Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

, Halmus or Almus (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: Ἄλμος), also Holmos (Ὅλμος), was a

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

prince who later founded the

Boeotian Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...

town of Halmones or Holmones, in the neighborhood of Orchomenus.

Family

Almus was the son of King

Sisyphus In Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos (; Ancient Greek: Σίσυφος ''Sísyphos'') was the founder and king of Ancient Corinth, Ephyra (now known as Corinth). Hades punished him for cheating death twice by forcing him to roll an immense bo ...

of Corinth and the

Pleiad The Pleiades (; grc-gre, Πλειάδες, Ancient Greek pronunciation: ), were the seven sister-nymphs, companions of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Together with their seven sisters, the Hyades, they were called the Atlantides, Dodonides, ...

Merope, daughter of the Titan

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

. He was the brother of

Glaucus In Greek mythology, Glaucus (; grc, Γλαῦκος, Glaûkos, glimmering) was a Greek prophetic sea-god, born mortal and turned immortal upon eating a magical herb. It was believed that he came to the rescue of sailors and fishermen in storms ...

Ornytion In Greek mythology, Ornytion (Ancient Greek: Ὀρνύτιων means 'moon-bird') or Ornytus (Ὄρνυτος)Scholia on Homer, ''Iliad'' 2.517 may refer to two different characters: * Ornytion, also known as Porphyrion, a Corinthian prince who lat ...

(

Porphyrion In Greek mythology, Porphyrion ( grc-gre, Πορφυρίων) was one of the Gigantes ( Giants), who according to Hesiod, were the offspring of Gaia, born from the blood that fell when Uranus (Sky) was castrated by their son Cronus. In some other ...

) and Thersandrus. Halmus had two daughters, Chryse and

Chrysogeneia In Greek mythology, Chrysogeneia or Chrysogenia (Ancient Greek: Χρυσογένεια) may refer to the two different individuals: * Chrysogenia, daughter of the river-god Peneus, and thus can be considered a naiad. She was the mother of Thissaeus ...

, who consorted with

Ares Ares (; grc, Ἄρης, ''Árēs'' ) is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war b ...

and

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...

, respectively. Chryse's son with Ares was

Phlegyas In Greek mythology, Phlegyas (; Ancient Greek: Φλεγύας means 'fiery') was a king of the Lapiths (or the Phlegyans). Family Phlegyas was the son of Ares and Chryse, daughter of Halmus, or of Dotis. He was the brother of Ixion, another ...

who inherited the kingdom of Orchomenus as King

Eteocles In Greek mythology, Eteocles (; ) was a king of Thebes, the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. Oedipus killed his father Laius and married his mother without knowing his relationship to either. When the relationship was revealed, ...

had died childless. Chrysogeneia had by Poseidon a son

Chryses In Greek mythology, Chryses (; Greek, Χρύσης ''Khrúsēs'', meaning "golden") was a Trojan priest of Apollo at Chryse, near the city of Troy. Family According to a tradition mentioned by Eustathius of Thessalonica, Chryses and Briseus ...

who succeeded Phlegyas as king of Orchomenus and in his turn became father of Minyas. In another account, the second daughter was named as Chrysogone and Minyas was given as her son by Poseidon, and not the grandson. Almus was also credited as the possible father of Minyas.

Mythology

Most of the available information concerning Halmus was recorded in

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

' ''Description of Greece''. According to the said author, Almus received a small tract of land in Orchomenus from King

and dwelt there; the village was believed to have been named Almones (later Olmones) after him. This was also mentioned by

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...

, who referred to Pausanias' work but called the character as Olmus (Ὄλμος) to account for the most recent form of the village's name.

, s.v. ''Olmones''

Notes

References

, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
*

, ''Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt,'' edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
{{Greek-myth-stub Princes in Greek mythology Kings of Minyan Orchomenus Kings in Greek mythology Corinthian characters in Greek mythology Characters in Greek mythology Minyan mythology