Agenor

A son of Poseidon and Libya, king of Phoenicia, and twin-brother of Belus.1 He married Telephassa, by whom he became the father of Cadmus, Phoenix, Cilix, Thasus, Phineus, and according to some of Europa also.2

After his daughter Europa had been carried off by Zeus, Agenor sent out his sons in search of her, and enjoined them not to return without their sister. As Europa was not to be found, none of them returned, and all settled in foreign countries.3 Virgil4 calls Carthage the city of Agenor, by which he alludes to the descent of Dido from Agenor.

His descendants are known as Agenorides.

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References

Notes

  1. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library ii, 1.4.
  2. Scholiast on Euripides' Phoenician Women, 5; Hyginus. Fabulae, 178; Pausanias. Description of Greece v, 25.7; Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, ii, 178; iii, 1185.
  3. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 1.1; Hyginus. Fabulae, 178.
  4. Aeneid i, 338.

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.