Aloeus

Ancient sources preserve variant genealogies. In a Thessalian tradition Aloeus is presented as a son of Poseidon and Canace (daughter of Aeolus and Enarete) and brother to figures including Hopleus, Nireus, Epopeus and Triops; in some accounts he is linked as ancestor or father to Salmoneus, the twin giants Otus and Ephialtes (the Aloadae), Elate and Platanus, and Pancratis. In an alternate local tradition Aloeus (Haloeus) is made a son of Helios (mother given variously as Antiope or Perse) who received sovereignty over the district of Asopia (Sicyon) and was father of Epopeus, his successor. These divergent lineages reflect competing civic and genealogical claims recorded in literary and topographical sources.

The surviving accounts supply no physical or visual description of Aloeus himself. He is attested only in genealogical lists, foundation-attributions, and narrative incidents (for example, his ordering the flaying of his wife Eriboea after she denounced the Aloadae). Classical authors and scholiasts situate him within genealogical frameworks (Hellenic heroic-age past) rather than providing portraiture or iconography.

Sources attribute no supernatural powers to Aloeus. His notable "capacities" are social and genealogical: parentage links to major deities (Poseidon or Helios) that grant eponymous status, attributions of descent for notable figures (including the Aloadae and Salmoneus in various traditions), and an account crediting him with the founding of the city of Alus in Aetolia. Apart from punitive human actions recorded in mythic narratives (e.g., the punishment of Eriboea), the tradition does not ascribe magical or cosmic agency to him.