In the Heracles cycle Copreus appears as the official herald of King Eurystheus who publicly announces the Twelve Labours of Heracles. Variant genealogical accounts make him a son of Pelops and Hippodamia. One recurring narrative reports that Copreus killed a man named Iphitus in Elis, fled to Mycenae, and was purified by King Eurystheus; following purification Eurystheus employed him as herald to deliver orders to Heracles.
The cited sources supply no physical description of Copreus. He is characterized functionally as a herald and by his name (Ancient Greek Κοπρεύς, often glossed in modern summaries as meaning "dung man"), a literal meaning repeatedly noted in reference works but not linked to any specific depiction or costume in the primary accounts.
Copreus possesses no supernatural powers in the sources; his 'ability' is administrative and social authority as the appointed herald of King Eurystheus, empowered to announce the king's commands (notably the Labours of Heracles). He also appears in mythic genealogy and narrative roles (son of Pelops in some traditions) and is described as having sought and received ritual purification after homicide before entering Eurystheus' service.
Eurystheus
Eurystheus (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυσθεύς) is a mortal king in the Heracles cycle who functions as the divinely authorized adjudicator and assigner of Heracles' labours. Located in the Argolid (commonly king of Tiryns, sometimes associated with Argos or Mycenae), he embodies institutional authority through which oracular and divine sanctions are executed.
Heracles
Heracles is the greatest hero of Greek myth whose career bridges mortal hero-cult and full divinization. Celebrated for his Twelve Labours, martial prowess, and travels between the mortal world, the underworld, and Olympus, he functioned as a civic patron, ancestor of royal lines (the Heracleidae), and object of cult that treated him both as chthonic hero and as god.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
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.
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.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
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.
Acacus
Acacus (Ancient Greek: Ἄκακος) is, in Arcadian Greek tradition, a mortal eponymous founder-king of Acacesium and is remembered as the foster-father who reared the infant Hermes (Mercury) in that local tradition. He is presented in genealogies as a son of Lycaon and functions as a local ancestral/onomastic figure rather than a supernatural spirit.
Academus
Academus (Greek: Akádemos / Hekádemos) is an Attic hero-eponym tied to a sacred grove (Akademeia) on the Cephissus near Athens. In myth he revealed where Helen was hidden to the Dioskouroi, an act said to have saved the city, and the place bearing his name became a long-lived sacred precinct, later the site of Plato's Academy.
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.
Acantha
Acantha (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάνθα, 'thorn') is a late or secondary mythological figure known from modern retellings as a nymph transformed into the acanthus plant. The tale that she scratched Apollo and was changed into a spiny-leaved plant is not attested in surviving classical corpora and appears to be a modern compilation or invention rather than a firmly documented ancient myth.
Community Record
- [1]Copreus (herald of Eurystheus) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Copreus (herald of Eurystheus)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Copreus (mythology) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Copreus (mythology)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [3]Copreus — Greek Legends and Myths. Greek Legends and Myths website, entry 'Copreus'.folk
- [4]Copreus | Facts, Information, and Mythology — Pantheon. Pantheon.org, 'Copreus'.other
- [5]Pelops 1 — Greek Mythology Link. maicar.com, 'Pelops 1' (genealogical summaries including possible parentage of Copreus).other
- [6]HERALDS - Greek Mythology Link. maicar.com, 'Heralds' (lists Copreus among heralds of myth).other
- [7]ToposText — Copreus entry. ToposText, person entry for Copreus.other
- [8]How does one get purified of murder in Greek mythology? — Mythology Stack Exchange. Mythology Stack Exchange discussion referencing traditions of purification including mention of Copreus' purification by Eurystheus.other
- [9]Archive: LP0005x Labors of Heracles. Archive collection relating to the Labors of Heracles (contextual materials referencing the narrative cycle in which Copreus appears).other