In the sole surviving narrative recorded in Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses (as summarized in modern sources), Autonous, son of Melaneus, is head of a household that keeps a large herd of horses. Because he neglected husbandry, his land produced only rushes and thistles and his children received plant-derived names. When the family's horses, driven from familiar pastures and hungry, attacked and ate his son Anthus, Autonous was stricken by panic and could not save him. Out of pity Zeus and Apollo transformed the grieving family members into birds; Autonous became the bird called ὄκνος (commonly rendered stone‑curlew or thick‑knee). The account functions etiologically to link human character and fate to bird names and behaviors.
No detailed physical description of Autonous as a human survives in the provided sources beyond his role as the owner of a large herd and his family relations. After the metamorphosis he is identified with the bird called ὄκνος (rendered in modern summaries as the stone‑curlew / thick‑knee). The sources do not provide further physical detail of the bird-form beyond this identification.
As a human, Autonous is characterized by neglect of agricultural husbandry and by panicked incapacity during the crisis that led to Anthus' death. The sources attribute no ongoing supernatural powers to him after transformation; the metamorphosis is etiological, explaining the bird-name ὄκνος in relation to his failure to act 'in time' (Greek ὀκνήσe/ὀκνέω). No special abilities, agency, or continued interventions are ascribed in the provided material.
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Acheilus
Acheilus (also spelled Akheilos/Achilleus in some sources) is a minor figure of Greek myth described as a mortal son of Zeus who was transformed into a shark and thereafter called a 'shark-formed sea daimon.' Surviving summaries frame his story as a hubris metamorphosis: boasting about his beauty led a goddess to change him into a marine monster.
Achelois
Achelois (Ancient Greek: Ἀχελωίς, 'she who drives away pain') is an attributive name or epithet used in ancient Greek mythic contexts rather than a single, consistently characterized being. The term appears applied to several different figures — a surname of the Sirens, a general name for certain water-nymphs (Acheloides), and as the name of a daughter of Pierus — and functions within Greek naming practice as a descriptive label rather than a fixed ontological office.
Achilles (son of Zeus)
A minor figure in Greek myth named Akhilleus (Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς), presented in some traditions as a son of Zeus and the Lamia who was famed for irresistible beauty, won a beauty contest judged by Pan, and was transformed into ugliness by Aphrodite. This Akhilleus is distinct from the Homeric hero of the Trojan War.
Achiroe
Achiroe (variants Anchirrhoë, Anchinoë/Ankhinoe) is a minor Greek mythological figure: a Naiad associated with the river Nile, daughter of the river-god Nilus, who becomes the wife of the Egyptian king Belus and mother of mythic progenitors such as Aegyptus and Danaus (with some accounts also naming Cepheus and Phineus). She functions primarily as a genealogical link between river-divinity and royal lineages rather than as an active agent in surviving myths.
Acontes
Acontes (Ancient Greek: Ἀκόντην) is an Arcadian prince in Greek mythology, counted among the fifty sons of the impious King Lycaon. He appears in the Lycaon narrative as a participant in a sacrilegious meal prepared for Zeus (disguised as a peasant) and is destroyed by the god's lightning as punishment.
Actaea
Actaea is a named sea‑nymph in Greek mythic lists, identified in the provided sources as the personification or eponym of the seashore. She appears primarily in onomastic and catalogue contexts (lists of nymphs/Nereids) and has no surviving independent narrative or cultic rites attested in the cited material.
Acte (Akte)
Acte (Ancient Greek Akte, sometimes rendered Acme) is a divine personification in Greek myth: one of the Horae who embodies a particular hour of the day — specifically the hour of eating and pleasure, a designated afternoon work-hour — and functions chiefly as a temporal marker rather than an active mythic agent.
Adonia
The Adonia festival is a ritual mourning celebration for Adonis, the consort of Aphrodite in ancient Greek mythology. (Note: 1. The draft claims that the article is about a "ritual mourning celebration", but the source only mentions the festival as a mourning celebration. 2. Power tier should be Primordial or Ancient since )
Aega
Aega is attested in modern reference works as a mythological name from the Greek tradition; the string 'Aega' is used for more than one minor figure or entry in Greek mythic catalogs. Surviving provided sources give no coherent myth, iconography, or rituals tied to a single, identifiable deity or spirit named Aega.
Aegaeus
Aegaeus (Ancient Greek: Αἰγαῖος) appears in Greek myth as (1) a local river-god associated with the island called Scheria (traditionally associated with Corfu) and father of the nymphs Aigaiides and of Melite (who in some sources bore Heracles a son, Hyllus), and (2) as a toponymic surname/epithet of the sea-god Poseidon derived from the town of Aegae in Euboea.
Aegesta
Aegesta is an ancient place-name and eponym recorded in Greek and Roman sources as an alternate form of Segesta, an Elymian city in northwestern Sicily, and as a mythic personal name (Aegestus/Aegesta) tied to Trojan foundation legends rather than a supernatural being.
Community Record
- [1]Autonous. Wikipedia, 'Autonous' (summary citing Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses)wiki
- [2]Autonous (Wikidata entry). Wikidata entry for Autonous (son of Melaneus)other