Lagus (in Greek Λαγoς; lived 4th century BC) was the father, or reputed father, of Ptolemy, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy. He married Arsinoe, a concubine of Philip II, king of Macedon, who was said to have been pregnant at the time of their marriage, on which account it is told that the Macedonians generally looked upon Ptolemy as in reality the son of Philip; but it is possible that this is a later myth fabricated to glorify the Ptolemaic dynasty.¹ From an anecdote recorded by Plutarch², it is clear that Lagus was a man of obscure birth; hence, when Theocritus³ calls Ptolemy a descendant of Heracles, he probably means to represent him as the son of Philip. Lagus appears to have subsequently married Antigone, niece of Antipater, by whom he became the father of Berenice, afterwards the wife of her step-brother Ptolemy.4

References

Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Lagus (1)", Boston, (1867)

Notes

1 Pausanias, Description of Greece, i. 6; Curtius Rufus, Historia Alexandri Magni, ix. 8; Suda, s.v. "Lagos"

2 Plutarch, Moralia, "Concerning the Cure of Anger. A Dialogue", 9 (42 MB PDF)

3 Theocritus, Idylls, xvii. 7

4 Scholia ad Theocritum

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1867).