Agamedes

Agamedes ( Greek  Ἀγαμήδης ) is in Greek mythology a son of King Erginos of Orchomenos, from the family of the Minyer , brother of Trophonios and, like him, famous as a builder.

Both built (according to Pausanias ) a treasury for King Hyrieus , in which they inserted a stone in such a way that they could easily take it out and thus steal from the treasury without opening its door. But in order to track down the thieves, Hyrieus put snares in which Agamedes caught himself. In order not to be recognized as complicit by the discovery of the brother, Trophonios cut off his head and was then swallowed up by the earth.

Herodotus tells a similar Egyptian legend concerning the treasure of Rhampsinite , which is probably the basis of the Greek one . According to another legend, the brothers built a temple of Apollo in Delphi . For this construction Apollo had promised them a reward, which they should receive seven days after the completion: on that day they died.

literature

• Julius Adolf Bernhard : Agamedes . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 89 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Otto Kern : Agamedes . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 719-721.