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 ...

, Stymphalus or Stymphalos (

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 ...

: Στύμφαλος) was a king of

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

. He was the

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

of the town

Stymphalus In Greek mythology, Stymphalus or Stymphalos (Ancient Greek: Στύμφαλος or Στύμφαλον) may refer to the following personages: * Stymphalus, an Arcadian prince as one of the 50 sons of the impious King Lycaon either by the naiad ...

(now

Stymfalia Stymfalia ( el, Στυμφαλία; grc, Στύμφαλος ''Stymphalos'') is a village and a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, Greece, previously known by the name Matsiza (small cat in Albanian) due to its A ...

) and of a spring near it.

Family

Stymphalus was a son of Elatus and Laodice, brother of

Pereus In Greek mythology, Pereus ( Ancient Greek: Περέος) was an Arcadian prince as the son of King Elatus and Laodice, daughter of King Cinyras. He had four brothers namely, Stymphalus, Aepytus, Ischys and Cyllen. Pereus had a daughter, Neaer ...

Aepytus Aepytus (Ancient Greek: Αἵπυτος) can refer to several people in Greek mythology: * Aepytus, king of Arcadia and son of Elatus. * Aepytus, also a king of Arcadia and son of Hippothous. * Aepytus, son of the Heraclid Cresphontes.Apol ...

Ischys In Greek mythology, Ischys (Ancient Greek: Ἰσχύς means 'strength') was the son of Elatus and Hippea. Mythology Ischys had an affair with the Thessalian princess Coronis, one of Apollo's lovers, who was at that time pregnant with the god's ...

and Cyllen. Stymphalus' sons were

Agamedes In Greek mythology, Agamedes ( grc, Ἀγαμήδης, ''Agamēdēs'') was a son of Erginus (or, according to some traditions, the son of Stymphalus and grandson of Arcas). Family Agamedes was father of Cercyon by Epicaste, who also brought ...

Gortys Gortyna ( grc, Γόρτυνα; also known as Gortyn (Γορτύν)) was a town of ancient Crete which appears in the Homeric poems under the form of Γορτύν; but afterwards became usually Gortyna (Γόρτυνα). According to Stephanus of ...

and Agelaus, himself father of

Phalanthus In Greek mythology, Phalanthus (; Ancient Greek: Φάλανθος) is the name of three men. * Phalanthus of Tanagra, one of the defenders of Thebes in the war of the Seven against Thebes. He was killed by Hippomedon. * Phalanthus of Tarentum, the ...

who reputedly gave his name to a homonymous mountain and a city; Stymphalus also had at least one daughter, Parthenope, the mother of

Everes In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; grc, Τειρεσίας, Teiresías) was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymp ...

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...

Mythology

Stymphalus was treacherously killed by

Pelops In Greek mythology, Pelops (; ) was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus region (, lit. "Pelops' Island"). He was the son of Tantalus and the father of Atreus. He was venerated at Olympia, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the Oly ...

, who, being unable to defeat him at war, pretended to establish friendship with him, only to approach and slay the inadvertent Stymphalus; he then chopped off his limbs and scattered them around. As punishment for Pelops' crime, the gods had Greece suffer from infertility until the pious

Aeacus Aeacus (; also spelled Eacus; Ancient Greek: Αἰακός) was a mythological king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, and the father of the heroes Peleus and Telamon. According to legend, ...

was asked to pray for relief of the calamity. A "rationalized" version of a myth of the Stymphalian birds names "a certain

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

" Stymphalus and a woman Ornis (literally "bird") as parents of a set of daughters, the Stymphalides, who were killed by Heracles over the fact that they denied him hospitality but received the Molionidae.

Mnaseas Mnaseas of Patrae ( grc, Μνασέας ὁ Πατρεύς) or of Patara, whether that in Lycia or perhaps the Patara in Cappadocia was a Greek historian of the late 3rd century BCE, who is reckoned to have been a pupil in Alexandria of Eratosth ...

scholia Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of th ...

Apollonius Rhodius Apollonius of Rhodes ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος Ῥόδιος ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; la, Apollonius Rhodius; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and t ...

, ''

Argonautica The ''Argonautica'' ( el, Ἀργοναυτικά , translit=Argonautika) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''Argonautica'' tells the myth of the voyage of Jason a ...

'' 2.1052

Notes

References

Apollodorus Apollodorus (Ancient Greek, Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος ''Apollodoros'') was a popular name in ancient Greece. It is the masculine gender of a noun compounded from Apollo, the deity, and doron, "gift"; that is, "Gift of Apollo." It may refer to: ...

, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
*

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 th ...

, ''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
{{Greek-myth-stub Mythological kings of Arcadia Kings in Greek mythology Arcadian mythology