Nausithous

Nausithous or Nausithoös (Gr. Ναυσίθοος) is a name that refers to the following characters in Greek mythology:

• The king of the Phaeacians in the generation before Odysseus washed ashore on their home island of Scheria. He was the son of the god Poseidon and a Phaeacian woman named Periboia. According to Homer, Nausithous led a migration of Phaeacians from Hypereia to the island of Scheria in order to escape the lawless Cyclopes. He is the father of Alcinous and Rhexenor. Alcinous would go on to marry his niece, Rhexenor's daughter Arete.^[1] One source relates that Heracles came to Nausithous to get cleansed after the murder of his children; during his stay in the land of the Phaeacians, the hero fell in love with the nymph Melite and conceived a son Hyllus with her.^[2]

• One of the sons born to Odysseus by Calypso, the other one being Nausinous.^[3] According to Hyginus,^[4] Nausithous was son of Odysseus and Circe; his brother was Telegonus.

References

1. ^ Homer The Odyssey. 6. 4-5; 7. 56-66; 8. 564
2. ^ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4. 539-550
3. ^ Hesiod, Theogony trans. Athanassakis 1017-1018
4. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 125