Manes (king)

Manes (according to Greek mythology) was the eponymous first king of Maeonia, and later came to be known as the first king in line of the primordial house of Lydia, the Atyad dynasty (see List of Kings of Lydia).

Manes was believed to be a son of Gaia and Zeus. Herodotus, in his account of the colonization of Tyrrhenia (Book 1:94), makes Manes the father of king Atys^[1] Later, Herodotus states (Book 4:45) that Cotys was Manes' son, and Asies his grandson for whom the Lydians believed Asia had been named. This genealogy is preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

The exact relationship between the names Maeonia and Lydia, named after Lydus, son of Atys and grandson or great-grandson of Manes, remains a matter of debate. They may have been successive names for one country, or different parts of the same realm.

In what could be an error rather than independent tradition, Strabo makes Atys, son or grandson of Manes, to be one of the descendants of Omphale and Heracles, the founders of the next dynasty of Tylonids (or Heraclids) — Omphale having reigned as Queen of Lydia after the death of her husband Tmolus, and Heracles having been first her slave then her husband. All other accounts place Atys and Lydus, and Tyrrhenus brother of Lydus, among the pre-Tylonid kings of Lydia.

See also

• Manu
• Manes (disambiguation)
• List of Kings of Lydia

Footnotes

1. ^ Herodotus, George Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1859-1861) (in English). The history of Herodotus: a new English version, ed. with copious notes and appendices, illustrating the history and geography of Herodotus, from the most recent sources of information; and embodying the chief results, historical and ethnographical, which have been obtained in the progress of cuneiform and hieroglyphical discovery. D. Appleton & Co., New York.