Amykos (son of Poseidon)

Amykos bound; Named vase of the Amykos painter

Amykos ( Greek  Ἄμυκος "the mangle", Latinized Amycus ) is a figure in Greek mythology . He was king of the Bebryker tribe who settled in Bithynia in Asia Minor ; his kingdom was in the Chalcedon region .

According to legend Amykos was a son of the sea god Poseidon and the Bithynis or Pelia or Bithynian nymph Melie . He made war on Lycus , king of the Mariandyne , who was supported by Heracles . As a result, Heracles killed Amycus' brother Mygdon .

Like many Poseidon's sons a giant, Amykos did not care about the laws of hospitality, but forced all strangers coming into his territory to fight him first in a fistfight . He also invented the Cestus used here . Because he had tremendous physical strength, he managed to kill most of his opponents. But when the Argonauts docked on the Bithynian shore, he succumbed to Polydeukes . Apollonios of Rhodes and Theocritus give a detailed account of this occurrence . Apollonios explains in his representation that Amykos asked the Argonauts that the strongest of them should compete with him in a fist fight, whereupon Polydeukes killed the clumsy giant after a hard argument. According to Theocritus, Polydeukes and his brother Castor met Amykos, wrapped in a lion's skin, in the forest after their landing in Bithynia . He demanded that the brothers should not drink from a spring until one of them had fought with him. But now he found his conqueror in Polydeukes and had to swear never again to deny a stranger access to the source. After all, according to this version of the legend, Amykos was not killed. According to another variant of the myth cited by the comedy poet Epicharmos and the epic poet Peisandros, Polydeukes tied Amykos, whom he had overcome, to a tree. Sophocles composed a satyr drama called Amykos .

According to Pliny , a wild laurel should have grown on Amykos' grave; if a branch was plucked from this and brought on board a ship, there was quarrel and quarrel there until it was thrown into the sea. At a place in Bithynia named after Amykos there was also a heroon of Poseidon's son. A pictorial representation of the shackling of Amykos, defeated by Polydeukes, to a tree can be found on the so-called Ficoronic Cista discovered in Praeneste . The punishment of Amykos is also depicted on an Etruscan ash pot.

literature

• Konrad Wernicke : Amykos 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2000 f.
• Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Amykos 1 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 326 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Hans von Geisau : Amykos 1. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, Col. 321 f.

Remarks

1. ↑ Libraries of Apollodorus 1, 9, 20, 1; Scholion to Plato , Nomoi 7, 796 a.
2. ↑ Scholion zu Plato , Nomoi 7, 796 a.
3. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes , Argonautika 2, 4.
4. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2, 754-795; Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 5, 9, 6.
5. ^ Plato, Nomoi 7, 796 a with Scholien.
6. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2, 1-163; Theocrit, Eidyllia 22, 27-134; see. also libraries of Apollodor 1, 9, 20, 1f .; Orphic Argonautics 656ff .; Gaius Valerius Flaccus , Argonautica 4, 99ff .; Hyginus , Fabulae 17; among others
7. ↑ Scholion to Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2, 98.
8. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 16, 239; Scholion to Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2, 159.