Dryops of Oeta

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In Greek mythology, Dryops (/ˈdr.ɒps/, Ancient Greek: Δρύοψ means 'oak-face', 'wood-face' or 'wood-eater') was the king of the Dryopians.

Family

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Dryops was the son of the river god Spercheus and the Danaid Polydora,[1] or of Apollo by Dia, daughter of King Lycaon of Arcadia.[2][3] As a newborn infant, he was concealed by Dia in a hollow oak-tree.[4] He had one daughter, Dryope,[1] and also a son Cragaleus.[5]

Reign

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Dryops had been king of the Dryopes, who derived their name from him. The Asinaeans in Messenia worshipped him as their ancestral hero, and as a son of Apollo, and celebrated a festival in honour of him every other year. His heroum there was adorned with a very archaic statue of the hero.[6] Dryops reigned in the neighborhood of Mount Oeta.[1] The people, original inhabitants of the country from the valley of the Spercheius and Thermopylae, as far as Mount Parnassus.[7] They retained the name after having transferred to Asine in Peloponnesus.[8][9]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Antoninus Liberalis, 32 as cited in Nicander's Metamorphoses
  2. ^ Tzetzes on Lycophron, 480
  3. ^ Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.1213
  4. ^ Etymologicum Magnum 288.33 (under Dryops)
  5. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 4 as cited in Nicander's Metamorphoses
  6. ^ Pausanias, 4.34.6
  7. ^ Homeric Hymn 6.34
  8. ^ Pausanias, 4.34.9
  9. ^ Strabo, 8.6.13

References

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