Αιμων
The name of several heroes:
- The best-known was the son of Creon, king of Thebes. There are two different traditions about him: according to the first, Creon's son Haemon was devoured by the Sphinx, and to avenge his death Creon had promised his kingdom to whomever should deliver Thebes from the monster. According to the second tradition, Haemon was betrothed to Oedipus's daughter Antigone, and slew himself when Creon condemned the young girl to death by being buried alive in the tomb of the Labdacides. This second version was the one used in the tragedies: Sophocles in particular followed it in his Antigone. It is sometimes said that Haemon and Antigone had a son, called Maeon. This was the tradition followed in particular by Euripides in his tragedy Antigone, which has not survived.
- Haemon was also the name of the eponymous hero of Haemonia, the old name of Thessaly. This Haemon was the son of Pelasgus and the father of Thessalus, who gave the country its new name. In another genealogy, Haemon was one of the fifty sons of Lycaon, who was himself the son of Pelasgus. In this tradition, Haemon was held to be not the eponym of Haemonia the country, but the founder of the Arcadian city of Haemonia.
- An obscure tradition mentions another Haemon who was the grandson of Cadmus and the son of Polydorus (Table 3). This Haemon had accidentaly killed one of his companions during a hunt, and had had to seek refuge in Athens. His descendants later emigrated to Rhodes, and thence to Agrigentum, in Sicily. The tyrant Theron claimed descent from them.
- See also Table 27 for Haemon, son of Thoas and father of Oxylus.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}