Asbolus is attested in classical sources as one of the Thessalian centaurs. Hesiod names him an augur (oionistēs) who reads omens in the flight of birds; on that basis sources report that Asbolus foresaw the Centaurs' battle against the Lapiths at Pirithous's wedding and attempted, unsuccessfully, to prevent their attendance. Ovid's narrative tradition preserves the wedding fray among the Centaurs and Lapiths and also recounts the later Pholus/Heracles episode in which Pholus opens a communal wine‑jar; Asbolus is said to have seen Pholus do this and to have brought other centaurs to the place, an action that precipitated violence. Later summaries record a tradition that Asbolus himself was struck down by Heracles' arrows (formulated as "it is said" in the sources). The modern minor planet 8405 Asbolus was named after the mythic figure and discovered on 5 April 1995 by Spacewatch observers James Scotti and Robert Jedicke.
Mythic: Asbolus appears as a centaur — the conventional hybrid form with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse; the supplied sources offer no unique physical markings or distinguishing coloration for him beyond his identification as a centaur. Astronomical namesake: 8405 Asbolus is observed as a Centaur-class small body orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune; thermal observations constrain an effective radius of approximately 33 km (±2 km) and an albedo near 0.12 (±0.03). Hubble/press materials for Centaur objects note surface heterogeneity (e.g., a relatively fresh crater on one side) though detailed imagery specific to 8405 Asbolus is limited in the provided sources.
Mythic: Asbolus is characterized principally as an augur/seer who reads omens from bird flight (Hesiod identifies him as an oionistēs), and tradition reports he foresaw the Centaurs' violent clash at Pirithous's wedding and attempted to intervene. He is also reported in the Pholus episode as the centaur who observed Pholus opening the communal wine and summoned other centaurs, thereby precipitating the fatal outbreak; some sources record it as a tradition that he was later struck down by Heracles' arrows. Astronomical: 8405 Asbolus behaves as a Centaur-class minor planet: it orbits in the outer Solar System, exhibits a measured mid‑infrared thermal continuum used to derive radius and albedo, and shows surface heterogeneity inferred from observational studies.
Pholus
Pholus (Ancient Greek: Φόλος) is a centaur of Greek myth associated with Mount Pelion, described in the provided sources as unusually wise and civilized among centaurs and as a host or friend of Heracles; he is wounded in the centaur-melee that follows Heracles opening a jar of wine and is said in some accounts in this set to die from wounds caused by Heracles' Hydra-poisoned arrows.
Chiron
Chiron (Ancient Greek: Χείρων, Kheírōn) is a unique centaur of Greek myth, famed as a cultured tutor, healer, and oracle who taught skills such as medicine, music, archery, hunting, and prophecy to culture-heroes. Associated with Mount Pelion in Thessaly, he is presented as wise and civilized in contrast to other, wilder centaurs.
Nessus
Nessus is primarily recorded in the supplied sources as a name from Greek myth — most prominently a centaur identified in modern reference works as the figure who caused the death of Heracles — and as a widely reused name in modern literature, gaming, and technical products. The provided materials constitute a disambiguation-style set rather than a single coherent supernatural tradition.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Acarnan
Acarnan (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαρνάν) is an anthroponym attested in Greek mythic and epic tradition as the name of at least two distinct mortal figures: a son of Alcmaeon and Callirrhoe, and a human suitor of Penelope from Dulichium. The lexical form also appears adjectivally/ethnically (Acarnanian), linking the word to the region Acarnania; etymologically the name is reported as derived from a Greek fish-name (akarnan).
Acastus
Acastus is a mortal heroic figure of ancient Greek tradition: son of Pelias who became king of Iolcus, an Argonaut who sailed with Jason, and an actor in the post-Argonautic cycle involving Medea, Peleus, and the aftermath of Pelias’s death. He is attested as performing civic and ritual actions (burying Pelias, instituting funeral games, purifying Peleus) and as a participant in vendetta episodes that end in violent reprisals.
Acmon
Acmon (Ancient Greek: Ἄκμων, 'anvil') is a polyvalent personal name in Greek myth borne by several distinct minor figures — a Dactyl (artisan), a Phrygian eponymous king, a mischievous woodland creature, companions in epic cycles (one companion of Diomedes transformed into a bird; an Aenead), and in some brief traditions an alleged father of Uranus. The name therefore functions across artisanal, topographical, trickster, and metamorphosis motifs rather than denoting a single unified supernatural species.
Acrisius
Acrisius (Ancient Greek: Ἀκρίσιος, Akrisios) is a mythic-historical king of Argos in Greek tradition whose narrative is defined by an oracular prophecy foretelling his death by his daughter's son. He is portrayed as a mortal ruler entangled with dynastic rivalry, oracular authority, and the eventual accidental fulfillment of fate.
Aeacidae
The Aeacidae are a dynastic lineage in Greek myth and historiography descended from the hero Aeacus, son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina. The name functions as a patronymic designation for those 'of Aeacus' and is used to claim genealogical legitimacy and political prestige in regions such as Aegina and Molossian Epirus.
Aegipan
Aegipan (Αἰγίπαν / Αἰγίπανος) is an ancient Greek mythological figure associated with goat attributes and with the sea‑goat imagery of the constellation Capricornus. He appears in classical myth as a semi‑divine helper (notably in the Typhon episode) and, in later natural‑history and medieval bestiary reception, the name is applied to satyr‑like or ape‑like wild men in distant lands.
Aegisthus
Aegisthus (Greek Αἴγισθος, Aigisthos) is a mortal member of the House of Atreus in Greek myth who, born of incestuous circumstances and raised by shepherds and a goat, participates in dynastic murder and usurpation — notably the slaying of Atreus in some accounts and the conspiracy (with Clytemnestra) that results in Agamemnon's death — and is later killed by Orestes, an episode that figures in narratives about inherited guilt, vengeance, and the transition from private retribution to public justice.
Aepytus
Aepytus (Ancient Greek: Αἴπυτος, Aíputos/Aípytos, lit. 'steep, high, lofty') is a personal name in Greek myth borne by several legendary kings tied to Arcadian and Heraclid genealogies. The figures named Aepytus function as ancestral/dynastic nodes in literary genealogies and later literary receptions rather than as supernatural beings.
Aeson
Aeson (Ancient Greek: Αἴσων) is a legendary mortal king of Iolcus in Thessaly in Greek myth, best known as the father of the hero Jason. His fate—imprisonment by his half-brother Pelias and either suicide or a miraculous restoration performed by Medea—provides the dynastic and moral background for the Argonautic cycle.
Aethalides
Aethalides is a personal name borne by two distinct figures in ancient Greek myth: one listed among the Argonauts as a son of Hermes and Eupolemeia, and another named among the Tyrrhenian sailors who attempted to deceive Dionysus and was transformed into a dolphin. The sources treat Aethalides as named human mythic personages appearing in separate narrative contexts rather than as a class of supernatural being.
Community Record
- [1]Asbolus (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, entry 'Asbolus'wiki
- [2]8405 Asbolus (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, entry '8405 Asbolus'wiki
- [3]Thermal Properties of Centaurs Asbolus and Chiron. Alonso et al., 'Thermal Properties of Centaurs Asbolus and Chiron' (archive copy)academic
- [4]Centaur Object (Hubble/press material archive). Archive item on Centaur objects (press/Hubble materials)other
- [5]8405 Asbolus (aerith.net catalog). Minor-planet catalog entry for (8405) Asbolusother
- [6]Wikidata: Asbolus (taxonomic note). Wikidata entry Q26713555 (lists alternate uses of the name 'Asbolus')other