Acamas (son of Theseus)

Acamas (son of Theseus)

Acamas, the son of Phaedra and Theseus, and half brother to Demophoon, was a character in the Trojan War. [Diodorus Siculus, iv. 62.]

Mythology

After his father was exiled from Athens, he and his brother were sent to Euboea, where they grew to adulthood and allied themselves with Euboea's King Elephenor. Prior to the assault of the Greeks against Troy, he and Diomedes were sent to de­mand the surrender of Helen (this expedition Homer ascribes to Menelaus and Odysseus), [Homer. "Iliad", xi. 139, &c.] but during his stay at Troy he won the affection of Laodice, daughter of Priam, [Parthenius of Nicaea. "Erot." 16.] and begot by her a son, Munitus, who was brought up by Aethra, grandmother of Acamas. [Schol. "ad Lycophr." 499, &c.] He was killed by the bite of a snake while hunting at Olynthus in Thrace.

In the war, Acamas fought on the side of the Greeks. After the war, he rescued his grandmother, Aethra, who was being held captive in Troy as Helen's maid. Later mythological traditions describe the two brothers embarking on other adventures as well, including the capture of the Palladium.cite encyclopedia
last = Hornblower
first = Simon
authorlink =
title = Acamas
encyclopedia = Oxford Classical Dictionary
volume =
pages = 2
publisher = Oxford University Press
location = Oxford
date = 1996
url =
accessdate = ] On his return home he was detained in Thrace by his love for Phyllis; but after leaving Thrace and arriving in the island of Cyprus, he was killed by a fall from his horse upon his own sword. [Schol. "ad Lycophr. l. c."]

Acamas is not mentioned in Homer's "Iliad", but later works, including Virgil's "Aeneid", [Virgil, "Aeneid" ii. 262] and almost certainly the Iliou persis, mention that Acamas was one of the men inside the Trojan horse. [Citation
last = Schmitz
first = Leonhard
author-link =
contribution = Acamas (1)
editor-last = Smith
editor-first = William
title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
volume = 1
pages = 5
publisher =
place = Boston
year = 1867
contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0014.html ] The dominant character trait of Acamas is his interest in faraway places.

Eponyms and Acamas in art

The promontory of Acamas in Cyprus, the town of Acamentium in Phrygia, and the Attic tribe Acamantis all derived their names from him. [Stephanus of Byzantium "s.v." polytonic|Ακαμάντιον] [Pausanias i. 5. § 2] He was painted in the Lesche at Delphi by Polygnotus, and there was also a statue of him at Delphi. [Pans. x. 26. § 3, x. 10. § 1.]

References

ources

*SmithDGRBM


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