Phorcys

Also Phorcus (Φόρκος), Phorcyn (Φόρκυν).* According to the Homeric poems, an old man ruling over the sea, or "the old man of the sea," to whom a harbor in Ithaca was dedicated. He is described as the father of the nymph Thoosa.1

Later writers call him a son of Pontus and Gaea, and a brother of Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto.2 By his sister Ceto he became the father of the Graeae and Gorgones,3 the Hesperian dragon Ladon,4 and the Hesperides;5 and by Hecate or Crataeis, he was the father of Scylla.6

Servius7 calls him a son of Neptune (Poseidon) and Thoosa.8

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* The form Φόρκος occurs chiefly in poetry ; Φόρκυς is the common name, and Φόρκυν, -υνος, is found only in late writers.9

References

Notes

  1. Odyssey i, 71; xiii, 96, 345.
  2. Hesiod. Theogony, 237; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library i, 2.6.
  3. Hesiod. Theogony, 270 ff.
  4. ibid., 333 ff.
  5. Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, iv, 1399.
  6. Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, iv, 828; Eustathius on Homer, p. 1714; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 45.
  7. on Aeneid v, 824.
  8. Comp. Muncker, on Hyginus' Fabulae: Preface. p. 4.
  9. Eustathius on Homer, pp. 364, 1108.

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.