Aleuas I of Larisa

Aleuas I. the redhead ( Greek  Ἀλεύας ὁ Πυρρός Aleuas ho Pyrrhos ), son of Archedike, was the semi-legendary ancestor of the ancient Greek lineage of the Aleuads , who ruled over the Thessalian Larisa . He probably lived from the middle to the second half of the 6th century BC.

Like all the important families of ancient Thessaly was also the Aleuas the descendants of Heracles on his son Thessalos attributed. Aleuas himself is said to have received the favor of the gods through a dragon who fell in love with him while he was tending a flock of sheep on the slopes of Mount Ossa . The dragon is said to have kissed his hair, licked his face and brought him other presents. Because of his proud and irrepressible character, Aleuas is said to have been disregarded by his father, but secretly supported by his uncle. When the father wanted the oracle in Delphi to answer the question of the royal rule over Thessaly by lottery , the uncle had secretly slipped a lot with Aleuas' name, which was immediately drawn by the Pythia , thus confirming the will of the gods in favor of Aleuas . The father raised an objection, but in a renewed questioning the Pythia voted a second time for "the red-haired man, the son of Archedike".

According to Aristotle , the defense constitution of the Thessalian League went back to Aleuas. Accordingly, he had made the division of Thessaly into the four military districts (tetras) Thessaliotis , Phthiotis , Pelasgiotis and Hestiaiotis , which in turn were divided into several estates (kleroi) . In the event of a crisis, each clergy had to provide 40 horsemen and 80 hoplites or peltasts (named after their shield, the peltà ). The originally non- hereditary office of the tageia , which Aleuas held as the first, was created to lead the united federal army . On the other hand, the dynast Skopas I von Krannon was also assigned a constitutive role in the establishment of the Thessalian defense system.

His son was probably Simos, who was the father of Aleuas II .

literature

• Eduard Meyer : Theopomps Hellenika, with a supplement about the speech to the Larisa Sea and the constitution of Thessaly. Niemeyer, Halle an der Saale 1909 ( archive.org ).
• HT Wade-Gery: Jason of Pherae and Aleuas the Red. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies. Vol. 44 (1924), pp. 55-64.
• Bruno Helly: L'Etat thessalien. Aleuas le Roux, les tetrads et les tagoi. In: Collection de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranéen. Vol. 25 (1995), pp. 39-68.

Remarks

1. ↑ Pindar , Pythia 10.
2. ↑ Claudius Aelianus , De Natura Animalium 8, 11.
3. ^ Plutarch , Moralia 492a – b = De fraterno amore 21.
4. ↑ Aristotle, fragments 497-498; ed. by V. Rose: Aristotelis qui Ferebantur Librorum Fragmenta (Leipzig 1886).
5. ↑ Xenophon , Hellenika 6, 1, 19.
6. ↑ A Scholion on the Idylls of Theokritos (16, 34) noted that Euphorion had put together everything that concerns the "Aleuas, son of Simos". See JL Lightfoot: Hellenistic Collection: Philitas, Alexander of Aetolia, Hermesianax, Euphorion, Parthenius (Loeb Classical Library 508, 2009), p. 433, F199.