Actor (mythology) in the context of "Penelope"

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⭐ Core Definition: Actor (mythology)

Actor (Ancient Greek: Ἄκτωρ; gen.: Ἄκτoρος Aktoros) is a very common name in Greek mythology. Here is a selection of characters that share this name (which means 'leader', from the verb άγω: to lead or carry):

  • Actor, father of Eurytus who was an ally of Phineus during his fight with Perseus.
  • Actor, a king of Phthia, was said to be the son of King Myrmidon and Peisidice, daughter of Aeolus. Some say that Actor died childless, but others say that he is the father of Eurytion, his successor or of Irus, who was also called the father of Eurytion. According to Diodorus, Actor without an heir, was succeeded by Peleus who fled to his country from Aegina for killing his half-brother, Phocus. The hero was then purified by the king for his sins. This story was usually attributed to Actor's possible son Eurytion who was slain accidentally by his son-in-law Peleus. This Actor married Aegina, daughter of the river god Asopus, and had several children, among them Menoetius. Menoetius was counted among the Argonauts, and was the father of Patroclus (Achilles' very close companion).
  • Actor, son of King Deioneus of Phocis and Diomede, daughter of Xuthus, thus a brother of Asterodeia, Aenetus, Phylacus, and Cephalus. This Actor could be the man referred by Hesiod as the father of Protesilaus, one of the suitors of Helen of Troy.
  • Actor, son of Azeus, descendant of Phrixus, was ruler of the Minyans of Orchomenus. He was father of Astyoche, who was seduced by the war-god Ares and bore him twin sons, named Ascalaphus and Ialmenus. These last two led the Minyan contingent to the Trojan War.
  • Actor, son of Phorbas and Hyrmine, thus a brother of Augeas and Tiphys. He was king of Elis, and founded the city of Hyrmina, which he named after his mother. This Actor married Molione and became by her father of the twins known as the Molionides, Eurytus and Cteatus.
  • Actor, the Elean son of Poseidon and Agamede, daughter of King Augeas. He was the brother of Belus and Dictys.
  • Actor and Eurythemis were in one source called parents of Ancaeus (who other sources call the son of Lycurgus) and grandparents of Agapenor.
  • Actor, the Achaean son of Hippasus from Pellene and one of the Argonauts.
  • Actor, a Lapith. He was killed by the centaur Clanis.
  • Actor, father of Sthenelus. Sthenelus followed Heracles in his campaign against the Amazons and was killed by them.
  • Actor, son of Acastus, was accidentally killed by Peleus while hunting. As a retribution, Peleus sent to Acastus some cows and sheep that had been killed by a wolf sent by Thetis.
  • Actor, son of Oenops, brother of Hyperbius. He was among the defenders of the Borraean Gate at Thebes when the Seven against Thebes attacked the city, and confronted Parthenopaeus at the gate.
  • Actor, a warrior in the army of the Seven against Thebes. He saw a chasm open in the earth that swallowed Amphiaraus.
  • Actor, an old Theban servant of Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus. During the war of the Seven against Thebes, he accompanied her to the walls when that army appeared in front of the barriers outside the city. Because of his age, Actor cannot follow the princess and he just stayed halfway up the climb to listen to her lament when she saw her brother in the enemy army.
  • Actor, father of Echecles. His son married Polymele, mother of Eudoros by Hermes.
  • Actor, a shepherd in Lemnos who befriended Philoctetes in Euripides' play Philoctetes. According to some accounts, he was instead the king of Lemnos whose shepherd named Iphimachus, son of Dolops, took care the abandoned hero after he was bitten by a snake.
  • Actor, one of the companions of the exiled Aeneas. He is probably the same who in another passage is called an Auruncan, and of whose conquered lance Turnus made a boast. This story seems to have given rise to the proverbial saying "Actoris spolium" ("the spoil of Actor"), for any poor spoil in general.
  • Actor, father of Actoris (though unnamed in the Odyssey) who was given by Icarius to his daughter Penelope after her wedding with Odysseus to serve as her personal handmaiden.
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Actor (mythology) in the context of Menoetius

Menoetius or Menoetes (/məˈnʃiəs/; Ancient Greek: Μενοίτιος, Μενοίτης Menoitios), meaning doomed might, is a name that refers to three distinct persons from Greek mythology:

  • Menoetius, a second generation Titan, son of Iapetus and Clymene or Asia, and a brother of Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus. Menoetius was killed by Zeus with a flash of lightning in the Titanomachy, and banished to Tartarus. His name means "doomed might", deriving from the Ancient Greek words menos ("might, power") and oitos ("doom, pain"). Hesiod described Menoetius as hubristic, meaning exceedingly prideful and impetuous to the very end. From what his name suggests, along with Hesiod's own account, Menoetius was perhaps the Titan god of violent anger and rash action.
  • Menoetes, guard of the cattle of Hades. During Heracles twelfth labor, which required him to steal the hound Cerberus from the Underworld, he slays one of Hades' cattle. A certain Menoetes, son of Keuthonymos, challenges Heracles to a wrestling match, during which Heracles hugs him and breaks his ribs before Persephone intervenes.
  • Menoetius from Opus was one of the Argonauts, and son of Actor and Aegina. He was the father of Patroclus and Myrto by either Damocrateia, Sthenele, Philomela Polymele, or Periopis. Among the settlers of Locris, Menoetius was chiefly honored by King Opus II, son of Zeus and Protogeneia.
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Actor (mythology) in the context of Asterodia

In Greek mythology, the name Asterodia, Asterodeia, or Asterodea (/æstəˈrɒdiə/; Ancient Greek: Ἀστεροδεία, Ἀστεροδία) refers to:

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Actor (mythology) in the context of Damocrateia

In Greek mythology, Damocrateia (Ancient Greek: Δαμοκράτεια) was the daughter of Aegina and Zeus, and thus, sister of Aeacus, King of Aegina. She became the mother of Patroclus by her half-brother Menoetius, son of King Actor of Opus. Otherwise, the hero was called the son of Philomela or Polymele, Sthenele or Periopis.

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Actor (mythology) in the context of Opus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Opus (Ancient Greek: Ὀπόεις) may refer to the following characters:

  • Opus I, king of the Epeians and son of Zeus by Protogeneia, daughter of Deucalion. Opus was the father of Cambyse or Protogeneia who was carried off by Zeus to Mt. Maenalus in Arcadia where she bore a son, the below Opus who was then adopted by Locrus as his own child, for the latter was barren.
  • Opus II, son of Locrus or Zeus by Cabya or Cambyse and thus a grandson of Opus I. From him, a portion of the Locris derived their name Opuntii. Locrus gave Opus a city and a people to govern and strangers came to him from Argos, Thebes, Arcadia and Pisa. But among the settlers, he chiefly honored the son of Actor and Aegina, Menoetius who became the father of Patroclus. In some accounts, after a quarrel between Opus and his father Locrus, the former took a great number of the citizens with him and went to seek an oracle about transplanting a new colony. The oracle told him to build a city where he should chance to be bitten by a wooden dog, and as he was crossing to the other sea, Opus trod upon a cynosbatus (a sweet brier). Greatly troubled by the wound, he spent several days there, during which he explored the country and found the cities Physcus and Oeantheia and the other cities which the so-called Ozolian Locrians inhabited. Opus was the father of Cynus, father of Hodoedocus, father of Oileus, father of Ajax the Lesser.
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Actor (mythology) in the context of Diomede

Diomede (/ˌd.əˈmd/; Ancient Greek: Διομήδη Diomēdē) is the name of four women in Greek mythology:

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Actor (mythology) in the context of Deioneus

In Greek mythology, Deioneus (/dˈnəs/; Ancient Greek: Δηιονεύς means "ravager") or Deion (/ˈd.ɒn/; Ancient Greek: Δηίων) is a name attributed to the following individuals:

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Actor (mythology) in the context of Pisidice

In Greek mythology, Pisidice (/pˈsɪdɪs/, Ancient Greek: Πεισιδίκη, Peisidíkē, "to convince or persuade") or Peisidice was one of the following individuals:

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Actor (mythology) in the context of Aenetus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Aenetus (Ancient Greek: Αἰνετὸς means "praiseworthy") was a Phocian prince as the son of King Deioneus and Diomede, daughter of Xuthus. He was the brother of Cephalus, Actor, Phylacus and Asterodia.

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Actor (mythology) in the context of Cleonae (Argolis)

Cleonae or Kleonai (Ancient Greek: Κλεωναί) was a city in ancient Peloponnesus, described by writers of the Roman period as a city of Argolis, but never included in the Argeia or territory of Argos, in the flourishing period of Greek history. Cleonae was situated on the road from Argos to Corinth, at the distance of 120 stadia from the former city, and 80 stadia from the latter. There was a narrow pass through the mountains, called Tretus, leading from Argos to Cleonae. Cleonae stood in a small plain upon a river flowing into the Corinthian Gulf a little westward of Lechaeum. In its territory was Mount Apesas, now Mount Phoukas, connected with the Acrocorinthus by a rugged range of hills. Both Strabo and Pausanias describe Cleonae as a small place; and the former writer, who saw it from the Acrocorinthus, says that it is situated upon a hill surrounded on all sides by buildings, and well walled, so as to deserve the epithet given to it by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad – ἐϋκτιμένας Κλεωνάς ('well-built Cleonae'). Statius also speaks of "ingenti turritae mole Cleonae."

Cleonae possessed only a small territory. It derived its chief importance from the Nemean Games being celebrated in its territory, in the grove of Nemea, between Cleonae and Phlius. Hence the festival is called by Pindar ἀγὼν Κλεωναῖος ('the Cleonaean games') Heracles is said to have slain Eurytus and Cteatus, the sons of Actor, near Cleonae; and Diodorus mentions a temple of Heracles erected in the neighbourhood of the city in memory of that event. The ruins of this sanctuary, a Prostyle of Doric order, still exist.

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