Lyncus
A king of Scythia, or, according to others, of Sicily. The Greek hero Triptolemus came to him with the gifts of Demeter, and Lynceus, in order to secure the merit to himself, attempted to kill him in his sleep. However, just as he was about to drive a dagger into the hero's heart, Demeter intervened and transformed Lyncus into a lynx (λύγκας, lynkas).
❧
References
Sources
- Ovid. Metamorphoses v, 650 ff.
- Servius on Virgil's Aeneid i, 327.
- Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.