Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

, Poeas, or Poias (

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 p ...

: Ποίας) was a king of

Meliboea In Greek mythology, Meliboea or Meliboia ( grc, Μελίβοια) was a name attributed to the following individuals: *Meliboea, daughter of the Titan Oceanus possibly by his sister-wife Tethys. She was the Oceanid who became the mother of King ...

or Malis (Maleae) and one of the Argonauts.

Family

Poeas was the son of King Thaumacus of

Thaumacia Thaumacia or Thaumakie ( grc, Θαυμακία or Θαυμακίη) was a town of Magnesia in ancient Thessaly, one of the four cities whose ships are listed by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the ''Iliad'' as commanded by Philoctetes during ...

and the father of the hero Philoctetes by Methone.

Mythology

As an Argonaut, Poeas is identified as the greatest archer of the group. When facing the giant Talos, some accounts say

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...

drugged the bronze giant and Poeas shot an arrow to poison him in his heel. Other sources cited his son Philoctetes as one of the Argonauts instead of him. More famously, Poeas had a role in the apotheosis of

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 adoptiv ...

, his friend. When Heracles realized he was dying from poisonous centaur blood he demanded a funeral pyre built and lit once he stood atop it. As none of his own men would light the pyre, a passer-by (Poeas) was asked by Heracles to light it. In return for this favor Heracles bestowed his famed bow and poison arrows upon Poeas.Apollodorus
2.7.7
/ref> Other versions, had Philoctetes as the passer-by or that Poeas assigned Philoctetes the task.

Notes

References

* Apollodorus, ''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.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
* Gaius Julius Hyginus, ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* Stephanus of Byzantium, ''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.
Argonauts Mythological Greek archers Mythological kings of Thessaly Kings in Greek mythology Thessalian characters in Greek mythology Mythology of Heracles {{Greek-myth-stub