Rhadamanthys

A son of Zeus and Europa, and brother of king Minos of Crete,1 or, according to others, a son of Hephaestus.2 From fear of his brother he fled to Ocaleia in Boeotia, where he settled and became a famous lawmaker. He there married Alcmene after Amphitryon's death.

After death he was granted the position of judge of the underworld for the wisdom of his judgments throughout life. He is the Lord of Elysium and judge of the men of Asia. The other two judges are Aeacus, the guardian of the keys of Hades, and Minos, the judge who held the final vote.

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References

Notes

  1. Homer. Iliad xiv, 322.
  2. Pausanias. Description of Greece viii, 53.2.

Sources

  • Homer. Odyssey iv, 564; vii, 323.
  • Pindar. Olympian Odes ii, 137.
  • Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 1.2, ii, 4.11.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.