Mycene (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Mycene or Mykene (Ancient Greek: Μυκήνη), was a daughter of Inachus, king of Argos and sister of Io and Phoroneus.^[1] Mycene was the wife of Arestor and probably mothered by him Argus Panoptes, the giant guardian of her sister Io. From Mycene, the town of Mycenae or Mycene was believed to have derived its name. She could be the naiad nymph of the town as a daughter of a river god and as possible sister of other nymphs like Io, Messeis, Hyperia and Amymone. Otherwise the city was named after Myceneus, son of Sparton, son of Phoroneus.^[2]

Mythology

Pausanias recounts the following story about Mycene:

Homer in the Odyssey mentions a woman Mycene in the following verse:—“Tyro and Alcmene and the fair-crowned lady Mycene.”Hom. Od., unknown line. ^[3] She is said to have been the daughter of Inachus and the wife of Arestor in the poem which the Greeks call the Great Eoeae. So they say that this lady has given her name to the city. But the account which is attributed to Acusilaus, that Myceneus was the son of Sparton, and Sparton of Phoroneus, I cannot accept, because the Lacedaemonians themselves do not accept it either. For the Lacedaemonians have at Amyclae a portrait statue of a woman named Sparte, but they would be amazed at the mere mention of a Sparton, son of Phoroneus.^[4]

References

Sources

• William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology s.v. Mycene. London. John Murray (1848).