Nyctimus

Nyctimus is described in the mythic genealogies as a son of King Lycaon of Arcadia. Sources name him among the numerous (fifty) sons of Lycaon; some accounts variously indicate his mother as Cyllene, Nonacris, or leave her unnamed. In the Lycaon episode Nyctimus figures in two principal variants: one reports that he was killed and served at a sacrificial feast to Zeus and later restored to life; another makes him the sole son spared from Zeus's thunderbolts when Gaia intervened by seizing his right hand. In both versions he succeeds Lycaon as king of Arcadia, though his reign is described as short-lived because of floods in the age of Deucalion. Scholarly commentators (e.g., Frazer) have used Nyctimus's role as evidence of an ancient practice of ultimogeniture (succession of the youngest). Some passages present variant genealogical detail (Pausanias preserves differing statements about order among Lycaon's sons), which modern summaries note as textual variation rather than a single coherent origin myth.

Classical sources (including Pausanias and the surviving summaries cited in modern references) provide no physical description of Nyctimus; he is attested only as a genealogical and political figure (son, father, king). Therefore his appearance, clothing, stature, or distinguishing marks are not recorded in the available material and remain unspecified in the primary narratives and summaries.

No supernatural powers are ascribed to Nyctimus in the consulted sources; his significance is genealogical and political rather than magical. His recorded actions and roles are: membership among the many sons of Lycaon (often described as the youngest), fatherhood of Periphetes, succession to Lycaon's kingship of Arcadia, and placement in an ancestral line leading to the eponym Psophis. Mythic narratives report extraordinary events affecting him (restoration to life in one variant; divine sparing by Gaia in another) but do not attribute intrinsic miraculous abilities to Nyctimus himself.