Amphitryon

Amphitryon is presented in the mythic genealogies as a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns. He marries Alcmene, daughter of Electryon, and through the household events that occur during his absence on military expedition—most famously Zeus's visit to Alcmene while Amphitryon is away—his wife bears Heracles, who is biologically Zeus's son though raised as Amphitryon's stepson. Amphitryon's martial career includes campaigns against the Taphians and Minyans; in one strand of the tradition he kills Electryon (accounts vary as to intent), after which he flees to Thebes and is ceremonially purified there by Creon.

Sources provide no distinctive or consistent iconography for Amphitryon; he is described and portrayed as a male noble, king or commander of the heroic age and appears onstage in classical drama as an ordinary human of martial and aristocratic rank. Literary and theatrical treatments represent him as the recognizably human counterpart to the divine impersonator (Zeus/Jupiter) rather than as possessing unusual physical traits.

Amphitryon is depicted as a capable military leader and dynastic actor rather than a supernatural agent. His notable behaviors are leadership in war (expeditions against the Taphians and the Minyans), participation in dynastic and household politics (marriage to Alcmene; fathering or raising offspring such as Iphicles), and undergoing civic-ritual remediation (purification by Creon after blood-guilt). In later literary reception he serves as the template for dramatic explorations of identity, hospitality, and impersonation when gods assume his shape.