InGreek mythology,Taenarus (Ancient Greek: Ταίναρος) was theeponym of CapeTaenarum, MountTaenarum and the city Taenarus atPeloponnese. In different accounts, he is given as:

• Taenarus, son ofZeus and brother ofCalabrus andGeraestus. The three brothers were said to have sailed to Peloponnese and to have seized a portion of land there, where Taenarus founded a sanctuary ofPoseidon known as "Taenarum".^[1]
• Taenarus, son of Poseidon.^[2]
• Taenarus, son ofElatus, himself son ofIcarius, andErymede, daughter ofDamasiclus; was said to have had the city, the mountain, and the harbor named after him.^[3] Stephanus (who writes of him as a son rather than a grandson of Icarius) considers him to be a figure distinct from Taenarus, son of Zeus.^[1]

Taenaran gateway: Taenarus, at the tip of the middle peninsula at the south of Peloponnese, was a conventional entrance to the underworld.^[4]

• Publius Ovidius Naso,Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• 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.

This article includes a list of Greek mythological figures with the same or similar names. If aninternal link for a specific Greek mythology article referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended Greek mythology article, if one exists.

• Set index articles on Greek mythology
• Sons of Zeus
• Children of Poseidon
• Mythological Laconians

• All set index articles