Cyknos (son of Ares)

Zeus (center) separates Athena (left) and Ares (right), while Cyknos flees from Heracles, who approaches in his chariot (far right). Attic black-figure volute crater , approx. 540–510 BC BC, signed by Nikosthenes .

Kyknos ( ancient Greek Κύκνος swan ) is the son of the god Ares and Pelopeia in Greek mythology . He was king of Amphanai in Macedonia .

In honor of his father, Kyknos wanted to build a temple from the bones of slain travelers. When the temple was almost finished, Kyknos met Heracles near the river Echedoros and challenged him to a duel to complete the temple with his bones. When Ares found out about the fight, he was furious and wanted to come to his son's aid. But he was stopped by Athena so that he could get away from the Moirenlisten to what fate had planned for Cyknos. The Moiren said that Cycnus would be slain by Heracles if Heracles were not slain first. This prediction made Ares even more angry. He was going to the battlefield and was about to strike a blow at Heracles when Athena appeared and prevented the blow. Heracles took the opportunity and wounded Ares in the thigh. Ares then accepted Kyknos' fate and returned to Olympus . Cyknos was killed by Heracles and the temple was never completed.

swell

• Library of Apollodor II, 7.7
• Diodorus : 4.37.4
• Euripides : The Heraclids, 389
• Hesiod : The shield of Heracles, 413ff.

literature

• Richard Engelmann : Kyknos 1 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Sp. 1690–1695 ( digitized version ).