Caucon Explained

In Greek mythology, the name Caucon (; Ancient Greek: Καύκων) may refer to:

• Caucon, an Arcadian prince as one of the 50 sons of the impious King Lycaon either by the naiad Cyllene,^[1] Nonacris^[2] or by unknown woman.^[3] He was an ancestral hero and eponym of the Caucones that were believed to have settled in Triphylia.^[4] His tomb was shown at Lepreus,^[5] with a statue of a man with a lyre standing over it.^[6] Other traditions made him son of Poseidon and father of Lepreus by Astydameia.^[7] Caucon and his brothers were the most nefarious and carefree of all people. To test them, Zeus visited them in the form of a peasant. These brothers mixed the entrails of a child into the god's meal, whereupon the enraged Zeus threw the meal over the table. Caucon was killed, along with his brothers and their father, by a lightning bolt of the god.^[8]
• Caucon, son of Celaenus and grandson of the autochthon Phlyus, from Eleusis. He was said to have brought the rites of the Great Goddesses from Eleusis to Andania in Messene.^[9] Legend had it that he appeared to Epaminondas in a dream, prophesying him success in restoration of the Messenian state;^[10] the Messenian allies of Epaminondas offered sacrifices to Caucon.^[11]

References

• 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.
• Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae. Kaibel. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia translated by Thomas Stanley (d.1700) edition of 1665. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Claudius Aelianus, Claudii Aeliani de natura animalium libri xvii, varia historia, epistolae, fragmenta, Vol 2. Rudolf Hercher. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1866.
• Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• 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.
• Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

Notes and References

1. [Dionysius of Halicarnassus]
2. [Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]
3. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
4. [Scholia]
5. [Strabo]
6. Pausanias, 5.5.5
7. [Athenaeus]
8. Apollodorus, 3.8.1
9. Pausanias, 4.1.5 & 4.2.6
10. Pausanias, 2.4.6–8
11. Pausanias, 4.27.6