Mermerus and Pheres are named in the tradition as the sons born to Jason and Medea after the Argonauts' return from Colchis. They appear in later episodes of the myth cycle (notably the traditions framed around Medea in Corinth) where their fates become focal points of competing narratives: some accounts (summarized from later mythographers) say Medea killed the boys during her revenge on Jason and his new bride, others report a Corinthian local tradition that the children were killed by Corinthians (for example after being removed from a sanctuary), and a solitary variant records Mermerus slain by a lioness while hunting. Sources reporting these variations include summaries of Hyginus and Pausanias' notes on local Corinthian lore, and modern mythographic summaries collating the traditions.
Primary sources and summaries give no detailed physical description of Mermerus and Pheres. They are referred to simply as the young sons of Jason and Medea and are contextually described as young boys at the time of the fatal episodes; no surviving ancient source in the supplied material furnishes distinct physical attributes, clothing, or iconography for them.
The supplied sources do not ascribe supernatural abilities or distinctive behaviors to Mermerus and Pheres. They function in the narratives as mortal offspring whose role is largely passive—victims within divergent traditions that negotiate blame between Medea and Corinthian locals. One isolated tradition characterizes Mermerus as engaged in hunting when he is killed by a lioness, but this is an uncertain, singular variant in the corpus.
Medea
Medea is a mythic Greek woman of royal lineage associated with practiced pharmakeía (drugcraft) and ritual knowledge; in epic she functions as the helper who enables Jason's success, and in tragedy she becomes a transgressive avenger whose actions include murder. Sources present her variably as mortal with divine ancestry (granddaughter of Helios) and as a skilled worker in magical substances and rites often linked in literature to Hecate.
Jason
Jason (Ancient Greek: Ἰάσων, Iásōn) is a mortal hero of Greek myth, leader of the Argonauts whose quest for the Golden Fleece establishes his place in the heroic age. He is depicted as a prince of Iolcos, son of Aeson, and husband of the sorceress Medea.
*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]Mermerus and Pheres — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Mermerus and Pheres' article (summary of tradition variants and name forms).wiki
- [2]Hyginus, Fabulae (summary of Medea episode). Hyginus, Fabulae — summary noting that Medea killed her children (Mermerus and Pheres) when the palace burned and she fled from Corinth (as cited in supplied materials).literary
- [3]Pausanias — 'Medea in Corinth' (local variants). Pausanias (as summarized in 'Medea in Corinth' material) — reports alternate/local Corinthian stories about Jason and Medea's children, including local tomb attributions and a variant where Corinthians kill the children after removal from a sanctuary.literary
- [4]Fables of the Argonauts / Myth summaries. Collected summaries of Argonautica traditions noting the names Mermerus and Pheres and their involvement in post-Argonauts episodes concerning Jason, Medea, and Glauce.literary
- [5]Mythology on the Half-Shell — Jason and the Argonauts. Modern mythographic summary discussing the children's names and the variant accounts (Medea's revenge, Corinthian culpability, and isolated alternate incidents).other
- [6]Greek Legends and Myths — Medea. Compilation of Medea traditions noting multiple children being variously named in different traditions and situating Mermerus and Pheres within the wider set of genealogical variants.other