Macareus (son of Aeolus)

Macareus or Macar was, in Greek mythology, the son of Aeolus, though sources disagree as to which bearer of this name was his father: it could either be Aeolus the lord of the winds,[1] or Aeolus the king of Tyrrhenia.[2][3] His mother was, at least in the latter case, Amphithea.

Macareus and his sister Canace fell in love with each other and had a child together. Canace was ordered to kill herself and the baby exposed by Aeolus after he had discovered this, and Macareus took his own life.[2][4][5]

Macareus, son of Aeolus, is also given as the father of Amphissa or Issa, who was seduced by Apollo in disguise of a shepherd.[6][7] Ancient sources do not clarify whether she was the child of Macareus by Canace, or a different child by another unknown consort. In Ovid's account the child of Canace apparently doesn't survive.

References

  1. ↑ Ovid, Heroids, 11. 6 - 16
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pseudo-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories, 28
  3. ↑ Canace, but not Macareus, was included on the list of children of Aeolus the son of Hellen in Hesiod, Catalogues of Women frg. 10(a); Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1. 7. 3
  4. ↑ Ovid, Heroides, 11
  5. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae, 238, 242
  6. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10. 38. 4
  7. ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses, 6. 124