Lycastus (Λύκαστος) may refer to:

  • Lycastus, a Cretan king and son of Minos I and Itone. He was the husband of Ida, daughter of Corybas, and by her father of Minos II.[1]
  • Lycastus, twin brother of Parrhasius, whose parents were Ares and Phylonome, daughter of Nyctimus and Arcadia. Their mother was seduced by Ares in the guise of a shepherd; in fear of her father's wrath, she cast the newborn twins into the river Erymanthus. They did not drown and were washed into the hollow of an oak tree, where a she-wolf found and suckled them, giving up her own cubs. The twins were then adopted and raised by a shepherd named Gyliphus, and eventually succeeded to the throne of Arcadia. Their story is closely parallel, and is cited as such by Pseudo-Plutarch, to that of Romulus and Remus.[2]
  • Lycastus, lover of Eulimene, who unsuccessfully attempted to save his loved one from being sacrificed.[3]
  • Lycastus, an autochthon, eponym of the town Lycastus in Crete, which might as well have been named after the son of Minos.[4][5]

Notes

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  1. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.60.3
  2. ^ Plutarch, Parallela minora 36
  3. ^ Parthenius, 35
  4. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Lykastos
  5. ^ Eustathius on Homer, 1.1

References

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