Absyrtus

Or Apsyrtus, a son of Aeëtes, king of Colchis, and brother of Medea. His mother is stated differently: Hyginus1 calls her Ipsia, Apollodorus2 Idyia, Apollonius3 Asterodia, and others Hecate, Neaera, or Eurylyte.4

When Medea fled with Jason, she took her brother Absyrtus with her, and when she was nearly overtaken by her father, she murdered her brother, cut his body in pieces and strewed them on the road, that her father might thus be detained by gathering the limbs of his child. Tomi, the place where this horror was committed, was believed to have derived its name from τέμνω (temnō), "cut."5

According to another tradition Absyrtus was not taken by Medea, but was sent out by his father in pursuit of her. He overtook her in Corcyra, where she had been kindly received by king Alcinous, who refused to surrender her to Absyrtus. When he overtook her a second time in the island of Minerva, he was slain by Jason.6

A tradition followed by Pacuvius,7 Justin,8 and Diodorus,9 called the son of Aeëtes, who was murdered by Medea, Aegialeus.

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References

Notes

  1. Fabulae, 13.
  2. The Library i, 9.23.
  3. Argonautica iii, 241.
  4. Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, l.c.
  5. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library i, 9.24; Ovid. Tristia iii, 9; compare Apollonius Rhodius, iv, 338 ff., 460 ff.
  6. Hyginus. Fabulae, 23.
  7. Cicero. On the Nature of the Gods iii, 19.
  8. xlii, 3.
  9. iv, 45.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.