Thespius

A son of Erichthonius, who, according to some, founded the town of Thespiae in Boeotia. His descendants are called the Thespiades, his fifty daughters by Megamede. He entertained Heracles for fifty days, and each night, as Heracles went forth to hunt a lion, he sent a different daughter to lie with the hero, in the hope that they might bear him grandchildren. They indeed gave birth to fifty sons.

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References

Sources

  • Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library iv, 29; comp. Scholiast on Homer's Iliad ii, 948.
  • Pausanias. Description of Greece ix, 26.6.
  • Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library ii, 4.10.
  • Seneca. Hercules Oetaeus, 369.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.