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 ...

, Polystratus (

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 ...

: Πολύστρατος) was a handsome youth beloved by

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

Polystratus was solely known from an

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

uncovered in

Dyme Dyme ( grc, Δύμη), or Dymae, was a town and polis (city-state) of ancient Achaea, and the most westerly of the 12 Achaean cities, from which circumstance it is said to have derived its name. The location of Dyme is near the modern Kato Achaia. ...

Achaea Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaïa'' ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. The ...

, which is ascribed to

Alcaeus of Messene Alcaeus of Messene (; Greek: ) was an ancient Greek poet, who flourished between 219 and 196 BC. Twenty-two of his short poems or epigrams survive in the Greek Anthology, from some of which his date may be fixed at around the late 3rd/early 2nd c ...

: according to it, Polystratus accompanied Heracles in his campaign against the

Molionidae In Greek mythology, Eurytus (; Ancient Greek: Εὔρυτος) and Cteatus (; Κτέατος) were twin brothers and also named the Moliones or Molionidai for their mother, Molione. Family Eurytus and Cteatus were the sons of either Actor or P ...

and was killed in the battle, whereupon Heracles cut the hair off the top of his own head as a sign of grief. Polystratus is likely the same as Sostratus; there is a possibility that the name was altered because the youth was honored by the Dymaeans as savior of the city (σω- ''sō-'' being the Greek stem with the meaning "save").

Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (12 February 1845, in Göttingen – 9 March 1923, in Dresden) was a German classical scholar. He specialized in studies of Greek and Roman mythology. He received his education at the Universities of Göttingen and Leip ...

(ed.): ''Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie.'' Band 3. 2 (Pasikrateia - Pyxios), Leipzig, 1902-1909, ss. 2717-2718

Note

Mythology of Achaea Male lovers of Heracles Mythology of Heracles {{Greek-myth-stub