Alalcomenes

A Boeotian autochthon, who was believed to have given the name to the Boeotian Alalcomenae. He is said to have brought up Athena, who was born there, and to have been the first who introduced her worship.1 According to Plutarch,2 he advised Zeus to have a figure of oak-wood dressed in bridal attire, and carried about amid hymeneal songs, in order to change the anger of Hera into jealousy.

The name of the wife of Alalcomenes was Athenaïs, and that of his son, Glaucopus, both of which refer to the goddess Athena.

❧

References

Notes

  1. Pausanias. Description of Greece ix, 33.4.
  2. De Daedal. Fragm., 5.

Sources

  • Comp. Dictionary of Antiquities, s.v. Δαίδαλα.
  • Müller, K.O. Orchomenos und die Minyer, p. 213.
  • Pausanias. Description of Greece ix, 3.3.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ἀλαλκομένιον.

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