Acanthis

According to the account preserved in Antoninus Liberalis (Metamorphoses 7) and summarized in modern sources, Autonous's neglected lands produced only rushes and thistles and his family bore names reflecting that condition. When Autonous's horses attacked and devoured his son Anthus, Zeus and Apollo took pity on the grieving household and transformed its members into birds. In that metamorphosis Acanthis, the daughter of Hippodamia and Autonous, was changed into the thistle finch, her name serving as an etiological label for the bird.

As a human Acanthis is named as the daughter of Hippodamia and Autonous and is said in the Antoninus Liberalis summary to have been granted great beauty by the gods. In her transformed state she is identified as a thistle finch (the sources give no further morphological detail beyond this identification).

The only recorded ‘ability’ is the one-time divine metamorphosis effected by Zeus and Apollo; the sources do not attribute continuing supernatural powers, speech, or agency to Acanthis beyond her status as a transformed woman whose new form explains a bird-name. The narrative role is etiological rather than depicting ongoing interventions in the world.