Amyclas

In Greek mythology, Amyclas (/əˈmaɪkləs/; Ancient Greek: Ἀμύκλας) refers to two individuals:

• Amyclas, a mythical king of Sparta.[1]
• Amyclas, son of Amphion.[2] He perished with his brothers and sisters in the massacre of Niobids. In other versions, however, he was presented as the only surviving male (with his sister Chloris). When Laius the rightful king of Thebes returned, he was exiled and fled to Sparta, where some say he founded Amyclae. He was the father of Harpalus.

There is also an Amyclas in Roman epic:

• In Lucan's Pharsalia (Book V), Caesar knocks on the door of a poor fisherman named Amyclas as he looks to cross the Adriatic. Dante mentions this scene in Paradiso, Canto XI.68.

Notes

1. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 10.9.5
2. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.5.6

References

• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library with an 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. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• M. Annaeus Lucanus. The Civil War; The Pharsalia of Lucan. Translated by Sir Edward Ridley. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905. Online version available