According to the genealogical and local-history accounts summarized in the supplied materials, Phorbas is the son of Lapithes and Orsinome and a member of the Thessalian Lapith stock. In traditions focused on Elis he emigrates from Thessaly and is received by the local ruling house (accounts differ): some texts describe Alector of Elis summoning him and sealing an alliance, while other summaries report that he was granted land or shared rulership with Alector. Sources vary in detail and some later summaries conflate or attach additional episodes to the name Phorbas; the core, attested theme is that of a Thessalian prince who migrates and becomes integrated into the legendary royal network of Elis.
The supplied sources do not provide physical descriptions or distinctive iconographic attributes for Phorbas son of Lapithes. Narrative attention in the sources is directed toward genealogy, migration, and political/military roles rather than clothing, stature, or visual markers.
No supernatural abilities are attributed to Phorbas in the provided materials. His 'powers' are social and political: acting as a migrant-founder, martial participant within the heroic-age narratives (some summaries link Lapiths and their kin to martial episodes such as the Centauromachy, but direct attribution of that episode to this specific Phorbas is uncertain), and serving as an eponymous ancestor whose descent legitimizes ruling lines. He functions as a conduit of kinship-based authority and territorial legitimation rather than as a magical being.
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.
Acanthis
Acanthis is a young woman in Greek myth, daughter of Autonous and Hippodamia, who is transformed into a thistle finch by the gods as an etiological explanation for the bird's name. The story is preserved chiefly in Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses and summarized in modern reference works.
Acaste
Acaste (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάστη) is a named Oceanid — one of the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys — recorded among the companions of Persephone at the moment of her abduction; the name also appears separately as a nurse of the daughters of King Adrastus of Argos in later genealogical lists.
Achaeus
Achaeus (Ancient Greek: Ἀχαιός, Akhaiós) is an eponymous personal name borne by three mythological human figures in Greek tradition; best attested is Achaeus, son of Xuthus and Creusa, brother of Ion and grandson of Hellen, who is named as father of Archander and Architeles in Pausanias. The name is glossed as meaning "griever," from ἄχος (achos, "grief, pain, woe").
Aegle
Aegle (Ancient Greek: Αἴγλη, 'brightness' or 'dazzling light') is a name applied to several distinct female figures in Greek myth: a daughter of Asclepius associated with health, a Naiad mother of the Charites by Helios and Neaera, one of the Heliades transformed into a poplar after Phaeton's death, a named Hesperid, an alternate name for Coronis in some traditions, a daughter of Panopeus beloved by Theseus, and a nurse of Dionysus. The recurrence of the name links these figures by the themes of brightness, beauty, and filial or nymph-like status rather than by a single unified identity.
Aello
Aello (Ancient Greek: Ἀελλώ) is a named figure in Greek myth primarily attested as one of the Harpies—winged female personifications of storm-wind who harry, snatch, and torment. The name also appears in variant lists as applied to an Actaeonian hunting dog, showing onomastic fluidity in the tradition.
Agaptolemus
Agaptolemus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαπτόλεμος) is a mythic Greek prince, one of the fifty sons of King Aegyptus, best known as the husband of the Danaid Pirene who, like most of the Danaids, slew her husband on their wedding night at the command of her father Danaus.
Agave
Agave (Ancient Greek: Agaue/Agaúē) is a personal name borne by at least two distinct figures in Greek myth: a Nereid (one of the fifty sea-nymph daughters of Nereus) and a Theban princess, daughter of Cadmus, who appears in myths connected with Dionysus. The name is glossed in Greek sources as 'illustrious', 'noble', or 'high-born'.
Agrius
Agrius (Ancient Greek: Ἄγριος, 'wild') is an onomastic figure in Greek myth whose name is applied to multiple distinct personae—including a Giant, a centaur, a bear‑born twin, a princely son, a suitor of Penelope, and one of Actaeon's dogs—rather than a single unified supernatural being. Each attestation places an Agrius in different narrative registers (Gigantomachy, Heracles' labors, heroic genealogies, the Odyssean cycle, and the Actaeon hunt).
Agron
Agron (Ancient Greek: Ἄγρων, 'wild' or 'rustic') is a human/mortal figure attested in the summary of Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses (as presented on Wikipedia) who, because of impiety toward certain gods, is transformed by Hermes into a plover. The tale functions as an etiological metamorphosis and moral exemplum about observing cult obligations.
Aitolos
Aitolos is a name that appears in Greek-language traditions referring to two distinct figures: Aetolus, a mythic genealogical ancestor in classical Greek myth (son of Endymion, descendant of Deucalion), and Kosmas Aitolos (St. Cosmas of Aetolia), a historical/hagiographic Orthodox teacher whose collected writings emphasize pastoral and ascetical themes. The sources do not present Aitolos as a single folkloric supernatural being.
Alcestis
Alcestis (Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, Álkēstis) is a mortal princess of Greek myth famed for voluntarily dying in place of her husband Admetus and being temporarily returned from the underworld through Heracles’ intervention. Her story highlights conjugal devotion, substitutive death, and the need for purification after contact with chthonic powers.
Community Record
- [1]Phorbas (son of Lapithes) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry 'Phorbas (son of Lapithes)' (summary and name/etymology)wiki
- [2]Phorbas — Wikipedia (disambiguation and general entry). Wikipedia, 'Phorbas' (name forms, meaning 'giving pasture', and note on multiple figures bearing the name)wiki
- [3]The Kingdom of Elis (archive summary of Pausanias material). Archive summary and material drawing on Pausanias' local-history treatment of Elis (placement of Phorbas in Elis genealogies and migrations)other
- [4]Elis — Plato/Dialogues-related locality note. Dialogues/locality note referencing the alliance narrative in which Alector 'sealed an alliance with Phorbas' and shared rule (summary of tradition)other
- [5]Phorbas in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths. Modern summary that notes migration to Elis and (in some variants) participation among Lapith martial cycles; used here to indicate variant attestations and later summariesfolk
- [6]Diodorus Siculus — Books IV–V (LacusCurtius translations). Diodorus (as presented in the supplied LacusCurtius links) — cited in the notes as a source for migration/colonization motifs associated with figures named Phorbas in variant traditionsliterary
- [7]Orsinome (mythology) — Wikipedia. Entry noting Orsinome as mother of Phorbas and listing related sibling figures (used for genealogical context)wiki