Apomyius (Ancient Greek: Ἀπομυιος), Greek for "driving away the flies," was an epithet of Zeus at Olympia. On one occasion, when Heracles was offering a sacrifice to Zeus at Olympia, he was annoyed by hosts of flies, and in order to get rid of them, he offered a sacrifice to Zeus Apomyius, whereupon the flies withdrew across the river Alpheius. From that time the Eleans sacrificed to Zeus under this name.[1]
It was customary to sacrifice a bull to Zeus Apomyius at the ancient Olympic Games, in order to drive away the flies that plagued those events.[2]
Notes
edit- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.14.2
- ^ Staveley, E. F. (1871). British insects: a familiar description of the form, structure, habits, and transformations of insects. L. Reeve. pp. 2. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Apomyius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 247.
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