Αλκαθοος
The son of Pelops, king of Elis and his wife Hippodamia, and so the brother of Atreus and Thyestes (Table 2).
King Megareus had a son who had been killed by a lion and had promised the hand of his daughter to anyone who could slay the beast. Alcathus came forward, managed to do away with the lion, and gained the promised reward. He deserted his first wife Pyrgo, and married Eraechme the daughter of Megareus. He simultaneously gained the throne of Onchestus.
Subsequently, when the Cretans sacked the town of Megara, Alcathus, with Apollo's help, rebuilt the ruined walls and in the historical period the stone on which Apollo laid his lyre while he worked on the wall was still pointed out. This stone had kept some extraordinary qualities; when it was struck with a pebble, it reverberated and gave out a musical sound.
One of Alcathus' sons Ischepolis took part in the hunt for the wild boar of Calydon and was killed. His brother Callipolis, who was the first to hear of it, rushed to tell his father and found him performing a sacrifice to Apollo on the citadel. In his haste Callipolis interrupted the ceremony and disturbed the prescribed order of the sacred pyre. Alcathus, angered and thinking that his son wanted to offend the gods, struck him to death with a blow from a burning log (see Polyidus).
Alcathus also had a daughter Iphinoe, whose tomb could be seen at Megara.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Paus. 1, 41, 4; 1, 42, 4; 1, 43, 4f.
- Ovid, Met. 8, 14ff.; Trist. 1, 10, 39ff.
- Pseudo-Virgil, Ciris 104f
- Pind. Isth. 8, 74 (148)