Lycaon (king of Arcadia)

In the Greek mythic tradition Lycaon appears as an early, often foundational, king of Arcadia. In some accounts he is presented among the first rulers of the region and is described in genealogical lists as son of Pelasgus and Meliboea in certain traditions; other fragments and summaries treat him as the archetypal first king of Arcadia. His story exists in multiple versions across classical and later compilations, and these variants are used to situate Arcadian descent and local identity within the broader Greek mythical past (sources note he is in some sources called the first mythical king of Arcadia and that multiple versions of his parentage and role exist).

Classical and compendium accounts treat Lycaon as a human monarch rather than a supernatural form; the provided sources supply no sustained physical description. He is depicted narratively as a patriarchal figure — father of numerous sons (traditions commonly cite fifty sons) — and is portrayed in the sources by role and action (king, father, impious ruler) rather than by bodily detail.

Lycaon is not described in the cited materials as possessing supernatural powers. His notable characteristic in the mythic corpus is behavioral: extreme impiety exemplified by an episode in which he killed and cooked his son Nyctimus and served the flesh to Zeus to test the god's omniscience. The myth emphasizes his transgression of sacred norms (filicide and attempting to deceive a god) and his prolific fathering of many sons, rather than any inherent supernatural ability.