In Greek mythology, Cretheus (; Ancient Greek: Κρηθεύς Krētheus) may refer to the following characters:
- Cretheus, king and founder of Iolcus, the son of King Aeolus of Aeolia (son of Hellen) by either Enarete[1] or Laodice.[2] He was the brother of Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, Perieres, Canace, Alcyone, Peisidice, Calyce and Perimede. Cretheus's wives were Tyro, his niece, and Demodice or Biadice.[3] With Tyro, he fathered Aeson, Pheres, and Amythaon.[4] When Cretheus found out that Tyro had an affair with Poseidon, he left her and married Demodice.[5] He also had several daughters, namely Hippolyte, future wife of Acastus[6] (otherwise known as Astydamia[7]), Myrina who married Thoas,[8] and possibly Phalanna, eponym of Phalanna.[9]
- Cretheus, also known as Cres, the Cretan father of an unnamed daughter who became the mother of Asterius by Teutamus.[10]
- ^ Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 10(a); Apollodorus, 1.7.3
- ^ Scholia on Homer, Odyssey 11.235
- ^ Hyginus, De Astronomica 2.20; she unsuccessfully tried to seduce Phrixus and falsely accused him of an attempt to rape her, cf. the stories of Phaedra and Hippolytus, Stheneboea and Bellerophon, Astydamia and Peleus, Phthia/Clytia and Phoenix, Philonome and Tenes, Ochne and Eunostus
- ^ Homer, Odyssey 11.259; Apollodorus, 1.9.11; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 175
- ^ Hamilton, Edith (1942). Mythology. Little, Brown and Company. p. 299. ISBN 9780316438520.
- ^ Pindar, Nemean Ode 4.57
- ^ Apollodorus, 3.13.2
- ^ Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.601
- ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Φάλαννα
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.60.2