Aidoneus (Ancient Greek: Ἀїδωνεύς) was a mythical king of the Molossians in Epirus, who is represented as the husband of Persephone. After Theseus, with the assistance of Pirithous, concealed Helen at Aphidnae, he went to Epirus to procure for Pirithous Kore the wife of Aidoneus, as a reward. When Aidoneus discovered that they had come with the intention of carrying off his wife, he had Pirithous killed by Cerberus, and kept Theseus in captivity, who was afterwards released at the request of Heracles.[1] Eusebius calls the wife of Aidoneus a daughter of queen Demeter, with whom he had eloped.[2] Thus, the story of Aidoneus is the legend of Hades' kidnapping of Persephone, with the mythical king substituted for the God Hades. It has been written that this adaptation of the myth is "undoubtedly the work of a late interpreter" of ancient myths. It is also notable that Aidoneus is a lengthened form of the Greek for Hades (/ˈheɪdiːz/; Greek: ᾍδης, translit. Háidēs; Ἅιδης, Háidēs) that infrequently appears in original sources, including Homer (Iliad v, 190; xx, 61.) [3]

Notes

  1. ^ Plutarch, Theseus 31, 35
  2. ^ Eusebius of Caesarea, Chronicon p. 27
  3. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Aidoneus", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 88, archived from the original on 2015-01-24, retrieved 2008-06-09

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Aidoneus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.


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