Acacallis (mythology)

Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς means 'unwalled'[1]) in Greek mythology, was princess of Crete.[2] The Bibliotheca calls her Acalle (Ἀκάλλη).[3]

Acacallis
Princess of Crete
Member of the Cretan Royal Family
AbodeCrete
Personal information
ParentsMinos and Pasiphae or Crete
SiblingsCatreus, Ariadne, Androgeus, Xenodice, Phaedra, Glaucus and Deucalion; the Minotaur
Consort(1) Hermes, (2) Apollo
Offspring(1) Oaxes; (1) & (2) Cydon; (2) Naxos, Miletus, Amphithemis (or Garamas), Phylacides and Phylander

Family

Acacallis was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphae the daughter of Helios, or Crete the daughter of Asterion. She was the sister of Ariadne, Androgeus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Glaucus, Catreus and Xenodice.[3]

According to a Cretan mythological tradition, she had a son with Hermes, Cydon, the founder of Cydonia.[4] Other traditions give Cydon as the offspring of Acacallis and Apollo,[5][6] and thus, brother to Oaxes.[7] Yet others wrote that Acacallis mothered Cydon with Hermes, and Naxos (eponym of the island Naxos) with Apollo.[8]

Another tradition relates that Acacallis and Apollo had a son named Miletus. Still other traditions relate that another son was born of her and Apollo, named Amphithemis or Garamas (in some stories, the first mortal born). Lastly by Apollo, she was also said to be the mother of Phylacides and Phylander.[9]

Comparative table of Acacallis' family
Relation Names Sources
Apollonius Apollodorus Pausanias Antoninus Servius Stephanus
Arg. Sch. Eclog.
Parents Minos and Pasiphae
Minos and Crete
Minos
Consort Hermes
Apollo
Children Amphithemis
Cydon
Naxos
Phylacides
Phylander
Miletus
Oaxes

Mythology

Fearing her father's wrath, she exposed her son Miletus, but Apollo commanded she-wolves to nurse it until it could be taken in and raised by shepherds. He grew up strong and handsome, and Minos was seized with desire for the boy. Miletus fled Crete to avoid being becoming the eromenos of the king, and went on to found the eponymous city, Miletus.[10]

Pausanias relates that when Apollo came to Carmanor to be cleansed for the murder of Python, he mated with Acacallis (said to be a nymph in this particular version), and that from their union were born Phylacides and Phylander. People of the Cretan city Elyrus sent to Delphi a bronze statue of a goat suckling these two children, which suggests that they must have been abandoned by their mother.[9]

Acacallis was in Crete a common name for a narcissus.[11]

Notes

  1. Graves, Robert (2017). The Greek Myths - The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. p. 306. ISBN 9780241983386.
  2. Bell, Robert E. (1991). Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-CLIO. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9780874365818.
  3. Apollodorus, 3.1.2
  4. Pausanias, 8.53.4
  5. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Kydōnia
  6. Schmitz, Leonhar (1867), "Acacallis", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, p. 4
  7. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Oaxos
  8. Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 4.1492
  9. Pausanias, 10.16.5
  10. Antoninus Liberalis, 30
  11. Athenaeus, 15, p. 681; Hesychius of Alexandria s.v.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Acacallis". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

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