Cychreus

A son of Poseidon and Salamis. He became king of the island of Salamis, which was called after him Cychreia, and which he delivered from a dragon. He was subsequently honored as a hero, and had a sanctuary in Salamis.1 According to other traditions, Cychreus himself was called a dragon on account of his savage nature, and was expelled from Salamis by Eurylochus; but he was received by Demeter at Eleusis, and appointed a priest to her temple.2 Others again said that Cychreus had brought up a dragon, which was expelled by Eurylochus.3

There was a tradition that, while the battle of Salamis was going on, a dragon appeared in one of the Athenian ships, and that an oracle declared this dragon to be Cychreus.4

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References

Notes

  1. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 12.7; Diodorus Siculus, iv, 72.
  2. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Kuchreios.
  3. Strabo. Geography ix, 393.
  4. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 36.1; comp. Tzetzes on Lycophron, 110, 175; Plutarch. Theseus, 10; Solon, 9.

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.