Heraeus (mythology) explained

In Greek mythology, Heraeus or Heraeeus (Ancient Greek: Ἡραιέα or Ἡραιεὺς) was an Arcadian prince as one of the 50 sons of the impious King Lycaon^[1] either by the naiad Cyllene,^[2] Nonacris^[3] or by unknown woman. He founded the Arcadian town of Heraea.^[4]

Mythology

Heraeus and his siblings 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 king of the gods threw the meal over the table. Heraeus was killed, along with his brothers and their father, by a lightning bolt of the god.^[5]

Notes

1. [Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]
2. [Dionysius of Halicarnassus]
3. Pausanias, 8.17.6
4. Pausanias, 8.3.4
5. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]

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.
• Dionysus of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities. English translation by Earnest Cary in the Loeb Classical Library, 7 volumes. Harvard University Press, 1937-1950. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
• Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitatum Romanarum quae supersunt, Vol I-IV. . Karl Jacoby. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1885. 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.