Dexamenus

A centaur who lived in Bura in Achaea, which town derived its name from his large stable for oxen.1 According to others, he was a king of Olenus, and the father of Deianeira, whom Heracles seduced during his stay with Dexamenus, who had hospitably received him. Heracles on parting promised to return and marry her. But in his absence the centaur Eurytion sued for Deianeira's hand, and her father out of fear promised her to him. On the wedding day Heracles returned and slew Eurytion.2

Deianeira is usually called a daughter of Oeneus, but Apollodorus3 calls the daughter of Dexamenus, Mnesimache, and Diodorus4 Hippolyte.

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References

Notes

  1. Scholiast on Callimachus. Hymn to Delos, 102; Etymologicum Magnum, s.v.
  2. Hyginus. Fabulae, 33.
  3. The Library ii, 5.5.
  4. iv, 33.

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.