Agapenor

In Greek mythology, Agapenor (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαπήνωρ, gen. Ἀγαπήνορος) was a leader of the Arcadians in the Trojan war.[1]

Family

Agapenor was a son of Ancaeus, and grandson of Lycurgus.

Mythology

As king of the Arcadians, Agapenor received sixty ships from Agamemnon, in which he led his Arcadians to Troy.[2][3] He also occurs among the suitors of Helen[4][5] and one of the men to be in the Trojan Horse.[6]

On Agapenor's return from Troy he was cast by a storm on the coast of Cyprus, where he founded the town of Paphos and in it the famous temple of Aphrodite.[7] He also occurs in the story of Alcmaeon: it was to him that Arsinoe (Alphesiboea), Alcmaeon's wife was sold away by her own brothers.[8]

Agapenor had a descendant Laodice, who was known for having sent to Tegea a robe (peplos) as a gift to Athena Alea,[9] and to have built a temple of Aphrodite Paphia in Tegea.[10]

Pausanias 8.5.2

Agapenor, the son of Ancaeus, the son of Lycurgus, who was king after Echemus, led the Arcadians to Troy. After the capture of Troy the storm that overtook the Greeks on their return home carried Agapenor and the Arcadian fleet to Cyprus, and so Agapenor became the founder of Paphos, and built the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos (Old Paphos). Up to that time the goddess had been worshipped by the Cyprians in the district called Golgi.

Afterwards Laodice, a descendant of Agapenor, sent to Tegea a robe as a gift for Athena Alea. The inscription on the offering told as well the race of Laodice :--

This is the robe of Laodice; she offered it to her Athena,
Sending it to her broad fatherland from divine Cyprus.

When Agapenor did not return home from Troy, the kingdom devolved upon Hippothous, the son of Cercyon, the son of Agamedes, the son of Stymphalus.

Notes

Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Agapenor", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, p. 59, archived from the original on 2010-06-16, retrieved 2007-12-28
Homer, Iliad 2. 609, &c.
Hyginus, Fabulae 97
Hyginus, Fabulae 81
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.10.8
Homer, The Iliad, translated by Richmond Lattimore, 1951
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 8.5.2
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.7.5
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 8.5.3

Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 8.53.7

References

Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer. Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
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). "Agapenor". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

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Characters in the Iliad
Achaeans

Acamas Achilles Agamemnon (king of Mycenae) Agapenor Ajax the Greater (king of Salamis) Ajax the Lesser Alcimus Anticlus Antilochus Arcesilaus Ascalaphus Automedon Balius and Xanthus Bias Calchas (prophet) Diomedes (king of Argos) Elephenor Epeius Eudoros Euryalus Eurybates Eurydamas Eurypylus Guneus Helen (queen of Sparta) Ialmenus Idomeneus (king of Crete) Iphigenia (princess of Mycenae) Leitus Leonteus Lycomedes Machaon Medon Meges Menelaus (king of Sparta) Menestheus Meriones Neoptolemus Nestor (king of Pylos) Nireus Odysseus (king of Ithaca) Palamedes Patroclus Peneleos Philoctetes Phoenix Podalirius Podarces Polites Polypoetes Promachus Protesilaus Prothoenor Schedius Sinon Stentor Sthenelus Talthybius Teucer Thersites Thoas Thrasymedes Tlepolemus