In Greek mythology, Thespius (/ˈθɛspiəs/; Ancient Greek: Θέσπιος) or Thestius (/ˈθɛstʃəs,_ˈθɛstiəs/; Ancient Greek: Θέστιος)[1] was a legendary founder and king of Thespiae, Boeotia. His life account is considered part of Greek mythology.

Biography

Thespius was reportedly son of Erechtheus, King of Athens,[2] and possibly Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus and Diogeneia.[3] He was probably the brother of Protogeneia, Pandora, Procris, Creusa, Oreithyia, Chthonia,[4] Merope,[5] Cecrops, Pandorus, Metion,[3] Orneus,[6] Eupalamus[7] and Sicyon.[8] Other sources called him a descendant of Erechtheus[9] while some said that he was the son of Teuthras, son of Pandion[10] or Cepheus.[11]

Thespius' maternal grandparents were Phrasimus and Diogenia, the daughter of the river god Cephissus.[12] He married Megamede, daughter of Arneus. They supposedly had fifty daughters together, although Thespius may have fathered some of the daughters from unnamed mistresses with Megamede being their stepmother.[2] The daughters are often referred to as the Thespiades,[13] also being the subject of an 1853 painting by Gustave Moreau.

Mythology

All his daughters came of marrying age but Thespius seems to have sought no husband for them; he instead desired grandchildren from the hero Heracles. When Heracles was assigned to kill the Lion of Cithaeron (not to be confused with the Nemean Lion), Thespius offered his fifty daughters as a prize. The hunt for the lion lasted fifty days, and during each night of the hunt Heracles slept with each of the fifty daughters, who in turn each gave birth to one son.[14]

Alternate sources claim that Heracles slept with the daughters in a single night. In this version, only forty-nine slept with the hero, with the fiftieth being destined to serve as a virgin priestess of a temple to Heracles, as a punishment for her refusal to sleep with him.[15] In another version, the eldest and the youngest daughters had twins, resulting in fifty-one grandsons of Thespius, forty of which colonized the island of Sardinia.[16]

Descendants

The Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus[17] lists the following daughters and grandsons. The grandsons were all Heracleidae in the wider sense of the term.

According to Hellanicus, a certain Sthephanephoros ("crown bearer") was called one of the sons of Heracles who were born from the daughters of Thestios.[18]

DaughterGrandsonDaughterGrandson
AeschreisLeuconesHippocrateHippozygus
AglaiaAntiadesIphisCeleustanor
AntheaUnknown grandsons (Thestios and Sthephanephoros?)LaothoeAntiphus
AnthippeHippodromusLyseEumedes
AntiopeAlopiusLysidiceTeles
ArgeleCleolausLysippeErasippus
AsopisMentorMarseBucolus
CalametisAstybiesMelineLaomedon
CertheIobesMenippisEntelides
ChryseisOnesippusNiceNicodromus
ClytippeEurycapysNicippeAntimachus
ElachiaBuleusOlympusaHalocrates
EoneAmestriusOriaLaomenes
EpilaisAstyanaxPanopeThrepsippas
EratoDynastesPatroArchemachus
EuboeaOlympusPhyleisTigasis
EuboteEurypylusPraxitheaNephus
EurybiaPolylausProcrisAntileon and Hippeus
EuryceTeleutagorasPyrippePatroclus
EurypyleArchedicusStratoniceAtromus
EuryteleLeucippusTerpsicrateEuryopes
ExoleErythrasTiphyseLyncaeus
HeliconisPhaliasToxicrateLycurgus
HesychiaOestroblesXanthisHomolippus
HippoCapylusUnknown daughter (Euryte?)Creon

Notes

  1. ^ Pausanias, 9.27.7; Harpocration, Lexicon of the Ten Orators s.v. Stephanephoros
  2. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.2
  3. ^ Apollodorus, 3.15.1
  4. ^ Suda, s.v. Maidens, Virgins (Παρθένοι)
  5. ^ Plutarch, Theseus 19.5
  6. ^ Pausanias, 2.25.6; Plutarch, Theseus 32.1; Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Orneiai (Ὀρνειαί)
  7. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.76.1
  8. ^ Pausanias, 2.6.5, citing Hesiod (Ehoiai fr. 224) for Erechtheus
  9. ^ Pausanias, 9.26.6
  10. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Thespeia (Θέσπεια)
  11. ^ Scholia ad Homer, Iliad 2.498 called him son of Teuthras or Cepheus
  12. ^ Apollodorus, 3.15.1
  13. ^ Zimmerman, p. 268
  14. ^ Apollodorus, 2.4.10
  15. ^ Pausanias, 9.27.7
  16. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.1 & 4–6
  17. ^ Apollodorus, 2.7.8
  18. ^ Harpocration, Lexicon of the Ten Orators s.v. Stephanephoros as cited in Hellanicus, Phoronis Book 10 and Atthis Book 2

References