Agrius

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For the genus of moths (family Sphingidae) see Agrius (genus).

Agrius (Gr. Ἄγριος) was in Greek mythology a son of Parthaon, king of Calydon in Aetolia, and Euryte; he was the brother of Oeneus (who succeeded his father as king of Calydon), Alcathous, Melas, Leucopeus, and Sterope.[1] He was father of six sons, including Melanippus and Thersites, who overthrew Oeneus and gave the kingdom to their father. Agrius and his sons were themselves overthrown by Diomedes, who reinstalled Oeneus as king. All the sons except Thersites were killed by Diomedes.[2] Apollodorus places these events before the expedition of the Greeks against Troy, while Hyginus states that Diomedes, when he heard, after the fall of Troy, of the misfortune of his grandfather Oeneus, hastened back and expelled Agrius, who then committed suicide;[3] ac­cording to others, Agrius and his sons were all slain by Diomedes.[4][5]

There was another mythological Agrius who was a son of Odysseus by Circe and a brother of Latinus and Telegonus, mentioned only in Hesiod's Theogony.[6]

The city of Agrinio, the largest city in Aetolia, took its name from Agrius.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), “Agrius”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 82 
  2. ^ Apollodorus, i. 7. § 10, 8. § 5, &c.
  3. ^ Hyginus, Fabluae 175, comp. 242 and Antonin. Lib. 37
  4. ^ Comp. Pausanias, Description of Greece ii. 25. § 2
  5. ^ Ovid, Heroides ix. 153
  6. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 1011f
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