Alope

A daughter of Cercyon, who was beloved by Poseidon on account of her great beauty, and became by him the mother of a son, whom she exposed immediately after his birth. But a mare came and suckled the child until it was found by shepherds, who fell into a dispute as to who was to have the beautiful kingly attire of the boy.

The case was brought before Cercyon, who, on recognizing by the dress whose child the boy was, ordered Alope to be imprisoned in order to be put to death, and her child to be exposed again. The latter was fed and found in the same manner as before, and the shepherds called him Hippothous.

The body of Alope was changed by Poseidon into a well, which bore the same name.1 The town of Alope, in Thessaly, was believed to have derived its name from her.2 There was a monument of Alope on the road from Eleusis to Megara, on the spot where she was believed to have been killed by her father.3

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References

Notes

  1. Hyginus. Fabulae, 187; Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 5.2; Aristophanes. Birds, 533.
  2. Pherecydes ap. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ἀλόπη, where, however, Philonides speaks of an Alope as a daughter of Actor.
  3. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 39.3.

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.