The Magnetes (Greek: ) were an

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

tribe. In book 2 of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'',

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

includes them in the Greek Army that is besieging

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

, and identifies their homeland in

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

, in a part that is still known as Magnesia. Later, they participated in the

Greek colonisation Greek colonisation refers to the expansion of Archaic Greeks, particularly during the 8th–6th centuries BC, across the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The Archaic expansion differed from the Iron Age migrations of the Greek Dark Ag ...

of Western

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

by founding two prosperous cities: Magnesia on the Maeander and Magnesia ad Sipylum.

Mythology

According to the Hesiodic ''

Catalogue of Women The ''Catalogue of Women'' ()—also known as the ''Ehoiai '' (, )The Latin transliterations ''Eoeae'' and ''Ehoeae'' are also used (e.g. , ); see Catalogue of Women#Title and the ē' hoiē-formula, Title and the ''ē' hoiē''-formula, below. Th ...

'' ( 7), Thyia, a daughter of

Deucalion In Greek mythology, Deucalion (; ) was the son of Prometheus; ancient sources name his mother as Clymene (mythology), Clymene, Hesione (Oceanid), Hesione, or Pronoia (mythology), Pronoia.A Scholia, scholium to ''Odyssey'' 10.2 (=''Catalogue of W ...

, lay with

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

and bore two sons: Magnes and Makednos, the eponyms of the Magnetes and Macedones, respectively. Within Thyia's extended family in the ''Catalogue'' are found the progenitors of several of the other early Greek tribes. Her sister Pandora II (named after her grandmother, the famous Pandora) bore Graecus (also to Zeus). And their brother

Hellen In Greek mythology, Hellen (; ) is the eponymous progenitor of the Greeks, Hellenes. He is the son of Deucalion (or Zeus) and Pyrrha, and the father of three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus (son of Hellen), Aeolus, by whom he is the ancestor of t ...

, along with his three sons

Dorus In Greek mythology, Dorus (, probably derived from ''dōron'' "gift") was the Eponym, eponymous founder of the Dorians. Family Each of Hellen, Hellen's sons founded a primary tribe of Greece: Aeolus (son of Hellen), Aeolus the Aeolians, Dorus t ...

, Xuthus (with his sons Ion and Achaeus) and Aeolos, filled out the set of progenitors of the ancient tribes that formed the Greek/ Hellenic nation.

Family tree

References

Ancient tribes in Greece Greek tribes Trojan War Ancient tribes in Thessaly {{ethno-stub