Acastus is presented in the sources as the son of Pelias (with mothers variably named in traditions such as Anaxibia/Philomache in source genealogies) who, after the return of the Argonauts, buried his father when Pelias was killed by the trickery associated with Medea. After burying Pelias he expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus and instituted funeral games in honor of his father; he subsequently became king of Iolcus. He is also placed in the heroic network as a companion of Jason (an Argonaut) and as husband to a wife variously named Astydamia (also attested as Hippolyte/other variants). Genealogical lists and mythic summaries in the attested sources place him in the generation of heroes immediately prior to the Trojan War-era figures.
The supplied sources do not offer a detailed physical description of Acastus (no measurements, distinctive marks, or costume particulars). He is portrayed through social role and actions—princely/kingly functions, participation among the Argonauts, and involvement in ritual acts such as burial and purification—rather than through explicit physical description. By contextual implication he would be depicted in the iconographic idiom of heroic-age aristocrats (armed and garbed as a warrior-prince in narrative accounts), but the primary sources cited here record deeds and offices rather than bodily detail.
Acastus possesses no supernatural powers in the attested narratives; his abilities are political, martial, and ritual-social. He sails as one of the Argonauts, exercises royal authority in Iolcus (burying Pelias, instituting funeral games, driving Jason and Medea from the city), performs or hosts rites of purification (he is recorded as purifying Peleus for the homicide of King Eurytion of Phthia), and engages in ordinary martial/political reprisals (he attempts to have Peleus killed by abandoning him on Mt. Pelion after removing his sword). Where extraordinary outcomes occur in episodes involving Acastus (e.g., a sword returned by Chiron or Hermes; Medea’s drugs or tricks) those are the acts of other supernatural figures rather than Acastus himself.
Weaknesses
- conditionMortal vulnerability (subject to human revenge and political overthrow)
- conditionSusceptibility to narrative variation and conflicting accounts (sources differ on outcomes such as whether Acastus himself is slain after Peleus sacks Iolcus)
Wards
None recorded.
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.
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.
Acarnan
Acarnan (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαρνάν) is an anthroponym attested in Greek mythic and epic tradition as the name of at least two distinct mortal figures: a son of Alcmaeon and Callirrhoe, and a human suitor of Penelope from Dulichium. The lexical form also appears adjectivally/ethnically (Acarnanian), linking the word to the region Acarnania; etymologically the name is reported as derived from a Greek fish-name (akarnan).
Acmon
Acmon (Ancient Greek: Ἄκμων, 'anvil') is a polyvalent personal name in Greek myth borne by several distinct minor figures — a Dactyl (artisan), a Phrygian eponymous king, a mischievous woodland creature, companions in epic cycles (one companion of Diomedes transformed into a bird; an Aenead), and in some brief traditions an alleged father of Uranus. The name therefore functions across artisanal, topographical, trickster, and metamorphosis motifs rather than denoting a single unified supernatural species.
Acrisius
Acrisius (Ancient Greek: Ἀκρίσιος, Akrisios) is a mythic-historical king of Argos in Greek tradition whose narrative is defined by an oracular prophecy foretelling his death by his daughter's son. He is portrayed as a mortal ruler entangled with dynastic rivalry, oracular authority, and the eventual accidental fulfillment of fate.
Aeacidae
The Aeacidae are a dynastic lineage in Greek myth and historiography descended from the hero Aeacus, son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina. The name functions as a patronymic designation for those 'of Aeacus' and is used to claim genealogical legitimacy and political prestige in regions such as Aegina and Molossian Epirus.
Aegipan
Aegipan (Αἰγίπαν / Αἰγίπανος) is an ancient Greek mythological figure associated with goat attributes and with the sea‑goat imagery of the constellation Capricornus. He appears in classical myth as a semi‑divine helper (notably in the Typhon episode) and, in later natural‑history and medieval bestiary reception, the name is applied to satyr‑like or ape‑like wild men in distant lands.
Aegisthus
Aegisthus (Greek Αἴγισθος, Aigisthos) is a mortal member of the House of Atreus in Greek myth who, born of incestuous circumstances and raised by shepherds and a goat, participates in dynastic murder and usurpation — notably the slaying of Atreus in some accounts and the conspiracy (with Clytemnestra) that results in Agamemnon's death — and is later killed by Orestes, an episode that figures in narratives about inherited guilt, vengeance, and the transition from private retribution to public justice.
Aepytus
Aepytus (Ancient Greek: Αἴπυτος, Aíputos/Aípytos, lit. 'steep, high, lofty') is a personal name in Greek myth borne by several legendary kings tied to Arcadian and Heraclid genealogies. The figures named Aepytus function as ancestral/dynastic nodes in literary genealogies and later literary receptions rather than as supernatural beings.
Aeson
Aeson (Ancient Greek: Αἴσων) is a legendary mortal king of Iolcus in Thessaly in Greek myth, best known as the father of the hero Jason. His fate—imprisonment by his half-brother Pelias and either suicide or a miraculous restoration performed by Medea—provides the dynastic and moral background for the Argonautic cycle.
Aethalides
Aethalides is a personal name borne by two distinct figures in ancient Greek myth: one listed among the Argonauts as a son of Hermes and Eupolemeia, and another named among the Tyrrhenian sailors who attempted to deceive Dionysus and was transformed into a dolphin. The sources treat Aethalides as named human mythic personages appearing in separate narrative contexts rather than as a class of supernatural being.
Agelaus
Agelaus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγέλαος) is not a single supernatural being but a personal name borne by multiple mortal figures in Greek myth, epic, and local history. Bearers include a herdsman who raised the exposed infant Paris, several minor warriors in the Trojan cycle, mythic princes (e.g., sons of Oeneus, Stymphalus, Temenus, and in some lists a son of Heracles), a suitor of Penelope, and a historical official of Naupactus in the Aetolian League.
Community Record
- [1]Acastus (Wikipedia). Wikipedia entry 'Acastus' (summary of mythic traditions, including role as Argonaut, son of Pelias, burial of Pelias, purification of Peleus, and the Pelion/Peleus episode).wiki
- [2]Acastus - Wikidata. Wikidata item for Acastus (identifier and linked summaries).other
- [3]LP0033 Medea and the Argonauts (Archive.org Legendary Passages summary). Archive: 'Medea and the Argonauts' (Legendary Passages summaries based on Apollodorus), recounting Medea's role in Pelias's death and the Argonautic return episodes involving Acastus.literary
- [4]LP0098 -XXIV ARGO- Medea & The Argo, from The Library of Apollodorus (Archive.org). Archive: Apollodorus-based legendary-passage recording summarizing Argo/Medea material connected to Acastus's narrative.literary
- [5]Astydamia (wife of Acastus) (Wikipedia). Wikipedia entry on Astydamia (accounts of her love for Peleus, false accusation, and violent fate connected to Peleus's revenge on Iolcus).wiki
- [6]Acastus - in ancient sources @ attalus.org. Collective listing of ancient source attestations for Acastus (genealogical and narrative references).academic