Magnes (king of Magnesia)

In Greek mythology, Magnes (Greek: Μάγνης) was the eponym and first king of Magnesia.

Mythology

Magnes was the son of Zeus and Thyia, daughter of Deucalion and brother of Makednos.^[1] In Apollodorus' Bibliotheca, Magnes was placed in the later generation of the Deucalionides, for this time he was the son of Aeolus and Enarete and brother to Aeolian progenitors: Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Perieres, Canace, Alcyone, Pisidice, Calyce and Perimede.^[2]

He married an unnamed naiad that bore him Dictys and Polydectes.^[1][2] The mother and the sons later emigrated and colonized the island of Seriphos. Polydectes became king of the island while his brother Dictys, a fisherman would later receive Danae and her son Perseus.^[3][4] Pierus, the father of Hyacinth by the Muse Clio, was also called a son of Magnes.^[5]

The scholiast of Euripides called Magnes' wife as Philodice and his sons Eurynomus and Eioneus.^[6][7] Otherwise, Eustathius named his wife as a certain Meliboea and mentions one son, Alector and adds that Magnes called the town of Meliboea, at the foot of mount Pelion, after his wife, and the country of Magnesia after his own name.^[8]

References

Sources

• William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. London (1873).
• Apollodorus. Bibliotheca. English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. (1921).