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Listed 56 sub titles with search on: Homeric world  for wider area of: "ETOLOAKARNANIA Prefecture GREECE" .


Homeric world (56)

Ancient towns

Oechalia

ICHALIA (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Homer's references about Oechalia: Il. 2.596, 730, Od. 8.224, 21.13-33.

Country

Akti Epirios, Antiperea (shore of the mainland)

AKARNANIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
..and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles.. Then wise Laertes answered him: I would, O father Zeus, and Athena, and Apollo, that in such strength as when I took Nericus, the well built citadel on the shore of the mainland..

Gods & demigods

Sirens

ACHELOOS (River) ETOLOAKARNANIA
According to Homer, the Sirens were two (Od. 12.52), while the writers in the later times mention three or four. They dwelt between the island of Aeaea and Scylla and they beguiled with their excellent voice the sailors, whom they murdered (Od. 12.39 & 52).

   (Seirenes). The daughters of Phorcys, according to later legend of Achelous, and one of the Muses. In Homer there are two, in later writers, three, called Ligea, Leucosia, and Parthenope, or Aglaopheme, Molpe, and Thelxiepea. Homer describes them as dwelling between Circe's isle and Scylla, on an island, where they sit in a flowery meadow, surrounded by the mouldering bones of men, and with their sweet song allure and infatuate those that sail by. Whoever listens to their song and draws near them never again beholds wife and child. They know everything that happens on earth. When Odysseus sailed past, he had stopped up the ears of his companions with wax, while he had made them bind him to the mast, that he might hear their song without danger. Orpheus protected the Argonauts from their spell by his own singing. As they were only to live till some one had sailed past unmoved by their song, they cast themselves into the sea, on account either of Odysseus or of Orpheus, and were changed to sunken rocks. When the adventures of Odysseus came to be localized on the Italian and Sicilian shore, the seat of the Sirens was transferred to the neighbourhood of Naples and Sorrento, to the three rocky and uninhabited islets called the Sirenusae, the Sirenum scopuli of Vergil, or to Capri, or to the Sicilian promontory of Pelorum. There they were said to have settled, after vainly searching the whole earth for the lost Persephone, their former playmate in the meadows by the Achelous; and later legend also assigned this at the time when they in part assumed a winged shape. They were represented as great birds with the heads of women, or with the upper part of the body like that of a woman, with the legs of birds, and with or without wings. At a later period they were sometimes regarded as retaining their original character of fair and cruel tempters and deceivers. But they are more generally represented as singers of the dirge for the dead, and they were hence frequently placed as an ornament on tombs; or as symbols of the magic of beauty, eloquence, and song, on which account their sculptured forms were seen on the funeral monuments of fair women and girls, and of orators and poets-- for instance, on those of Isocrates and Sophocles. The National Museum at Athens contains several examples of stone Sirens, not as reliefs, but as separate figures; and a funeral monument of this type may be noticed on a vase in the British Museum, where the Siren is standing on a pillar and playing the lyre.

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


Siren Aglaope : Perseus Encyclopedia

Achelous

Curetes

PLEVRON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
The Curetes were dwelling in Aetolia before the Trojan War and they were driven away from this land by the Aetolians.
Homer mentions a battle between the Curetes and the Aetolians in Calydon (Il. 9.529, also see 9.549 & 589). Strabo refers to the Curetes as well (Strab. 10,3,1).

Greek heroes of the Trojan War

Thersites

AGRINION (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Thersites, son of Agrius, was the ugliest of all the Greeks in the war of Troy, lame, hump-back and impudent and was hateful to Achilles and to Odysseus because of his insolent behaviour (Il. 2.212-271). Homer calls him "akritomythos" (= "of reckless speech") (Il. 2.246).

The son of Agrius. He was the most deformed man and impudent talker among the Greeks at Troy. According to the later poets he was killed by Achilles, because he had ridiculed him for lamenting the death of Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons.

Oenomaus

ETOLIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
An Aetolian, who was slain by Hector (Il. 5.706).

Periphas

The son of Ochesius, who was slain by Ares (Il. 5.842).

Trechus

An Aetolian, who was slain by Hector (Il. 5.706).

Greek leaders in the Trojan War

Thoas

KALYDON (Ancient city) IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU
Thoas, son of Andraemon and Gorge and father of Aemon, took power after the death of his father, and led the Aetolians with 40 ships against Troy (Il. 2.638, Od. 14.499).

Thoas. The son of Andraemon and Gorge. He was king of Calydon and Pleuron, in Aetolia, and sailed with forty ships against Troy.

Greeks of the Homeric Catalogue of Ships

Troian War

CHALKIS (Ancient city) NAFPAKTOS
Chalcis, city of Aetolia, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.639).

Trojan War

ETOLIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
The Aetolians participated in the Trojan War with 40 ships under the leadership of Thoas (Il. 2.638 & 644). Aetolian cities mentioned in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships are: 1. Calydon, 2. Pleuron, 3. Olenus, 4. Pylene, 5. Chalcis.

Trojan War

KALYDON (Ancient city) IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU
Calydon participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.640). The poet calls it "rocky" (Il. 2.640), "steep" (Il. 13.217, 14.116), "lovely" (Il. 9.531), fertile, rich land (9.577), and "great city" (Il. 9.589). He also mentions that the city was besieged by the Curetes, when Meleager, embittered because of the curses of his mother, retreated from the battle, which was taking place in the claim of the head and the skin of the Calydonian boar (Il. 9.580 & 589).

Troian War

OLENOS (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Olenus, an Aetolian city, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.639)

Trojan War

PLEVRON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Pleuron participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.639).

Troian War

PYLINI (Ancient city) NAFPAKTOS
Pylene, city of Aetolia, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.639).

Heroes

Enops

ETOLIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Father of Clytomedes (Il. 23.634).

Clytomedes

He was the son of Enops and was defeated by Nestor in boxing (Il. 23.634).

Ochesius

An Aetolian, father of Periphas (Il. 5.843).

Melas

KALYDON (Ancient city) IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU
He was a son of Portheus, brother of Agrius and Oeneus (Il. 14.117).

Kings

Evenus

ETOLIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
He was a son of Ares, king of Aetolia and father of Marpessa (Il. 9.557).

Oeneus & Althaea

KALYDON (Ancient city) IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU
King of Calydon in Aetolia, son of Portheus and Euryte (Il. 14.117), whom Dionysus taught vine-cultivation and wine-making. His children by Althaea, daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, were Meleager (Il. 9.555), Melanippus, Clymenus and Gorge, wife of Andraemon, and by Periboea, daughter of Hipponous, Tydeus. There are also other children of his mentioned, such as: Thyreus, Periphas, Agelaus, Eurymede, Melanippe, Mothone and Deianeira (Apollod. 1,8,1). Artemis was omitted by Oeneus at his offerings to the gods and she sent to his country as a punishment the well-known Calydonian boar.

Oineus. A king of Calydon in Aetolia, son of Portheus or of Porthaon. He married Althaea, the daughter of Thestius, by whom he had, among other children, Meleager and Deianira. After Althaea's death, he married Periboea or Melanippe, the daughter of Hipponous, by whom he became the father of Tydeus, though others made Tydeus his son by his own daughter Gorge. In a sacrifice which Oeneus made to all the gods, upon reaping the rich produce of his fields, he forgot Artemis, and the goddess, to revenge this neglect, sent a wild boar to lay waste the territory of Calydon. The animal was at last killed, by Meleager and the neighbouring princes of Greece, in a celebrated chase known by the name of the chase of the Calydonian boar.
After the death of Meleager, Oeneus was dethroned and imprisoned by the sons of his brother Agrius. Diomedes, having come secretly from the city of Argos, slew all the sons of Agrius but two, who escaped to the Peloponnesus; and then, giving the throne of Calydon to Audraemon, son-in-law of Oeneus, who was himself now too old to reign, led the latter with him to Argolis. Oeneus was afterwards slain by the two sons of Agrius, who had fled into the Peloponnesus. Diomedes buried him in Argolis, on the spot where the city of Oenoe, called after Oeneus, was subsequently erected. Oeneus is said to have been the first that received the vine from Bacchus. The god taught him how to cultivate it, and the juice of the grape was called after his name (oinos, "wine").

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


Altaea (Althaia), a daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius and Eurythemis, and sister of Leda, Hypermnestra, Iphiclus, Euippus, &c. She was married to Oeneus, king of Calydon, by whom she became the mother of Troxeus, Thyreus, Clymenus, and Meleager, and of two daughters, Gorge and Deianeira (Apollod. i. 7.10, 8.1). Apollodorus states, that according to some, Meleager was regarded as the fruit of her intercourse with Ares, and that she was mother of Deianeira by Dionvsus (Comp. Hygin. Fab. 120, 171, 174). Althaea is especially celebrated in ancient story on account of the tragic fate of her son Meleager, who also became the cause of her death. Some say that she hung herself, others in that she killed herself with a dagger (Apollod. i. 8.3; Ov. Met. viii. 445, &c.).

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


Agrius

Son of Portheus and Euryte, brother of Oeneus and Melas (Il. 14.117). He seized power after having dethroned his brother, king Oeneus, with the help of his sons. He was killed by Diomedes, grandson of Oeneus, after whom the Argives named his burial place Oenoe (Paus. 2,25,2).

Agrius (Agrios), a son of Porthaon and Euryte, and brother of Oeneus, king of Calydon in Aetolia, Alcathous, Melas, Leucopeus, and Sterope. He was father of six sons, of whom Thersites was one. These sons of Agrius deprived Oeneus of his kingdom, and gave it to their father; but all of them, with the exception of Thersites, were slain by Diomedes, the grandson of Oeneus (Apollod. i. 7.10, 8.5, &c.). Apollodorus places these events before the expedition of the Greeks against Troy, while Hyginus (Fab, 175, comp. 242 and Antonin. Lib. 37) states, that Diomedes, when he heard, after the fall of Troy, of the misfortune of his grandfather Oeneus, hastened back and expelled Agrius, who then put an end to his own life; according to others, Agrius and his sons were slain by Diomedes (Comp. Paus. ii. 25.2; Ov. Heroid. ix. 153).

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


Andraemon & Gorgo

He was the son-in-law of Oeneus and father of Thoas (Il. 2.638). Diomedes gave him the power, after having killed Agrius, brother of the grandfather of Oeneus. Andraemon was murdered by the two sons of Agrius in Peloponnese, where they had taken refuge in order to escape from Diomedes.

Andraemon.The husband of Gorge, the daughter of the Calydonian king Oeneus, and father of Thoas. When Diomedes delivered Oeneus, who had been imprisoned by the sons of Agrius, he gave the kingdom to Andraemon, since Oeneus was already too old (Apollod. i. 8.1 and 6; Hom. Il. ii. 638; Paus. v. 3.5). Antoninus Liberalis (37) represents Oeneus as resuming the government after his liberation. The tomb of Andraemon, together with that of his wife Gorge, was seen at Amphissa in the time of Pausanias (x. 38.3). Apollodorus (ii. 8.3) calls Oxylus a son of Andraemon, which might seem to allude to a different Andraemon from the one we are here speaking of; but there is evidently some-mistake here; for Pausanias and Strabo (x.) speak of Oxylus as the son of Haemon, who was a son of Thoas, so that the Oxylus in Apollodorus must be a great-grandson of Andraemon.

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


Gorge, a daughter of Oeneus and Althaea, and the wife of Andraemon. When Artemis metamorphosed her sisters into birds, on account of their unceasing lamentations about their brother Meleager, Gorge and Deianeira alone were spared. (Anton. lib. 2; Ov. Met. viii. 532 ; Apollod. i. 8.3, 5.) According to Apollodorus, she became the mother of Tydeus by her own father. Her son Thoas led the Aetolians against Troy. One of the Danaides likewise bore the name of Gorge. (Apollod. ii. 1.5.)

Andraemonides (Andraimonides), a patronymic from Andraemon, frequently given to his son Thoas. (Hom. Il. ii. 638, vii. 168, &c.)

Meleager & Atalanta

Son of Oeneus or Ares by Althaea (Il. 2.642, 9.550 etc.). He participated in the Argonautic expedition and in the hunt of the Calydonian boar, which he slew. While Meleager fought aganst the Curetes at the conflict that occured because of the head and the skin of the boar, the Aetolians won, but when he retired embittered by the curses of his mother, the Curetes besieged Calydon. At the end, he was convinced to return and fight them (Il. 9.527 etc.). Meleager gave the boar's skin to Atalanta.

Meleagrus, (Meleagros). The son of Oeneus of Calydon and Althaea, husband of Cleopatra, one of the most celebrated heroes of Greek legend. He took part in the expedition of the Argonauts, and brought about the celebrated chase of the Calydonian boar, to which he invited the most renowned heroes of the time, Admetus, Amphiaraus, Iason, Idas, Lynceus, Castor and Pollux, Nestor , Theseus, and Pirithous, Peleus, Telamon, and others. Many lost their lives, till at last Meleager slew the monster. However, Artemis thereupon stirred up a furious strife between the Calydonians and the Curetes who dwelt at Pleuron, about the head and skin of the boar, the prize of victory. The Calydonians were victorious as long as Meleager fought at their head; but when he slew the brother of his mother, she invoked a terrible curse on him, and he retired sullenly from the fray. The Curetes immediately forced the Calydonians to retreat, and were already beginning to climb the walls of Calydon, when, at the height of their distress, he yielded to the prayers of his wife, and again joined in the fight to ward off destruction from the city; but he did not return alive, for the Erinys had accomplished the curse of his mother. According to a later legend, the Moerae appeared to his mother on the seventh day after his birth, and announced to her that her son would have to die when a log of wood on the hearth was consumed by the flame; whereupon Althaea immediately snatched the log from the fire and concealed it in a chest. At the Calydonian Hunt, Meleager fell in love with Atalante, and gave her (who had inflicted the first wound) the prize, the skin of the animal which he had killed. He slew the brothers of his mother, the sons of Thestius, when they were lying in wait for the virgin to rob her of the boar's hide. Overcome by pain at the death of her brothers, Althaea set fire to the log, and Meleager died a sudden death. His mother and wife hanged themselves; his sisters wept so bitterly for Meleager, that Artemis for pity changed them into guineahens (meleagrides). Legends relate that even in the nether world Meleager retained his dauntless courage; for when Heracles descended to Hades, all the shades fled before him except Meleager and Medusa.

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


Cleopatra (Kleopatra), a daughter of Idas and Marpessa, and wife of Meleager (Hom. Il. ix. 556). is said to have hanged herself after her husband's death, or to have died of grief. Her real name was Alcyone. (Apollod. i. 8.3; Hygin. Fab. 174.)

---Alcyone

Alcyone. A surname of Cleopatra, the wife of Meleager, who died with grief at her husband being killed by Apollo. (Hom. Il. ix. 562; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 776; Hygin. Fab. 174.)

P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses (ed. Brookes More)
Book 8

Portheus or Porthaon

A son of Agenor by Epicaste and husband of Euryte, the daughter of Hippodamas. Homer mentions his three sons: Oeneus, Agrius and Melas (Il. 14.115). Apollodorus adds Alcathous (Apollod. 4,7,7).

Porthaon. The son of Agenor and Epicaste. He was king of Pleuron and Calydon, in Aetolia, and married Euryte, by whom he had Agrius, Alcathous, Leucopeus, Melas, Oeneus, and Sterope.

Porthaon: Perseus Encyclopedia

Tydeus

He was the son of Oeneus by Periboea (or Gorge or Althaea) and father of Diomedes (Il. 2.406, 14.117, 23.472). He joined the expedition against Thebes on the side of Polyneices and was slain by Melanippus (Il. 4.384, 5.801).
According to ancient tradition, he left Calydon because he had killed a relative and settled in Argos, where he got married to Deipyle, the daughter of Adrastus.

   Tudeus. The son of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and Periboea. He was obliged to leave Calydon in consequence of some murder which he had committed, but which is differently described by different authors. He fled to Adrastus at Argos, who purified him from the murder, and gave him his daughter Deipyle in marriage, by whom he became the father of Diomedes, who is hence frequently called Tydides. He accompanied Adrastus in the expedition against Thebes, where he was wounded by Melanippus, who, however, was slain by him. When Tydeus lay on the ground wounded, Athene appeared to him with a remedy which she had received from Zeus, and which was to make him immortal. This, however, was prevented by a stratagem of Amphiaraus, who hated Tydeus, for he cut off the head of Melanippus and brought it to Tydeus, who divided it and ate the brain, or devoured some of the flesh. Athene, seeing this, shuddered, and left Tydeus to his fate. He consequently died, and was buried by Macon.

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


Other persons

Ancaeus

PLEVRON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
He came from Pleuron and was defeated by Nestor in wrestling at the games organized in the honour of the dead king Amarynceus (Il. 23.635).

Rivers

Achelous

ACHELOOS (River) ETOLOAKARNANIA
The river is mentioned by Homer (Il. 21.194).

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