Agenor (;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: Ἀγήνωρ or Αγήνορας ''Agēnor''; English translation: "heroic, manly") was in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

and history a Phoenician king of Tyre or Sidon. The Doric Greek historian

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

(c. 484–425 BC), born in the city of Halicarnassus under the Achaemenid Empire, estimated that Agenor lived either 1000 or 1600 years prior to his visit to Tyre in 450 BC at the end of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC). He was said to have reigned in that city for 63 years.

Family

Agenor was born in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

to Poseidon and

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

and he had a twin brother named Belus. The latter remained in Egypt and reigned over there while Agenor departed to Phoenicia and reigned there. In a rare version of the myth, Agenor and Belus had another brother named

Enyalios Enyalius or Enyalios (Greek: ) in Greek mythology is generally a son of Ares by Enyo and also a byname of Ares the god of war. Though Enyalius as a by-name of Ares is the most accepted version, in Mycenaean times Ares and Enyalius were considered ...

. According to other sources, he was the son of Belus and brother of

Phineus In Greek mythology, Phineus (; Ancient Greek: Φινεύς, ) or Phineas, was a king of Salmydessus in Thrace and seer, who appears in accounts of the Argonauts' voyage. Some accounts make him a king in PaphlagoniaScholia on Apollonius of Rhod ...

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

, Aegyptus and Danaus. This tradition was followed by

Tzetzes John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He was able to pr ...

but he added

Ninus Ninus ( el, Νίνος) was a mythology character who according to Greek historians writing in the Hellenistic period and later, was the founder of Nineveh (also called Νίνου πόλις "city of Ninus" in Greek), ancient capital of Assyria. In ...

as one of the six brothers. The same author claimed that there were two Agenors, the first one being the brother of Belus while the second was the son of the latter, thus uncle of the first Agenor. Sources differed also as to Agenor's children; he was said to have been the father of Europa, Cadmus,

Cilix Cilix (; Ancient Greek: Κίλιξ ''Kílix'') was, according to Greek mythology, a Phoenician prince as the son of King Agenor and Telephassa or Argiope. Etymology In her book ''Who's Who in Classical Mythology'', author Adrian Room writes an ...

Thasus In Greek mythology, Thasus or Thasos ( or ; Ancient Greek: Θάσος) was a son of PoseidonApollodorus3.1.1/ref> (or, in other versions, Agenor, Pausanias5.25.12 Scholiast on ''Euripides, Phoenissae'6/ref> PhoenixConon, ''Narrations'32/ref> o ...

and sometimes,

Syros Syros ( el, Σύρος ), also known as Siros or Syra, is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is south-east of Athens. The area of the island is and it has 21,507 inhabitants (2011 census). The largest towns are Ermoupoli, An ...

and Cepheus. Agenor's wife was variously given as Telephassa,Apollodorus
3.1.1
/ref> Argiope, Antiope, Scholiast on Euripides, ''Phoenician Women'' 5; Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'
7.165–166
/ref> and

Tyro In Greek mythology, Tyro ( grc, Τυρώ) was an Elean princess who later became Queen of Iolcus. Family Tyro was the daughter of King Salmoneus of Elis and Alcidice, daughter of King Aleus of Arcadia. She married her uncle King Cretheus ...

, with the latter giving her name to the city of Tyre. Malalas, ''Chronographia'
2.30
/ref> According to Pherecydes of Athens, his first wife was Damno, daughter of Belus, who bore him Phoenix and two daughters, Isaia and Melia, who married Aegyptus and Danaus, respectively; Agenor then fathered Cadmus with Argiope, daughter of the river-god Neilus.Gantz, p. 208; Pherecydes fr. 21 Fowler 2000, p. 289 = '' FGrHist'' 3 F 21 = Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, ''Argonautica'' 3.1177-87f In the '' Iliad'', however, Europa was clearly a daughter of Phoenix. Either Cadmus or Europa were confirmed as children of Phoenix by the ''Ehoeae'' attributed to Hesiod,

Bacchylides Bacchylides (; grc-gre, Βακχυλίδης; – ) was a Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets, which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been noted ...

, Moschus and various scholia. Cilix and Phineus were also sons of Phoenix according to Pherecydes, who also added an otherwise unknown son named Doryclus. Most later sources listed Cadmus and Cilix as sons of Agenor directly without mentioning Phoenix. On the rare occasions when he was mentioned, Phoenix was listed as the brother of Cadmus and Cilix. Whether he was included as a brother of Agenor or as a son, his role in mythology was limited to inheriting his father's kingdom and to becoming the eponym of the Phoenicians. All accounts agreed on a Phoenician king who has several children, including the two sons named Cadmus and Cilix and a daughter named Europa. A certain Eidothea, wife of Phineus, was called the sister of Cadmus and thus maybe the daughter of Agenor.

Taygete In Classical Greek mythology, Taygete el, Ταϋγέτη, , ) was a nymph, one of the Pleiades according to the '' Bibliotheca'' (3.10.1) and a companion of Artemis, in her archaic role as '' potnia theron'', "Mistress of the animals", with its ...

, usually one of the Pleiades and mother of Lacedemon by

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

was also said to be the daughter of Agenor.

Mythology

saw Agenor's daughter Europa gathering flowers and immediately fell in love with her. Zeus transformed himself into a white bull and carried Europa away to the island of Crete. He then revealed his true identity and Europa became the first queen of Crete. Agenor, meanwhile, sent Europa's brothers, Cadmus and Cilix in search of her, telling them not to return without her. In some versions of the tale, Agenor sends her other brothers as well: Phineus or Thasus (and of course Phoenix in the versions in which Cadmus's father is Agenor). As Europa could not be found, none of the brothers returned. Cadmus consulted the oracle of Delphi and was advised to travel until encountering a

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

. He was to follow this cow and to found a city where the cow would lie down; this city became Thebes. Cilix searched for her and settled down in Asia Minor. The land was called Cilicia after him. According to the chronicler Malalas, when Agenor was about to die, he order that all the land he had conquered be divided among his three sons. Phoenix took Tyre and its hinterland, and called the country Phoenicia after himself. Similarly, Syros call the country allotted to him Syria. Likewise, Cilix called the latitudes allotted to him Cilicia.

Identity and deeds

Virgil called Carthage the city of Agenor, by which he alluded to the descent of Dido from Agenor. German philologist Philipp Karl Buttmann pointed out that the genuine Phoenician name of Agenor was ''Chnas'' or ''Khna'', which was the same as Canaan, and upon these facts he built the hypothesis that Agenor or Chnas was the same as the Canaan in the books of Moses. Quintus Curtius Rufus considered Agenor to have been the founder of Sidon, and he was also popularly supposed to have introduced the

Phoenician alphabet The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad) known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. The name comes from the Phoenician civilization. The Phoenician a ...

, which was later taught by Cadmus to the Greeks and became the foundation of their own writing system.

Argive family tree

Notes

References

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, ''Odes'' translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1991
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Lucian of Samosata Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstiti ...

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Maurus Servius Honoratus Servius was a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian. He earned a contemporary reputation as the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he authored a set of commentaries on the works of Virgil. These works, ''In tria V ...

, ''In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii;'' recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881
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Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
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Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library
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Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library
*

Publius Papinius Statius Publius Papinius Statius (Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; ; ) was a Greco-Roman poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving Latin poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid''; a collection of occasional poetry, ...

'', The Achilleid'' translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
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*

Publius Vergilius Maro Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

, ''Aeneid.'' Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910
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*{{cite dictionary, last=Schachter, first=A., editor1-last=Hornblower, editor1-first=Simon, editor2-last=Spawforth, editor2-first=Antony, editor3-last=Eidinow, editor3-first=Esther, dictionary=The Oxford Classical Dictionary, date=2012, publisher=OUP Oxford, isbn=978-0-19-954556-8, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 , language=en, entry=Agenor, page=38 * Sophocles, ''The Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles e''dited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893
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Kings of Tyre Kings in Greek mythology Children of Poseidon Agenorides Phoenician characters in Greek mythology Characters in Greek mythology Phoenician mythology