Portheus

In Greek mythology, Portheus (Ancient Greek: Πορθέα) may refer to various figures:

  • Portheus, an Arcadian prince as one of the 50 sons of the impious King Lycaon either by the naiad Cyllene,[1] Nonacris[2] or by unknown woman. He and his brothers were the most nefarious and carefree of all people. To test them, Zeus visited them in the form of a peasant. These brothers mixed the entrails of a child into the god's meal, whereupon the enraged king of the gods threw the meal over the table. Portheus was killed, along with his brothers and their father, by a lightning bolt of the god.[3]
  • Portheus, also known as Porthaon, a Calydonian king and father of Oeneus.[4]
  • Portheus, father of Echion, one of the Achaeans who fought at the Trojan War.[5]
  1. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 1.13.1
  2. ^ Pausanias, 8.17.6
  3. ^ Apollodorus, 3.8.1
  4. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 2 as cited in Nicander's Metamorphoses
  5. ^ Apollodorus, E.5.20