Alcathous is presented in the surviving accounts as one of the sons of King Pelops of Pisa and Hippodamia and thus a member of the Pelopid genealogical generation that includes Atreus and Thyestes. Sources identify him specifically as the Alcathous who became associated with Megara: the citadel there was said to be called Alcathoe from its reputed founder, Alcathous, son of Pelops. He appears in these traditions as a dynastic figure whose marriages and progeny link ruling houses, and as an eponym used to explain local place-names. Variant local traditions and the recurrence of the name Alcathous for unrelated mythic figures require care in distinguishing this Alcathous by his parentage (son of Pelops) and Megarian association.
Ancient sources and the supplied summaries do not preserve a direct physical description of Alcathous son of Pelops. Instead, authors characterize him by his genealogy, civic eponymy, and deeds: he is known through his role as a Pelopid prince, his marriages (noted as to Pyrgo and later Euaechme in some accounts), his paternity of descendants, and his association with the Megarian citadel named Alcathoe. Thus classical representation frames him as a human heroic/founder figure recorded in topographical and genealogical contexts rather than by bodily detail.
Alcathous is portrayed as a mortal heroic warrior and dynast: some traditions credit him with martial exploits, notably the slaying of the Cithaeronian lion, situating him among hero-figures who achieved honor through dangerous feats. He has no attested divine powers in the supplied materials; his abilities are those of a heroic hunter/warrior and a dynastic founder whose marriages and offspring consolidate local ruling claims. Sources also emphasize his civic role as reputed founder-eponym of Megara's citadel (Alcathoe). The attribution of the lion-slaying to Alcathous is noted as one variant among competing traditions that assign such exploits to different heroes.
Admete (Admeta)
Admete (Ancient Greek: Ἀδμήτη) is a mortal princess of the house of Eurystheus in the Heraclean cycle and, in alternate local tradition, a priestess of Hera associated with the transfer and purification of a cult image to Samos. She functions in surviving accounts as a named requester whose wish prompts one of Heracles' labors and as the human custodian of a sacred image in a Samian foundation story.
Agriopas (werewolf account)
A classical account—attested via Agriopas as quoted by later compilers—relating that a Parrhasian named Demaenetus/Demnetus ate human viscera during the Arcadian sacrifice to Zeus (Jupiter) Lycaeus and was transformed into a wolf for a period (reported as ten years in some recensions) before reverting to human life.
Alcyoneus
Alcyoneus (Ancient Greek Alkyoneús, Ἀλκυονεύς) is a colossal monstrous figure in Greek myth, variably presented as one of the Gigantes (Giants) born of Gaia and as a singular enormous hostile herdsman/warrior opposed to Heracles. Noted for prodigious strength and for a peculiar invulnerability tied to his native land, he is defeated when Heracles drags him out of his homeland at Athena's counsel in one influential tradition.
Antiope
Antiope is a name applied to several distinct mortal women in Greek mythic tradition, most commonly an Amazon daughter of Ares and a Theban princess mother of Amphion (by Zeus). The figures named Antiope appear across variant local narratives rather than as a single, consistent supernatural type.
Cercopes
The Cercopes (Greek Κέρκωπες, 'tailed ones') are a pair (or more) of mischievous trickster woodland figures in Greek myth, proverbial as liars, thieves, and comic rascals. Best known for stealing Heracles' weapons during his servitude to Omphale and being bound and humiliated by him, they appear across literary fragments and vase imagery and are variously explained as primordial offspring, human tricksters, or etiological figures for monkeys.
Alberto Falcone
Alberto Falcone is a fictional human antagonist from DC Comics, a member of Gotham's Falcone crime family who, in the comics, is revealed as the Holiday Killer. He operates as a mobster whose actions, psychological profile, and familial ambitions drive major plotlines in Batman stories such as The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.
Albiorix
Albiorix is a Celtic theonym attested in modern reference works as a Gaulish divine name that, in available summaries, is presented as an epithet or local identification of the Roman god Mars. The surviving remarks in the supplied sources are limited to name listings and disambiguation entries rather than narrative myth or cult detail.
Alcaeus
Alcaeus (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκαῖος / Alkaios) is a mythological mortal prince in Greek genealogical tradition, commonly presented as a son of Perseus and father of Amphitryon whose role is chiefly to connect major heroic houses (Perseid line, Amphitryon, and thus the ancestry of Heracles). He functions as a dynastic node rather than a cult figure or supernatural being.
Alcander (Alcandrus)
Alcander or Alcandrus is a personal name borne by several distinct mythic humans in Greek and Roman epic traditions: a Molossian seer who was transformed by Zeus into a wren, a Lycian warrior slain at Troy, and a companion of Aeneas killed in Italy. The entries are separate narrative figures rather than a single recurrent supernatural species.
Alces
Alces is a minor figure in Greek mythographic genealogies: an Egyptian prince counted among the sons of King Aegyptus and named as the husband of the Danaid Glauce. He is attested only in catalog-style lists of Aegyptid sons and not as an independently active or culted supernatural being.
Alcestis
Alcestis (Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, Álkēstis) is a mortal princess of Greek myth famed for voluntarily dying in place of her husband Admetus and being temporarily returned from the underworld through Heracles’ intervention. Her story highlights conjugal devotion, substitutive death, and the need for purification after contact with chthonic powers.
Alcidamea
Alcidamea (also given as Alcidamia) is attested in classical mythographic sources as a mortal woman of Corinthian genealogy: the partner of the god Hermes and mother of Bunus (Bounos). Separately, Alcidamea is the Latinized name used in modern entomological taxonomy for a subgenus of solitary bees (Hoplitis (Alcidamea)).
Community Record
- [1]Alcathous. Wikipedia, 'Alcathous' (general entry listing multiple bearers of the name)wiki
- [2]Alcathous (son of Pelops). Wikipedia, 'Alcathous (son of Pelops)'wiki
- [3]Megara (note on citadel Alcathoe). Thucydidean/ancient-place-note as archived at The Latin Library (noting the citadel called Alcathoe from Alcathous)other
- [4]Hercules and the Lion of Cithaeron (discussion of variant attributions). Popular summary noting that killing the Cithaeronian lion is attributed in some accounts to Alcathous son of Pelops (variant tradition)other
- [5]Alcathous in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. Popular compilation summarizing genealogical and local-foundation material for Alcathousother
- [6]Pelops - genealogical contexts. Genealogical compilation noting Pelops' children including Alcathous in the Pelopid houseother