Althaemenes

Althaemenes is presented in Greek mythic genealogies as a son of King Catreus of Crete and a grandson of Minos. In the surviving accounts an oracle declares that he (or, in some variants, that Catreus would be killed by one of his children), and to avert the prophecy Althaemenes flees Crete with followers (and in one tradition with his sister Apemosyne) to Rhodes. On Rhodes he establishes an altar to Zeus Atabyrius on Mount Atabyrus. Years later Catreus lands at Rhodes, is mistaken for a pirate, and is killed by Althaemenes with a spear; upon discovering what he has done Althaemenes dies in tragedy (wandering and dying of grief in one version; praying and falling into a chasm in another). The Rhodians later honor him as a hero.

No detailed physical description is provided in the surviving summaries. Althaemenes is identified by genealogy, actions, and place (Cretan prince who settled on Mount Atabyrus) rather than by distinctive corporeal features, dress, or marks in the supplied sources.

No supernatural powers are attributed to Althaemenes in the available accounts. His notable behaviors are human: receiving and reacting to an oracle, fleeing his homeland to avoid fate, founding an altar to a local epithet of Zeus, committing accidental patricide in a martial encounter, and undergoing a tragic death followed by local cultic honor. His narrative function is tragic and exemplary of inescapable prophetic fate rather than miraculous ability.