(person) by everyone Sun Mar 18 2001 at 6:04:55

Αβας

There are three heroes of this name in Classical Mythology, but they are not easily distinguishable.

  1. The earliest Abas gave his name to the Abantides, a tribe in Euboea which is mentioned in the Iliad. He is said to have been the son of Poseidon and the nymph Arethusa, goddess of a spring near Chalcis, but a late Athenian myth makes him a descendant of Metion, the son of Erectheus, and therefore the son of Chalcon who was the son of Metion. Abas had two sons, Chalcodon and Canethus.
     
  2. The best known Abas was the king of Argos, son of Lynceus and Hypermestra. In his veins flowed the blood of the two feuding brothers, Danaus and Egyptus and he was the ancestor of Perseus and his family (Table 31). He was considered to be the founder of the Phocian town of Abae. With his wife Aglaea, Abas had twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus, and a daughter, Idomene, who married Amythaon (Table 1). He is also said to have had an illegitimate son Lyrcus, who gave his name to the district of Lyrceia in the Peloponnese.
     
  3. Yet another Abas was the son of Melampus, the grandson of Amythaon and consequently the great-grandson of the preceding Abas. He is said to have been the father of Lysimache, the wife of Talaus and mother of Adrastus (Table 1), the soothsayer Idmon and of Coeranus (see Polyidus).

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources:

  1. - Homer, Il. 2, 536ff. and schol.; 4, 464
    - Eustath. p. 281, 43
    - Hyg. Fab. 157
    - Steph. Byz. s.v. 'Αβαντις and 'Αβαι
    - Strabo 10, 1, 3, p. 445
    - Euripides, Archelaus fragments 2, 5 Austin (P. Hamb. 118)
    - Nauck, TGF, edn 2, unattributed fragments 454
    - Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 1, 77ff. with schol.
     
  2. - Apollod. Bibl. 2, 2, 1
    - Paus. 2, 12, 2; 2, 16, 2; 10, 35, 1
     
  3. - Apollod. Bibl. 1, 9, 13
    - Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 1, 139ff. with schol.
    - PAus. 1, 43, 5

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