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 of ...

, Thesprotus (

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 ...

: Θεσπρωτός) may refer to two individuals: *Thesprotus, an

Arcadian Arcadian may refer to: * Arcadian, someone or something from, or related to: ** Arcadia (region), the ancient Greek region ** Arcadia (regional unit), the region in modern Greece ** Accademia degli Arcadi, the Italian literary academy founded in ...

prince as one of the 50 sons of the impious King Lycaon either by the

naiad In Greek mythology, the naiads (; grc-gre, ναϊάδες, naïádes) are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who ...

Cyllene, Nonacris or by unknown woman. He was the eponymous hero of

Thesprotia Thesprotia (; el, Θεσπρωτία, ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Epirus region. Its capital and largest town is Igoumenitsa. Thesprotia is named after the Thesprotians, an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the re ...

. His son was

Ambrax Ambrax (; Ancient Greek: Άμβραξ) was a Greek mythological king of the city of Ambracia located in the region in Epirus in ancient Greece. He was king when the exiled Aeneas came to his city. He was son of Dexamenus that was in turn son of Her ...

eponymous of

Ambracia Ambracia (; grc-gre, Ἀμβρακία, occasionally , ''Ampracia'') was a city of ancient Greece on the site of modern Arta. It was captured by the Corinthians in 625 BC and was situated about from the Ambracian Gulf, on a bend of the navigab ...

. Thresprotus and his siblings were the most nefarious and carefree of all people. To test them,

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 religion, ...

visited them in the form of a peasant. They mixed the entrails of a child into the god's meal, whereupon the enraged the king of the gods threw the meal over the table. Thesprotus was killed, along with his brothers and their father, by a lightning bolt of the god. *Thesprotus, king of the country where

Lake Avernus __NOTOC__ Lake Avernus ( it, Lago d'Averno) is a volcanic crater lake located in the Avernus crater in the Campania region of southern Italy, around west of Pozzuoli. It is near the volcanic field known as the Phlegraean Fields (') and comprises ...

is said to be, related to the myth of

Atreus In Greek mythology, Atreus ( , ; from ἀ-, "no" and τρέω, "tremble", "fearless", gr, Ἀτρεύς ) was a king of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Collectively, ...

and

Thyestes In Greek mythology, Thyestes (pronounced , gr, Θυέστης, ) was a king of Olympia. Thyestes and his brother, Atreus, were exiled by their father for having murdered their half-brother, Chrysippus, in their desire for the throne of Olympi ...

. The latter fled to Thesprotus after his brother killed his infant sons. Later on, Atreus met

Pelopia In Greek mythology, Pelopia or Pelopea or Pelopeia ( Ancient Greek: Πελόπεια) was a name attributed to four individuals: * Pelopia, a Theban princess as one of the Niobids, children of King Amphion and Niobe, daughter of King Tantalus ...

, daughter of Thyestes, and thinking that the girl was Thesprotus's daughter, he asked the king to have her be given to him in marriage.

Hyginus Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Gramma ...

, ''Fabulae'' 88

Notes

References

* Apollodorus, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
* Dionysus of Halicarnassus, ''Roman Antiquities.'' English translation by Earnest Cary in the Loeb Classical Library, 7 volumes. Harvard University Press, 1937-1950
Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
*Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ''Antiquitatum Romanarum quae supersunt'', ''Vol I-IV''. . Karl Jacoby. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1885
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
*

Gaius Julius Hyginus Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Gramma ...

, ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* Pausanias, ''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
*Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
*Who's Who in Classical Mytholog

By Michael Grant, John Hazel {{Greek myth index Princes in Greek mythology Sons of Lycaon Mythological kings of Arcadia Kings in Greek mythology Arcadian characters in Greek mythology Arcadian mythology Epirotic mythology