Alcimenes

The name Alcimenes is attached to several distinct mortal figures in Greek narrative traditions. In one Boeotian genealogy Alcimenes is a prince, listed as a son of King Glaucus of Potniae; that tradition records his death as an accidental killing by his brother Bellerophon. In the Argonautic/Medean tradition one Alcimenes is named among the sons of Jason and Medea and is reported in some accounts to have been murdered by Medea; these sons were thereafter buried by Jason in the sanctuary of Hera at Corinth. Separately, Alcimenes appears in literary-historical registers as the name of an Athenian comic poet (said to have written a play entitled The Female Swimmers, Κολυμβῶσαι) and as a tragic writer from Megara cited in later lexica (Suda). The sources therefore present multiple mortal persons who share the same personal name rather than a single originating supernatural being.

Surviving sources supply no physical description that distinguishes an entity named Alcimenes. References record Alcimenes only by role and affiliation — e.g., Boeotian prince and son of King Glaucus, son of Jason and Medea, Athenian comic poet, or Megarian tragic writer — and do not preserve any corporeal or visual attributes for these figures.

No supernatural powers are attributed to any figure named Alcimenes in the supplied material. The attested "abilities" are ordinary human actions and social roles: participation in dynastic genealogies, being involved in mythic violent events (accidental fratricide in the Boeotian tradition; murder of Jason's sons in the Medea story), and literary authorship (plays attributed to an Athenian comic poet and a tragic writer mentioned in the Suda). There is no evidence in these sources of magical functions or otherworldly faculties.