Thoas (king of the Taurians)

This article is about the Taurian king who pursued Orestes and Iphigenia. For the king of Lemnos saved by his daughter Hypsipyle, see Thoas (king of Lemnos). For other mythical figures of this name, see Thoas (mythology).
An antique fresco in Pompeii depicting a scene from 'Iphigenia in Tauris' showing Orestes, Pylades and King Thoas

In Greek mythology, Thoas (Ancient Greek: Θόας, lit. 'fleet, swift')[1] was a king of the Taurians, a barbaric tribe in Crimea.[2] He was king when Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia was taken to the land of the Taurians, and became a priestess of Artemis there. He was a character in Euripides' play Iphigenia among the Taurians. He is sometimes identified with the Thoas who was the king of Lemnos and the son of Dionysus and Ariadne, and the father of Hypsipyle.[3]

According to the Greek grammarian Antoninus Liberalis, the 2nd-century BC poet Nicander said that Thoas was the son of Borysthenes,[4] god of a major river to the far north of Greece (now the Dnieper).

  1. ^ LSJ, s.v. Θόας.
  2. ^ Gantz, pp. 686–687; Grimal s.v. Thoas 3; Tripp, s.v. Thoas 1.
  3. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 120 considers them to be the same; cf. Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 300–303. Parada, s.v. Thoas 3 treats them as the same, however Grimal (s.vv. Thoas 1, Thoas 3); Tripp (s.vv. Thoas 1, Thoas 2); and Smith (s.vv. Thoas 2, Thoas 4) all treat them separately, with Tripp s.v. Thoas 2 saying that "Hyginus confuses this Thoas [the king of Lemnos] with Thoas the king of the Taurians.
  4. ^ Parada, s.v. Thoas 3; Antoninus Liberalis, 27