Iasus

In Greek mythology, Iasus (Ancient Greek: Ἴασος) or Iasius (Ancient Greek: Ἰάσιος) was the name of several individuals:

• Iasus, king of Argos. His genealogy is confused; according to different sources, he was:
  • Son of Phoroneus, brother of Agenor and Pelasgus^[1][2]
  • Son of Argus and either Evadne or Peitho^[3]
  • Son of Argus Panoptes and Ismene, daughter of Asopus; possible father of Io^[4]
  • Son of Io^[5][6]
  • Son of Triopas and again brother of Pelasgus and Agenor; successor to Agenor on the throne;^[7] possibly the father of Io by Leucane^[8]
• Iasus (Iasius), father of Atalanta^[9] by Clymene, daughter of Minyas; he was the son of King Lycurgus of Arcadia by either Eurynome or Cleophyle. His brothers were Ancaeus, Epochus and Amphidamas.^[10][11]
• Iasus (Iasius), one of the Dactyli^[12] or Curetes.^[13]
• Iasius, son of Eleuther and father of Chaeresilaus.^[14]
• Iasus, son of Sphelus (himself son of Bucolus), leader of the Athenians, was killed by Aeneas in the Trojan War.^[15]
• Iasus, king of Cyprus, father of Dmetor. In the Odyssey, he appears in a story told (and made up) by Odysseus.^[16]
• Iasus, father of Palinurus^[17] and Iapis.^[18]
• Iasus, father of Phaedimus. His son was killed by Amyntas in the battle of Seven Against Thebes.^[19]
• Iasus, father of Nepeia, who married King Olympus and gave her name to the plain of Nepeia near Cyzicus.^[20]
• Iasus (Iasius), possible father of Amphion.^[21][22]
• Iasius, winner of the horse-racing contest at the Olympic games held by Heracles.^[23]
• Iasius, same as Iasion.^[24]

References

1. Scholia on Homer, Iliad, 3. 75
2. Eustathius on Homer, 385. 40
3. Scholia on Euripides, Phoenician Women, 1116; on Orestes, 932
4. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 1. 3
5. Scholia on Odyssey, 18. 246
6. Eustathius on Iliad, 1845
7. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2. 16. 1
8. Scholia on Euripides, Orestes, 932
9. Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis, 217
10. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 9. 2
11. Hyginus, Fabulae, 70 & 99
12. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5. 14. 7
13. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5. 7. 6
14. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9. 20. 2
15. Homer, Iliad, 15. 332, 338
16. Homer, Odyssey, 17. 443
17. Virgil, Aeneid, 5. 843
18. Virgil, Aeneid, 12. 392
19. Statius, Thebaid, 8. 438
20. Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1. 1116
21. Homer, Odyssey, 11. 233
22. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9. 36. 8
23. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8. 48. 1
24. The form "Iasion" was also used by Pausanias and Aelian to refer to the father of Atalante.

Sources

• Smith, Wiliam. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 556
• Bulfinch, Thomas (1979). "Stories of Gods and Heroes: Chapter XVIII: Meleager and Atalanta". Bulfinch's Mythology. Avenel Books. p. 138. ISBN 0-517-27415-9.