Aletes (Heraclid)

Aletes (Ancient Greek: Ἀλήτης) was a son of Hippotes, of Dorian ancestry, and a fifth-generation descendant of Heracles.[1] He is said to have defeated in battle the Corinthians, taken possession of Corinth, and to have expelled the Sisyphids[2] thirty years after the first invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Heraclids. His family, sometimes called the Aletidae, maintained themselves at Corinth down to the time of Bacchis (that is, late 10th century BC).[3][4][5][6] Velleius Paterculus calls him a descendant of Heracles, but of the sixth generation.[7] He received an oracle, promising him the sovereignty of Athens if during the war, which was then going on, its king should remain uninjured. This oracle became known at Athens, and the Athenian king Codrus sacrificed himself to preserve the city.[8]
Notes

Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Aletes". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 109. Archived from the original on 2007-04-05.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.4
Pausanias, Description of Greece ii. 4. § 3, v. 18. § 2
Strabo, viii. p. 389
Callimachus, Fragments 103
Pindar,Olympian Odes xiii. 17
Velleius Paterculus, i. 3

Conon, Narrations 26

References

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

vte

Rulers of Ancient Corinth
Heleidae

Aeëtes Bounos Epopeus Corinthus Polybus Creon Jason

Sisyphidae

Sisyphus Glaucus Bellerophon Ornytion Thoas Damophon Propodas

two kings at the same time

Doridas and Hyanthidas

Heracleidae
Aletidae

Aletes Ixion Agelas I Prymnes

Bacchiadae

Bacchis Agelas II Eudaemus Aristomedes Agemon Alexander Telestes Automenes Pritanius

Cypselid tyrants