Acastus

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.