In Greek mythology, Lityerses was a son of Midas. He challenged people to harvesting contests and beheaded those he beat. Heracles won the contest and killed him. He was also known as the reaper of men.
According to the Iliad (v.860), Midas' son was indeed Lityerses. However, in some variations of the myth, Midas had a daughter, Zoë or "life" instead.
The Phrygian reapers used to celebrate his memory in a harvest-song which bore the name of Lityerses. The song for Lityerses was, according to one tradition, a comic version of the lament sung by the Black Sea people, the Mariandyni for Bormos, a son of wealthy man.[1]
Theocritus in his tenth Idyll gives a specimen of a Greek harvest-song addressed to Demeter, which is called 'the Song of the Divine Lityerses'. In this song, there is no mention of the legend; it is indeed only an ordinary reaping-song.