Cleobule is not a single unified character but a personal name attached to multiple women in Greek mythic genealogies. Attested roles include: mother of Myrtilus (by Hermes, with variants naming Aeopolus/Aeolus); wife of Aleus of Tegea and mother of Cepheus and Amphidamas; mother by Ares of Cycnus (slain by Heracles); mother of Amphimachus by Cteatus (given as an alternative to Theronice); mother of Leonteus by Coronus; possible daughter of Eurytus and mother (by Tenthredon) of Prothous, leader of the Magnesians at Troy; a woman named Cleobule cited as mother of Phoenix by Amyntor in some traditions (linked to the Phoenix-Amyntor episode); and a Boeotian mother of Leitus by Lacritus (alternate genealogies exist). Some attestations (e.g., Hyginus' statement that a Cleobule was mother of the tragedian Euripides by Apollo) are noted in sources as uncertain or possibly corrupt.
No physical descriptions or iconographic details are attested for any bearer of the name in the provided sources. Cleobule appears in literary and genealogical records only; the sources do not describe appearance, dress, or attributes.
The sources do not ascribe supernatural powers to Cleobule. Her recorded "actions" are narrative and genealogical: serving as wife or mother in lineage accounts and, in one tradition, instigating a familial transgression (the version in which she persuades her son Phoenix to sleep with her, provoking Amyntor's curse on Phoenix). Beyond such narrative roles there are no magical abilities or characteristic behaviors attributed in the provided material.
Acacallis
Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς; also Acalle) is a mythological princess of Crete in Greek tradition, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She functions primarily as a dynastic and etiological figure: in varying accounts she is mother, by gods such as Hermes (Mercury) or Apollo, of eponymous or founder-figures like Cydon (founder of Cydonia), Miletus, or Lydon/ Lydus.
Acanthis
Acanthis is a young woman in Greek myth, daughter of Autonous and Hippodamia, who is transformed into a thistle finch by the gods as an etiological explanation for the bird's name. The story is preserved chiefly in Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses and summarized in modern reference works.
Acaste
Acaste (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάστη) is a named Oceanid — one of the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys — recorded among the companions of Persephone at the moment of her abduction; the name also appears separately as a nurse of the daughters of King Adrastus of Argos in later genealogical lists.
Achaeus
Achaeus (Ancient Greek: Ἀχαιός, Akhaiós) is an eponymous personal name borne by three mythological human figures in Greek tradition; best attested is Achaeus, son of Xuthus and Creusa, brother of Ion and grandson of Hellen, who is named as father of Archander and Architeles in Pausanias. The name is glossed as meaning "griever," from ἄχος (achos, "grief, pain, woe").
Aegle
Aegle (Ancient Greek: Αἴγλη, 'brightness' or 'dazzling light') is a name applied to several distinct female figures in Greek myth: a daughter of Asclepius associated with health, a Naiad mother of the Charites by Helios and Neaera, one of the Heliades transformed into a poplar after Phaeton's death, a named Hesperid, an alternate name for Coronis in some traditions, a daughter of Panopeus beloved by Theseus, and a nurse of Dionysus. The recurrence of the name links these figures by the themes of brightness, beauty, and filial or nymph-like status rather than by a single unified identity.
Aello
Aello (Ancient Greek: Ἀελλώ) is a named figure in Greek myth primarily attested as one of the Harpies—winged female personifications of storm-wind who harry, snatch, and torment. The name also appears in variant lists as applied to an Actaeonian hunting dog, showing onomastic fluidity in the tradition.
Agaptolemus
Agaptolemus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαπτόλεμος) is a mythic Greek prince, one of the fifty sons of King Aegyptus, best known as the husband of the Danaid Pirene who, like most of the Danaids, slew her husband on their wedding night at the command of her father Danaus.
Agave
Agave (Ancient Greek: Agaue/Agaúē) is a personal name borne by at least two distinct figures in Greek myth: a Nereid (one of the fifty sea-nymph daughters of Nereus) and a Theban princess, daughter of Cadmus, who appears in myths connected with Dionysus. The name is glossed in Greek sources as 'illustrious', 'noble', or 'high-born'.
Agrius
Agrius (Ancient Greek: Ἄγριος, 'wild') is an onomastic figure in Greek myth whose name is applied to multiple distinct personae—including a Giant, a centaur, a bear‑born twin, a princely son, a suitor of Penelope, and one of Actaeon's dogs—rather than a single unified supernatural being. Each attestation places an Agrius in different narrative registers (Gigantomachy, Heracles' labors, heroic genealogies, the Odyssean cycle, and the Actaeon hunt).
Agron
Agron (Ancient Greek: Ἄγρων, 'wild' or 'rustic') is a human/mortal figure attested in the summary of Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses (as presented on Wikipedia) who, because of impiety toward certain gods, is transformed by Hermes into a plover. The tale functions as an etiological metamorphosis and moral exemplum about observing cult obligations.
Aitolos
Aitolos is a name that appears in Greek-language traditions referring to two distinct figures: Aetolus, a mythic genealogical ancestor in classical Greek myth (son of Endymion, descendant of Deucalion), and Kosmas Aitolos (St. Cosmas of Aetolia), a historical/hagiographic Orthodox teacher whose collected writings emphasize pastoral and ascetical themes. The sources do not present Aitolos as a single folkloric supernatural being.
Alcestis
Alcestis (Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, Álkēstis) is a mortal princess of Greek myth famed for voluntarily dying in place of her husband Admetus and being temporarily returned from the underworld through Heracles’ intervention. Her story highlights conjugal devotion, substitutive death, and the need for purification after contact with chthonic powers.
Community Record
- [1]Cleobule — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors. "Cleobule." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]ToposText — person entry for Cleobule / Arcadia references. ToposText person entry for Cleobule (Arcadia/Tegea traditions).literary
- [3]La Damnation de Faust / archival cast lists (modern name occurrences). Archive.org cast/performer listings referencing the modern name 'Cléobule' in performance archives.other
- [4]Cléobule PERROT — Archive favorites listing (modern name occurrence). Archive.org listing referencing a modern personal name 'Cléobule Perrot'.other
- [5]Aeopolus — Wikipedia (related on Myrtilus parentage variants). Wikipedia contributors. "Aeopolus." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki