InGreek mythology,Megareus (Ancient Greek: Μεγαρέας or Μεγαρέως), also calledMegarus (Μέγαρος), was king ofOnchestus inBoeotia. In some myths, he was the eponymous king ofMegara.[1]
Megareus was either son ofPoseidon andOenope, daughter ofEpopeus,[2] or ofOnchestus (eponym of their kingdom),[3] or ofApollo or ofAegeus,[4] or ofHippomenes.[5]
Megareus came with his army to the assistance ofNisos, husband of his sisterAbrota,[6] againstMinos. In one version, he died in the battle, and the city of Nisa (Nisos' domain) was renamed Megara in his honor;[7] in another, he marriedIphinoe, daughter of Nisos, and succeeded to his father-in-law's power over Megara.[8] His children by Iphinoe wereEvippus,Timalcus, andEvaechme; he also had a sonHippomenes byMerope.[9] With the aid of the godApollo,Alcathous killed theCithaeronian lion, for which Megareus gave him his daughterEuaechme as wife. He subsequently made Alcathous his successor, because his own sons did not outlive him: Evippus was killed by the lion, and Timalcus was slain byTheseus, having joined theDioscuri in the campaign against him.[10]
- ^Pausanias,1.39.5–6 &1.41.5;Pseudo-Scymnos,Circuit de la terre 500 ff.
- ^Hyginus,Fabulae157
- ^Plutarch,Quaestiones Graecae16; Pseudo-Scymnos,Circuit de la terre 500 ff.
- ^Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v.Megara (Μέγαρα)
- ^Apollodorus,3.15.8
- ^Plutarch,Quaestiones Graecae16
- ^Apollodorus,3.15.8; Pausanias,1.39.5
- ^Pausanias,1.39.6 &1.41.5
- ^Hyginus,Fabulae185
- ^Pausanias,1.41.3
- 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.
- Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus,Moralia with an English Translation by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website.
- Pausanias,Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
- Pausanias,Graeciae Descriptio.3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Pseudo-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.
- 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.
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