Αλοπη
Cercyon the robber who ruled at Eleusis, had a daughter called Alope who, undeknown to her father, was loved by Poseidon, by whom she had a child which her own nurse left to die in the forest. A mare (an animal sacred to Poseidon) came to suckle the child who was found, wrapped in magnificent swaddling clothes, by a shepherd. The shepherd sheltered the child but another shepherd wanted to take it. The first one handed over the child but kept the swaddling clothes for himself. The second shepherd went in anger to Cercyon who, on seeing the swaddling clothes, suspected what had happened and compelled the nurse to tell the whole story.
Alope was put to death and the child was once more put out to die, whereupon a mare retuned and again suckled it. A shepherd again gathered it up and gave it the name Hippothoon. Later, Hippothoon gave his name to the Attic clan of the Hippothoontis and, when Theseus had put Cercyon to death, Hippothoon came to him to ask for his grandfather's kingdom, which Theseus readily gave him. As for Alope, after Cercyon had killed her Poseidon changed her into a spring.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Hesychius s.v. Αλοπη
- Hyg. Fab. 187; 238; 252
- Paus. 1, 5, 2; 1, 14, 3; 1, 19, 3
- Euripides, Alope or Cercyon (lost tragedy, Nauck TGF, edn 2, pp. 389ff.)