Aepytus

Αιπυτος

The name of several heroes.

1. One was an Arcadian, son of Hippothous and father of Cypselus. One day he attempted to force his way into the temple of Poseidon at Mantinea where he was blinded by the god and died.
    
2. Another Aepytus was the great-grandson of the first. His father was Crephontes and his mother was Merope, the daughter of Cypselus (Table 16). During a riot his father and his brothers were killed. Aepytus managed to escape and took refuge with his grandfather. When he had grown up he returned with the help of the Acadians and the Dorian princes, the sons of Aristodemus and Isthmius, and avenged his father and his brothers. He slew Polyphontes, the leader of the riot who, after the death of Cresphontes had forcibly taken and married his wife Merope. Aepytus freed his mother and reigned over the country. His reputation for virtue and wisdom was so great that his descendants, who till then had called themselves the Heraclids, were given the name of Aepytidae. His immediate successor to the throne was King Glaucus.
    
3. Still another Aepytus, the son of Elatus or, in some versions, of Arcas (Table 9) ruled over the whole of Arcadia. He was bitten by a snake while hunting and died. His tomb was not far from Mount Cyllene. He brought up as his daughter Evadne, the daughter of Poseidon, whom Pitane had entrusted to him. Evadne had a son, Iamus by Apollo.

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources:

1. - Paus. 8, 5, 5; 8, 10, 3
    
2. - Paud. 4, 3, 7ff.
   - Apollod. Bibl. 2, 8, 5
   - Hyg. Fab. 137
   - Eur. fragments 449-59, Nauck TGF, edn 2, p. 497f
   - Müller FHG III, 377 (Nicolaus of Damascus)
    
3. - Paus. 8, 4, 4; 8, 4, 7; 8, 16, 2f
   - Hom. Il. 2, 603ff.
   - Pind. Ol. 6, 27ff. (46ff.)