Phalerus

In Greek mythology, Phalerus (/fəˈlrəs/; Ancient Greek: Φάληρος) was the son of Alcon from Athens. He is counted among the Argonauts.[1][2][3][4] He also attended the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodamia.[5]

Mythology

Phalerus was Alcon's only son, his father took pride in sending him forth to join the Argonauts, so that he would shine conspicuous among those bold heroes, “yet no other sons had he to care for his old age and livelihood”.[1]

It is related of Phalerus that he escaped from Athens to Chalcis in Euboea together with his daughter Chalciope; the Chalcidians refused to deliver him up at the demand of his father.[6] He is credited with having founded Gyrton;[7] he and Acamas are also the reputed founders of the temple of Aphrodite and Isis in Soli.[8] In Phalerum, of which he presumably was the eponym, there was an altar to his and Theseus’s children.[2]

Phalerus was also the name of a Trojan killed by Neoptolemus.[9]

  • The field of Phaleristics – the study of medals – is derived from Phalerus's name.
  • The Argonaut Phalerus (portrayed by actor Andrew Faulds) appears as a minor character in the 1963 fantasy film Jason and the Argonauts, in whose climactic end battle he and his companion Castor are – contrary to mythology – slain by a group of undead skeletons.

Notes

  1. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1. 96 - 97
  2. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1. 1. 4
  3. Hyginus, Fabulae, 14
  4. Argonautica Orphica, 142
  5. Shield of Heracles, 179
  6. Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1. 97
  7. Argonautica Orphica, 143
  8. Strabo, Geography, 14. 6. 3
  9. Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 8. 293

References


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