Next to this statue [of Biton in Argos] is a fire which they keep burning, calling it the fire of Phoroneus. For they do not admit that fire was given to mankind by Prometheus, but insist in assigning the discovery of fire to Phoroneus. Pausanias

In Greek mythology, Phoroneus was a culture-hero, son of the river god Inachus and the Oceanid Melia or Archia. He was a brother of Aegialeus and Peloponnesian king

He was married to the nymph Laodice, by whom he became the father of Niobe, Apis, and Car. (Hygin. Fab. 143; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 920; Apollod. ii. 1. § 1; Pausanias i. 39. § 4.) Pausanias (ii. 21. § 1) calls his wife Cerdo, and the Scholiast on Euripides calls his first wife Peitho, and her children Aegialeus and Apia, and the second Europa, who was the mother of Niobe. According to Hellanicus (ap. Etstath. ad Hom. p. 385) he had three sons, Pelasgus, lasus, and Agenor, who, after their father's death, distributed the kingdom of Argos among themselves. Phoroneus is said to have been the first who offered sacrifices to Hera at Argos, and to have united the people, who until then had lived in scattered habitations, into a city which was called after him asty Phoronikon. (Paus. ii. 15, in fin.; Hygin. Fab. 274.) He is further said to have discovered the use of fire (Paus. ii. 19. § 5); his tomb was shown at Argos, where funeral sacrifices were offered to him (ii. 20. § 3). The patronymic Phoroneides is sometimes used for Argives in general, but especially to designate Amphiaraus and Adrastus (Paus. vii. 17. § 3 ; Theocrit. xxv. 200.)

Cerdo, wife of Phoroneus

Greek Mythology

See also : Greek Mythology. Paintings, Drawings