Sufax

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Images of King Juba II and Queen Cleopatra Selene II. Juba believed he was a descendent of Sufax.

Sufax (also Sophax, Syphax or Sufaqs like in the name of the current city Sfax, Tunisia) was a hero or demigod from the Berber and Greek mythologies.[1]

There was a historical Berber king called Syphax.[2]

Life

According to the myth, Sufax was the son of goddess Tinjis from her second marriage to demigod Heracles, and the grandson of god Zeus and mortal Alcmene.[3][4] His half-sister was likely Iphinoe, and his half-brother (and possible half-nephew) was Palaemon, son of Iphinoe. Sufax replaced his mother’s first husband Antaeus as a guard of the country of the Berbers (or Imazighen).[5] He is said to be the founder of Tangier in memory to his mother.

According to the Berber mythology, many of the Berber kings are descendents of Suphax who defended their lands. He had a son, Diodorus, who reigned over many North African Berber tribes with the help of the Olympians.

According to the ancient Greek historian Plutarch, many of the myths were created in order to give credits to the Numidian king Juba II who considered himself a descendent of Diodorus and Hercules.

Notes

  1. ↑ Plutarch, The Parallel Lives: The Life of Sertorius
  2. ↑ Livius.org: Syphax
  3. ↑ Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 1ff.
  4. ↑ Tzetzes on Lycophron 662
  5. ↑ Apollodorus, 2.5.11; Hyginus, Fabulae 31.
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