In Greek mythology, Xuthus (/ˈz(j)uːθəs/; Ancient Greek: Ξοῦθος Xouthos) was a Phthian prince who later became a king of Peloponnesus. He was the founder (through his sons) of the Achaean and Ionian nations.
According to the author Robert Graves, Xuthus' name came from the ancient Greek word strouthos, meaning "sparrow".[1]
Xuthus was a son of King Hellen of Thessaly and the nymph Orseis; and brother of Dorus, Aeolus, Xenopatra[2] and probably Neonus. He had two sons, Ion and Achaeus,[3] and a daughter named Diomede by Creusa, the Athenian daughter of King Erechtheus. Euripides's play, Ion, provided an unusual alternate version, according to which Xuthus was the son of Aeolus[4] and Ion was in fact been begotten on Xuthus's wife Creusa by Apollo. Xuthus and Creusa visited the Oracle at Delphi to ask the god if they could hope for a child. Xuthus will later father Dorus and Achaeus with Creusa, though Dorus is normally presented as Xuthus's brother.[5]
According to the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women on the origin of the Greeks, Hellen's three sons Dorus, Xuthus (with his sons Ion and Achaeus) and Aeolus, comprised the set of progenitors of the major ancient tribes that formed the Greek nation.[6]