Aethlius

Aethlius or Aithlios (Ancient Greek: Ἀέθλιος means "winning the prize") was, in Greek mythology, the first king of Elis.[1]

Family

Aethlius was the son of Zeus and Protogeneia (daughter of Deucalion),[2][3] and was married to Calyce of whom he fathered Endymion.[4] According to some accounts, Endymion was himself a son of Zeus and first king of Elis.[5] Other traditions again made Aethlius a son of Aeolus, who was called by the name of Zeus.[6]

Mythology

Aethlius led Aeolians from Thessaly and founded Elis. According to Eusebius, as a means of challenging his sons, Aethlius use the concept of Olympics of the Idaean Dactyls and it was from his name that the adversaries are called athletes. After Aethlius, his sons Epeius and then Endymion, Alexinus and Oenomaus were each in charge of the sacrifices connected with the festival.[7]

. ..And at the bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw them over his head, and the stones which Deucalion threw became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw became women. Hence people were called metaphorically people * from laas, "a stone." And Deucalion had children by Pyrrha, first Hellen, whose father some say was Zeus, and second Amphictyon, who reigned over Attica after Cranaus; and third a daughter Protogenia, who became the mother of Aethlius by Zeus. Apollodorus, Library and Epitome 1.7.2 * (gr. laos)

Notes

Pausanias, v. 1. § 2
Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, 1.7.2
Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae 155
Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Aethlius (1)", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, MA, p. 51
Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, 1.7.5
Pausanias, v. 8. § 1.

Eusebius. Chronography, 69

References

Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. . Greek text .

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Aethlius (1)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Greek Mythology

See also : Greek Mythology. Paintings, Drawings