As attested in the supplied historiographic summaries, the historical Alcimus emerges in the Hellenistic period as a Judean priest of probable Aaronic lineage who sought and obtained the high priesthood through Seleucid royal appointment. Contemporary hostile sources (the Books of the Maccabees and later accounts preserved in Josephus as summarized) report that Alcimus travelled to Antioch to secure his appointment from the Seleucid king (Demetrius I Soter or in accounts dated to 163/162 BCE), used Seleucid support to hold office, and died in 159 BCE. Separately, the Greek onomastic tradition preserves the name Alkimos/Alcimus for several otherwise unrelated mortal persons in epic and genealogical lists (for example, companions of Odysseus or figures connected to Neleus and the Aetna tradition); these mythographic bearers are distinct usages of the same Greek name rather than continuations of the Judean priestly persona.
The supplied sources give no physical or supernatural description of Alcimus. In the historiographic record he is portrayed functionally as a Judean high priest and political actor — a Hellenizing elite exercising the authority of the high priesthood with Seleucid backing — rather than as a figure marked by distinctive corporeal traits. The mythographic occurrences of the name likewise present Alcimus as ordinary mortal participants in genealogies and episodic lists without physical description.
No supernatural powers are attributed to Alcimus in the provided materials. The historical Alcimus exercised political and institutional power: he sought and received appointment from the Seleucid king, allied with Seleucid generals (e.g., Nicanor, Bacchides) to secure his position, ordered arrests and executions (the summary attributes the arrest and execution of sixty Jews, identified as Hasideans, to him), intervened in political negotiations (accusations that he sabotaged a Nicanor–Judas peace attempt are recorded), and is reported in the Books of the Maccabees to have ordered the removal of the temple wall separating Gentiles from Jews as his last act. The mythographic name-bearers have no specific abilities attested in the supplied excerpts.
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)).
Alcidice
Alcidice (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκιδίκη, Alkidíkē) is presented in the supplied sources as an Arcadian princess in Greek mythic genealogy: daughter of King Aleus, wife of Salmoneus of Elis, and mother of Tyro. She functions as a mortal genealogical connector; the sources treat her as a human noblewoman rather than a divine or supernatural being.
Alcimede
Alcimede (Ancient Greek Ἀλκιμέδη, 'mighty cunning') is a mortal woman of heroic-age Greek myth: daughter of Phylacus and Clymene, wife of Aeson, and in several traditions the mother of the hero Jason. She functions as a genealogical and maternal figure in the Argonautic cycle rather than as a supernatural being.
Alcimedon
Alcimedon is a personal name borne by several distinct figures in Greek myth and later literary tradition rather than a single supernatural entity. Attestations include a Tyrrhenian sailor metamorphosed into a dolphin for attempting to abduct the infant Dionysus; an Arcadian eponymous hero tied to a plain and family narratives; a Myrmidon commander under Patroclus in the Trojan War cycle; a skilled craftsman mentioned in Virgil's Eclogue 3; and a Locrian companion of Ajax the Lesser slain at Troy.
Alcimenes
Alcimenes (Ancient Greek Ἀλκιμένης) is a personal name borne by multiple mortal figures in Greek myth and literary history — including a Boeotian prince, one of the sons of Jason and Medea, and several authors. The sources treat Alcimenes as human characters within mytho-historical narratives and literary tradition rather than as a distinct supernatural class or spirit.
Alcinous
Alcinous (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκίνοος, Alkínoos, "mighty mind") is a legendary human king of the Phaeacians in Greek epic tradition. He is portrayed as an ideal hospitable monarch who receives wandering heroes (notably Odysseus and the Argonauts), presides over feasts and games, adjudicates disputes, and provides ships, gifts, and safe passage. Variant genealogies and island-identifications appear across sources, but his role as a beneficent royal host is consistent.
Alcippe
Alcippe (Ancient Greek: Alkippe / ᾿Αλκιππή) is a personal name applied to multiple distinct female figures in Greek mythic genealogies—including a daughter of Ares, an Amazon, and one of the Alcyonides—rather than a single uniform supernatural being.
Alcis
A pair of youthful brother-deities worshipped by the Naharvali, attested only in Tacitus' Germania (c. 98 CE). They were venerated in a sacred grove under the care of a priest in female attire and are compared by Roman ethnography to the Graeco‑Roman Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux).
Alcmaeon
Alcmaeon (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμαίων, Alkmaíōn) is a heroic human figure in Greek mythic‑historic genealogy, known chiefly as one of the Epigoni who led the Argives to capture Thebes in revenge for the Seven against Thebes and as an eponymous ancestor claimed by the Alcmaeonidae. Multiple distinct personages share the name in different traditions.
Alcmene
Alcmene is a mortal heroine of Greek myth, daughter of Electryon and wife of Amphitryon, best known as the mother of Heracles by Zeus. She appears in multiple classical sources as a noble matron whose body becomes the site of divine intervention in the conception and birth of Heracles and who received at least local veneration in antiquity.
Alcmenor
Alcmenor (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμήνωρ) is a mythic human prince in Greek genealogy, named as one of the sons of King Aegyptus. He is recorded as having married the Danaid Hippomedusa and being slain on his wedding night when the daughters of Danaus killed their husbands on their father's command.
Community Record
- [1]Alcimus - Wikipedia. Wikipedia article 'Alcimus' (summary of ancient sources; accessed via provided research notes).wiki
- [2]Alcimus (mythology) - Wikipedia. Wikipedia disambiguation and mythography entry indicating multiple Greek mythographic name-bearers.wiki
- [3]Wikidata entry for Alcimus. Wikidata item summarizing identities associated with the name Alcimus.other
- [4]Connection Of The Old And New Testaments vol 1 (archive). Digitized work referenced in research notes containing treatments of Hellenistic-Jewish figures.other
- [5]Opuscula (archive). Archive holdings cited in the research notes relevant to classical name usages.other
- [6]Studien zu Alcimus Avitus' Gedicht: De Spiritalis historiae GESTIS (archive). Scholarly/archival material indexed in the research notes illustrating occurrences of the name in classical literatures.other