Abas

Αβας

There are three heroes of this name in Classical Mythology, but they are not easily distinguishable.

1. The earliest Abas gave his name to the Abantides, a tribe in Euboea which is mentioned in the Iliad. He is said to have been the son of Poseidon and the nymph Arethusa, goddess of a spring near Chalcis, but a late Athenian myth makes him a descendant of Metion, the son of Erectheus, and therefore the son of Chalcon who was the son of Metion. Abas had two sons, Chalcodon and Canethus.
    
2. The best known Abas was the king of Argos, son of Lynceus and Hypermestra. In his veins flowed the blood of the two feuding brothers, Danaus and Egyptus and he was the ancestor of Perseus and his family (Table 31). He was considered to be the founder of the Phocian town of Abae. With his wife Aglaea, Abas had twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus, and a daughter, Idomene, who married Amythaon (Table 1). He is also said to have had an illegitimate son Lyrcus, who gave his name to the district of Lyrceia in the Peloponnese.
    
3. Yet another Abas was the son of Melampus, the grandson of Amythaon and consequently the great-grandson of the preceding Abas. He is said to have been the father of Lysimache, the wife of Talaus and mother of Adrastus (Table 1), the soothsayer Idmon and of Coeranus (see Polyidus).

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources:

1. - Homer, Il. 2, 536ff. and schol.; 4, 464
   - Eustath. p. 281, 43
   - Hyg. Fab. 157
   - Steph. Byz. s.v. 'Αβαντις and 'Αβαι
   - Strabo 10, 1, 3, p. 445
   - Euripides, Archelaus fragments 2, 5 Austin (P. Hamb. 118)
   - Nauck, TGF, edn 2, unattributed fragments 454
   - Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 1, 77ff. with schol.
    
2. - Apollod. Bibl. 2, 2, 1
   - Paus. 2, 12, 2; 2, 16, 2; 10, 35, 1
    
3. - Apollod. Bibl. 1, 9, 13
   - Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 1, 139ff. with schol.
   - PAus. 1, 43, 5

From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (London, 1880)

ABAS (`'Abas). 1. A son of Metaneira, was changed by Demeter into a lizard, because he mocked the goddess when she had come on her wanderings into the house of her mother, and drank eagerly to quench her thirst. (Nicander, Theriaca; Natal. Com. v. 14; Ov. Met. v. 450.) Other traditions relate the same story of a boy, Ascalabus, and call his mother Misme. (Antonin. Lib. 23.)

2. The twelfth King of Argos. He was the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, and grandson of Danaus. He married Ocaleia, who bore him twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus. (Apollod. ii. 2. § 1 ; Hygin. Fab. 170.) When he informed his father of the death of Danaus, he was rewarded with the shield of his grandfather, which was sacred to Hera. He is described as a successful conqueror and as the founder of the town of Abae in Phocis (Paus. x. 35. § 1), and of the Pelasgic Argos in Thessaly. (Strab. ix. p. 431.) The fame of his warlike spirit was so great, that even after his death, when people revolted, whom he had subdued, they were put to flight by the simple act of showing them his shield. (Virg. Aen. iii. 286; Serv. ad loc.) It was from this Abas that the kings of Argos were called by the patronymic Abantiads.

ABAS (`'Abas). 1. A Greek sophist and rhetorician about whose life nothing is known. Suidas (s.v. `'Abas : compare Eudocia, p. 51) ascribes to him 'istorik`a 'apomnemata and a work on rhetoric (techne perorike). What Photius (Cod. 190. p. 150, b. ed. Bekker) quotes from him, belongs probably to the former work. (Compare Walz, Rhetor. Graec. vii. 1. p. 203.)

2. A writer of a work called Troica, from which Servius (ad Aen. ix. 264) has preserved a fragment.

An original e-text for everything2. That is, I sat down and copied the text from the book (in the public domain) - it is not available on any other web site. I see to be noding a bunch of this, starting from the beginning. Would be great if I could find some decent OCR software for MacOS 9.