Αλαλκομενευς
A hero supposed to be the founder of the town of Alalcomenes in Boeotia. He is said to have been the founder of the hierogmies of Zeus and Hera, that is, the religious ceremonies symbolizing a marriage between the two. The story was that when the goddess Hera, deceived by Zeus, complained to Alalcomeneus, who had been made responsible for bringing up Athena, about her husband's infidelities, he had advised her to have a statue of herself made of oak and to have it wheeled solemnly through the streets, attended by a retinue, as was done for a marriage. Hera did so, and from this arose a ceremony called the festival of Daedalus. In popular belief this ritual was supposed to revive and renew the divine marriage and to restore its effectiveness by a kind of sympathetic magic.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Paus. 9, 33, 5
- Steph. Byz. s.v.; schol. on Hom. Il. 4, 8
- Plutarch, De Daed. Plat. 6 (Loeb Mor XV, p. 293)