Acrisius is presented in Greek myth as a king of Argos, son of Abas and Aglaea (or Ocalea) and twin brother of Proetus. In the genealogical and narrative tradition he rules Argos, quarrels with Proetus (initially expelling him but later ceding Tiryns), and, concerned by his lack of a male heir, consults the Oracle at Delphi. The oracle warns that he will be killed by his daughter's son; his subsequent actions to avoid this fate (imprisoning his daughter Danaë and later placing Danaë and the infant Perseus in a chest cast into the sea) form the core of his origin-story arc. Sources vary on institutional attributions: a Scholiast on Euripides calls him founder of the Delphic amphictyony, while Strabo instead credits him with regulating an already existing amphictyony.
Surviving sources furnish no physical description of Acrisius. He is represented genealogically and by role (king, father, rival) rather than by bodily attributes. The Ancient Greek form of his name (Ἀκρίσιος, Akrisios) is glossed in sources as meaning 'ill-judgment' or 'locust,' semantic notes that commentators sometimes use interpretively but which do not derive from a physical description.
Acrisius has no supernatural powers in the sources; his capacities are those of a mortal king and actor within political and familial spheres. He rules Argos, makes decisions about imprisonment and exile (notably imprisoning Danaë in a bronze chamber open to the sky), consults the Delphic Oracle, casts Danaë and the infant Perseus into the sea in a chest, and is variously credited with founding or regulating aspects of the Delphic amphictyony. His narrative role is to demonstrate the limits of human agency vis-à-vis oracular pronouncements and divine involvement.
Weaknesses
- conditionmortal vulnerability
Wards
- otherNo wards attested in sources — Acrisius is a mortal king; the provided materials record no protective or warding practices directed against him.
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).
Acastus
Acastus is a mortal heroic figure of ancient Greek tradition: son of Pelias who became king of Iolcus, an Argonaut who sailed with Jason, and an actor in the post-Argonautic cycle involving Medea, Peleus, and the aftermath of Pelias’s death. He is attested as performing civic and ritual actions (burying Pelias, instituting funeral games, purifying Peleus) and as a participant in vendetta episodes that end in violent reprisals.
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.
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]Acrisius (Wikipedia). Wikipedia contributors, 'Acrisius,' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Acrisius (Wikidata). Wikidata entry Q10400105 for 'Acrisius'.other
- [3]The doom of King Acrisius (Archive). Archive: The doom of King Acrisius (collection of retellings / literary treatments).literary
- [4]The earthly paradise, a poem (Archive). Archive: The earthly paradise, a poem (contains retellings that reference Acrisius' tale).literary