Aleuadae
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In Antiquity the family of the Aleuadae of Larissa in Thessaly were an artistocratic kinship group who claimed common descent from an eponymous Aleuas, whose name signified "averter [of evil]",[1] as Grace Harriet Macurdy pointed out in 1919.[2] Aleuas plyed no role outside his kinship's veneration of him, at an unidentified sanctuary in Thessaly, but Aelian[3] recorded the myth of how he became a divinely-inspired seer, in the time-honoured fashion of a gift from a serpent: while he was tending sheep on the slopes of Mount Ossa, a serpent became enamoured of him, kissed his hair, licked his face and brought him gifts. The myth of Aleuas in Aelian "brings him into the circle of divine healers of the order of Melampus, another herdsman-seer of Thessaly, and Heracles" (Macurdy). According to the Bibliotheke traditionally attributed to Apollodorus, a grateful brood of serpents, in return for his having erected a funeral pyre for their serpent-mother, purified his ears with their tongues, so that he might understand the language of birds, and interpret their flight in augury.
Heracles Aleos was the ancestor of the Aleuadae, Pindar asserted,[4] attaching the local hero's name to the greater Hellenic culture hero, as a daimon of health, averter of evil incantations.
In early historic times, when Thessaly was still largely governed by a few aristocratic families, the authority of the Aleuadae in Larissa extended over the whole district of Pelasgiotis. This powerful family possessed for many generations before 369 BC the privilege of furnishing the tagus, or chief commander, of the combined forces of Thessaly. The principal rivals of the Aleuadae were the Scopadae of Crannon. In the 6th century BCE, the lyric poet Anacreon accompanied Simonides to the court of Echecrates, a dynast of the house of the Aleuadae.
[edit] Revolt
At the time of the Greco-Persian War, the Aleuadae led the support for the Persians, or "medism", of Thessaly.
