Aracynthus, the position of which is a matter of uncertainty, and on which she had a temple. (Rhianus, ap. Steph. Byz. s. v. Arakunthos)

Dionysus Caledonius

KALYDON (Ancient city) IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU
Caledonius Kaludonios), a surname of Dionysus, whose image was carried from Calydon to Patrae (Paus. vii. 21.1), and of Meleager, the hero in the Calydonian hunt. (Ov. Met. viii. 231.)

Apollo Laphraeus

Laphraeus (Laphraios), a surname of Apollo at Calydon. (Strab. x., where, however, some read Lathrios.)

Artemis Laphria

Laphria (Laphraia), a surname of Artemis among the Calydonians, from whom the worship of the goddess was introduced at Naupactus and Patrae, in Achaia. At the latter place it was not established till the time of Augustus, but it became the occasion of a great annual festival. (Paus. iv. 31. 6, vii. 18. 6. &c.; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 1087). The name Laphria was traced back to a hero, Laphrius, son of Castalius, who was said to have instituted her worship at Calydon. Laphria was also a surname of Athena. (Lycoph. 356.)

Heroes

Architeles

Architeles, father of the boy Eunomus, whom Heracles killed by accident on his visit to Architeles. The father forgave Heracles, but Heracles nevertheless went into voluntary exile. (Apollod. ii. 7. 6; Diod. iv. 36, who calls the boy Eurynomus; Athen. ix.)

Eunomus, son of Architeles

Eunomus (Eunomos), a son of Architeles, was killed by Heracles (Apollod. ii. 7.6). Eustathius (ad Hom.) calls him Archias or Chaerias.

Alcathous

Son of Porthaon, suitor of Hippodamia, killed by Tydeus.

Antiochus

Son of Melas, killed by Tydeus.

Leontophonus

..that Ulysses went to Aetolia, to Thoas, son of Andraemon, married the daughter of Thoas, and leaving a son Leontophonus, whom he had by her, died in old age.

Thermius

There were ties of kindred between the Heracleidae and the kings of Aetolia; in particular the mothers of Thoas, the son of Andraemon, and of Hyllus, the son of Heracles, were sisters. It fell to the lot of Oxylus to be an outlaw from Aetolia. The story goes that as he was throwing the quoit he missed the mark and committed unintentional homicide. The man killed by the quoit, according to one account, was Thermius, the brother of Oxylus; according to another it was Alcidocus, the son of Scopius.
(Perseus Project - Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.3.7)

Alcidocus

Son of Scopius, slain by Oxylus.

Andraemon

Andraemon. A son of the Oxylus mentioned above, and husband of Dryope, who was mother of Amphissus by Apollo. (Ov. Met. ix. 363; Anton. Lib. 32.) There are two other mythical personages of this name, the one a son of Codrus (Paus. vii. 3.2), and the other a Pylian, and founder of Colophon. (Strab, xiv.)

Eurypylus

PLEVRON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Son of Thestius.

Icarius

Son of Perieres, or of Oebalus, father of Perilaus, father of Penelope, etc., sets wooers of Penelope to run a race, gives Penelope to Ulysses to wife, Penelope said to have been sent away by Ulysses to her father Icarius, sets up image of Modesty, supports Hippocoon against Tyndareus, expelled from Lacedaemon by Hippocoon.

Iphiclus (Iphicles)

Son of Thestius, hunts the Calydonian boar, in the Argo.

Evippus

Evippus, (Euippos). A son of Thestius and Eurythemis, who, together with his brothers, was killed by Meleager. (Apollod. i. 7.10, 8.3)

Heroines

Demonice

Demonice, (Demonike), a daughter of Agenor and Epicaste, who became by Ares the mother of Euenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. (Apollod. i. 7.7.) Hesiod (ap. Schol. ad Hm. II. xiv. 200) calls her Demodoce.

Kings

Thestius

Pesreus Encyclopedia

   (Thestios). The son of Ares and Demonice or Androdice, or, according to others, a son of Agenor and grandson of Pleuron, the king of Aetolia. He was the father of Iphiclus, Euippus, Plexippus, Eurypylus, Leda, Althaea, and Hypermnestra. The patronymic Thestiades is given to his grandson Meleager, as well as to his sons; and the female patronymic Thestias to his daughter Althaea, the mother of Meleager.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Agenor & Epicaste

Agenor: Son of Pleuron and father of Thestius, husband of Epicaste.
Epicaste: Daughter of Calydon, wife of Agenor.

Agenor, a son of Pleuron and Xanthippe, and grandson of Aetolus. Epicaste, the daughter of Calydon, became by him the mother of Porthaon and Demonice (Apollod. i. 7.7). According to Pausanias (iii. 13.5), Thestius, the father of Leda, is likewise a son of this Agenor.

Mythical monsters

Calydonian boar

KALYDON (Ancient city) IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU

Personifications

Cycnus

PLEVRON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Cycnus (Kuknos). A son of Apollo by Thyria or Hyria, the daughter of Amphinomus. He was a handsome hunter, living in the district between Pleuron and Calydon, and although beloved by many, repulsed all his lovers, and only one, Cycnus, persevered in his love. Cycnus at last imposed upon him three labours, viz. to kill a lion without weapons, to catch alive some monstrous vultures which devoured men, and with his own hand to lead a bull to the altar of Zeus. Phyllius accomplished these tasks, but as, in accordance with a request of Heracles, he refused giving to Phyllius a bull which he had received as a prize, Cycnus was exasperated at the refusal, and leaped into lake Canope, which was henceforth called after him the Cycnean lake. His mother Thyria followed him, and both were metamorphosed by Apollo into swans (Antonin. Lib. 12). Ovid (Met. vii. 371, &c.), who relates the same story, makes the Cycnean lake arise from Hyria melting away in tears at the death of her son.

This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


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