Achaeus (son of Poseidon)
| Achaeus or Achaios | |
|---|---|
| Eponym of Achaea | |
| Member of the Argive line | |
| Abode | Argos, Achaea in Thessaly |
| Personal information | |
| Parents | Poseidon and Larissa |
| Siblings | Phthius and Pelasgus |
In Greek mythology, Achaeus or Achaios (Ancient Greek: Ἀχαιός, Akhaios derived from achos αχος "grief, pain, woe"), has been said to be the eponym of Achaea, otherwise attributed to another Achaeus, the son of Xuthus, son of Deucalion.
Family
Achaeus is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea and Larissa, daughter of Pelasgus, the son of Triopas and this makes him of Argive descent through his mother's parentage. He is the brother of Phthius and Pelasgus.
Mythology
Together with his brothers Phthius and Pelasgus, they left Achaean Argos with a Pelasgian contingent for Thessaly. They then established a colony on the said country naming it after themselves. The only single source of the accounts of Achaeus is recounted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his Roman Antiquities about the Pelasgian race's migration in connection with Achaeus.[1]
In the sixth generation afterwards, leaving the Peloponnesus, they [Pelasgians] removed to the country which was then called Haemonia and now Thessaly. The leaders of the colony were Achaeus, Phthius and Pelasgus, the sons of Larisa and Poseidon. When they arrived in Haemonia they drove out the barbarian inhabitants and divided the country into three parts, calling them, after the names of their leaders, Phthiotis, Achaia and Pelasgiotis.