Lyrcus

Two principal traditions are preserved in the cited material. In the Parthenius account (Hellenistic romance), Lyrcus is presented as a son of Phoroneus who, sent to search for Io, fails to find her, flees, settles at Caunus, marries Hilebia, consults the oracle at Didyma about producing offspring and is then tricked by Staphylus' daughter Hemithea; he gives a belt as a recognition token and later recognizes his son Basilus (source: Parthenius as summarized). In the topographical/genealogical tradition preserved by Pausanias and derived summaries, Lyrcus is an illegitimate son of Abas who was expelled from Argos, took possession of Lynceia which thereafter was called Lyrceia, and was commemorated by a statue when the town later lay in ruins (source: Pausanias summary). The sources do not resolve whether these are the same individual or distinct local figures sharing a name.

No physical description of Lyrcus is preserved in the cited sources. Pausanias' tradition records only that when the town fell into ruin nothing remained except a statue of Lyrcus, but no details of the statue's appearance are recorded in the provided material. The surviving accounts treat him as a narrative human figure rather than providing iconographic detail (sources: Pausanias summary; Parthenius summary).

The supplied sources do not ascribe supernatural powers to Lyrcus. His actions in the narratives are human and social: he undertakes journeys (including an oracular consultation at Didyma), marries into a ruling household at Caunus, is deceived into sexual intercourse with Hemithea leading to offspring, gives a token (a belt) to mark filiation, and recognizes and installs his son Basilus as ruler in Caunus. In the eponym tradition he is a dispossessed/bastard son who becomes an eponymous founder of a place. These are narrative behaviors rather than magical abilities (sources: Parthenius; Pausanias summaries).