Phorbas
A son of Lapithes and Orsinome, and a brother of Periphas. The Rhodians, in pursuance of an oracle, are said to have invited him into their island to deliver it from snakes, and afterwards to have honored him with heroic worship.1 From this circumstance he was called Ophiuchus, and is said by some to have been placed among the stars.2
According to another tradition, Phorbas went from Thessaly to Olenos, where Alector, king of Elis, made use of his assistance against Pelops, and shared his kingdom with him. Phorbas then gave his daughter Diogeneia in marriage to Alector, and he himself married Hyrmine, a sister of Alector, by whom he became the father of Augeas and Actor.3
He is also described as a bold boxer, and to have plundered the temple of Delphi along with the Phlegyes, but to have been defeated by Apollo.4
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References
Notes
- Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library v, 58.
- Hyginus. Poetical Astronomy ii, 14, who calls him a son of Triopas and Hiscilla; comp. Pausanias. Description of Greece vii, 26.5.
- Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library iv, 69; Eustathius on Homer, p. 303; Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, i, 172; Pausanias. Description of Greece v, 1.8; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library ii, 5.5.
- Scholiast on Homer's Iliad xxiii, 660; Ovid. Metamorphoses xii, 414; xii, 322.
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.