Listed 20 sub titles with search on: Mythology for destination: "ARKADIA Ancient area PELOPONNISOS".
The Arcadians say that Pelasgus was the first inhabitant of this land. It is natural
to suppose that others accompanied Pelasgus, and that he was not by himself; for
otherwise he would have been a king without any subjects to rule over. However,
in stature and in prowess, in beauty and in wisdom, Pelasgus excelled his fellows,
and for this reason, I think, he was chosen to be king by them. Asius the poet
says of him: "The godlike Pelasgus on the wooded mountains Black earth gave
up, that the race of mortals might exist".
Pelasgus on becoming king invented huts that humans should not shiver, or be soaked
by rain, or oppressed by heat. Moreover; he it was who first thought of coats
of sheep-skins, such as poor folk still wear in Euboea and Phocis. He too it was
who checked the habit of eating green leaves, grasses, and roots always inedible
and sometimes poisonous. But he introduced as food the nuts of trees, not those
of all trees but only the acorns of the edible oak. Some people have followed
this diet so closely since the time of Pelasgus that even the Pythian priestess,
when she forbade the Lacedaemonians to touch the land of the Arcadians, uttered
the following verses: "In Arcadia are many men who eat acorns, Who will prevent
you; though I do not grudge it you".
It is said that it was in the reign of Pelasgus that the land was called Pelasgia. (Paus. 8.1.4)
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited April 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Pelasgus, (Pelasgos). The mythical ancestor of the Pelasgi,
by some regarded as sprung from the earth, but by others described as the son
of Zeus; or of Phoroneus, or of Poseidon and Larissa.
Cyllene (Kullene), a nymph, who became the mother of Lycaon by Pelasgus. (Apollod. iii. 8.1). According to others, she was the wife of Lycaon. (Dionys. Hal. A. R. i. 13.)
Son of Zeus by Callisto, his inventions, given by Zeus to Maia to bring up, Arcadia called after him, his sons, his grave, his bones fetched from Maenalus to Mantinea , image at Delphi.
Arcas (Arkas). The ancestor and eponymic hero of the Arcadians, from whom the country and its inhabitants derived their name. He was a son of Zeus by Callisto, a companion of Artemis. After the death or the metamorphosis of his mother (see Lycosura), Zeus gave the child to Maia, and called him Arcas. (Apollod. iii. 8.2) Arcas became afterwards by Leaneira or Meganeira the father of Elatus and Apheidas. (Apollod. iii. 9. Β§ 1.) According to Hyginus (Fab. 176, Poet. Astr. ii. 4) Arcas was the son of Lycaon, whose flesh the father set before Zeus, to try his divine character. Zeus upset the table (trapeza) which bore the dish, and destroyed the house of Lycaon by lightning, but restored Arcas to life. When Areas had grown up, he built on the site of his father's house the town of Trapezus. When Arcas once during the chase pursued his mother, who was metamorphosed into a she-bear, as far as the sanctuary of the Lycaean Zeus, which no mortal was allowed to enter, Zeus placed both of them among the stars, (Ov. Met. ii. 410) According to Pausanias (viii. 4.1), Arcas succeeded Nyctimus in the government of Arcadia, and gave to the country which until then had been called Pelasgia the name of Arcadia. He taught his subjects the arts of making bread and of weaving. He was married to the nymph Erato, by whom he had three sons, Elatus, Apheidas, and Azan, among whom he divided his kingdom. He had one illegitimate son, Autolaus, whose mother is not mentioned. The tomb of Arcas was shown at Mantineia, whither his remains had been carried from mount Maenalus at the command of the Delphic oracle. (Paus. viii. 9.2) Statues of Arcas and his family were dedicated at Delphi by the inhabitants of Tegea. (x. 9.3)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
After the death of Nyctimus, Arcas the son of Callisto came to the throne. He introduced the cultivation of crops, which he learned from Triptolemus, and taught men to make bread, to weave clothes, and other things besides, having learned the art of spinning from Adristas. After this king the land was called Arcadia instead of Pelasgia and its inhabitants Arcadians instead of Pelasgians. His wife, according to the legend, was no mortal woman but a Dryad nymph. For they used to call some nymphs Dryads, others Epimeliads, and others Naiads, and Homer in his poetry talks mostly of Naiad nymphs. This nymph they call Erato, and by her they say that Arcas had Azan, Apheidas and Elatus. Previously he had had Autolaus, an illegitimate son. When his sons grew up, Arcas divided the land between them into three parts, and one district was named Azania after Azan; from Azania, it is said, settled the colonists who dwell about the cave in Phrygia called Steunos and the river Pencalas. To Apheidas fell Tegea and the land adjoining, and for this reason poets too call Tegea "the lot of Apheidas". Elatus got Mount Cyllene, which down to that time had received no name. Afterwards Elatus migrated to what is now called Phocis, helped the Phocians when hard pressed in war by the Phlegyans, and became the founder of the city Elateia. It is said that Azan had a son Cleitor, Apheidas a son Aleus, and that Elatus had five sons, Aepytus, Pereus, Cyllen, Ischys, and Stymphalus.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited April 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Chrysopelia (Chrusopeleia), a hamadryad who was one day in great danger, as the oak-tree which she inhabited was undermined by a mountain torrent. Ares, who was hunting in the neighbourhood, discovered her situation, led the torrent in another direction, and secured the tree by a dam. Chrysopeleia became by Ares the mother of Elatus and Apheidas. (Apollod. iii. 9.1; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 480)
Pholos was a Kentauros from whom Mt Pholoe in Arkadia received its name. He once entertained Herakles in his cave, but when the other Kentauroi attacked, he accidentally dropped one of Herakles poisonous arrows on his foot and died.
Rhoecus (Rhoikos). A Centaur, who, in conjunction with Hylaeus, pursued Atalanta in Arcadia, but was killed by her with an arrow. The Roman poets call him Rhoetus, and relate that he was wounded at the nuptials of Pirithous.
Agathodaemon (Agathodaimon or Agathos Deos), the "Good God," a divinity in honour of whom the Greeks drank a cup of unmixed wine at the end of every repast. A temple dedicated to him was situated on the road from Megalopolis to Maenalus in Arcadia. Pausanias (viii. 36.3) conjectures that the name is a mere epithet of Zeus.
Hylaeus, (Hulaios), that is, the woodman, the name of an Arcadian centaur, who was slain by Atalante, when, in conjunction with Rhoetus, he pursued her. (Apollod. iii. 9.2; Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 221; Aelian, V. H. xiii. 1.) According to Propertius (i. 1, 13) Hylaeus had also attacked and severely wounded Meilanion, the lover of Atalante. (Comp. Ov. Ars Am. ii. 191.) According to some legends, Hylaeus fell in the fight against the Lapithae, and others again said that he was one of the centaurs slain by Heracles. (Virg. Geory. ii. 457; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 294; comp. Horat. Carm. ii. 12, 5.) One of the dogs of Actaeon likewise bore the name of Hylaeus. (Ov. Met. iii. 213.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aristaeus, (Aristaios). A son of Apollo and Cyrene, was born in Libya. He afterwards went to Thrace, where he fell in love with Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus. The latter, while fleeing from him, perished by the bite of a serpent; whereupon the Nymphs, in anger, destroyed the bees of Aristaeus. The way in which he recovered his bees is related in the Fourth Georgic of Vergil. After his death he was worshipped as a god, on account of the benefits he had conferred upon mankind. He was regarded as the protector of flocks and shepherds, of vine and olive plantations; he taught men to keep bees, and averted from the fields the burning heat of the sun and other causes of destruction. He is said to have had the care of Dionysus when young.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Teaches Arcas to spin wool.
Glauce. An Arcadian nymph. (Paus. viii. 47.2.)
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