Pheidon I (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: Φείδων'A) was a king of
Argos in the 8th century BC, and seems to have been a son of
Temenus
In Greek mythology, Temenus ( el, Τήμενος, ''Tḗmenos'') was a son of Aristomachus and brother of Cresphontes and Aristodemus.
Temenus was a great-great-grandson of Heracles and helped lead the fifth and final attack on Mycenae in the ...
, a great-great-grandson of
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adopt ...
. He is often confused with another king of Argos also named
Pheidon
Pheidon (Greek: Φείδων) was an Argive ruler during the 7th century BCE and 10th in line to Temenus. He was arguably Argos's most ambitious and successful ruler during the 7th century BCE. There is a possibility that there were in fact two d ...
, who was probably one of his descendants.
Biography
He ascended the throne after defeating his brothers, most notably the future ancestor of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
,
Caranus of Macedon
Caranus or Karanos ( gr, Κάρανος, Káranos) was the first king of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia according to later traditions. According to Herodotus, however, the first king was Perdiccas I. Caranus is first reported by Theopompus and ...
who after being defeated, left to found his own kingdom, in what is now known as
Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled b ...
.
This is perhaps the Pheidon that assisted the
Pisatans to expel the
Eleian superintendents of the
Olympian Games and presided at the festival himself.
The Eleians, however, refused to recognize the Olympiad or to include it in the register, and shortly afterwards, with the aid of the
Sparta
Sparta (Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referred ...
ns, who are said to have looked upon Pheidon as having ousted them from the headship of Greece, defeated Pheidon and were reinstated in the possession of
Pisatis Pisa ( grc, Πῖσα) is a modern village situated to the east of Olympia, Greece. Currently it is not politically independent but is a neighborhood of the village of Archea Olympia, the capital of the Municipality of Ancient Olympia, of which it ...
and their former privileges.
The affair of the games has an important bearing on his date.
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 ...
(vi. 22, 2) definitely states that Pheidon presided at the festival in the 8th Olympiad (i.e. in 748 BC)
References
{{reflist
8th-century BC Greek people