Aleus

Aleus is presented as son of Apheidas and grandson of Arcas in the genealogical accounts; he succeeds his father as king of Tegea and, after the death of Aepytus, is said to become king of all Arcadia with Tegea as his capital. He is credited as the eponymous founder of the city Alea and as the builder/founder of the sanctuary and cult epithet Athena Alea. His immediate family includes sons (commonly named Lycurgus, Amphidamas, Cepheus) and daughters (notably Auge; some sources also name Alcidice) and his descendants and kin are woven into heroic cycles.

Surviving summaries and sources do not provide a physical description of Aleus himself. Literary and travel accounts note pictorial programs at the temple of Athena Alea (for example scenes featuring Ancaeus on the gable described in Pausanias), but the cited materials do not record any explicit iconographic or bodily depiction of Aleus.

Aleus is not attributed supernatural powers in the cited materials; his role is political, familial, and cultic. He acts as king and founder, establishing or credited with establishing the sanctuary/epithet Athena Alea at Tegea, arranging priestly status for his daughter, making dynastic decisions intended to secure succession, and enforcing measures in response to a Delphic oracle warning concerning his family. His agency is that of a mortal ruler whose actions drive narrative consequences within the heroic-age myths.