Oxylus (son of Haemon)

Oxylus (/ˈɒksɪləs/; Ancient Greek: Ὄξυλος Oxulos), a one-eyed man from Aetolia, son of Haemon (himself son of Thoas) or of Andraemon.

Mythology[]

Oxylus was exiled from Aetolia on account of unintentional homicide; his victim was either his own brother Therimus or a certain Alcidocus, son of Scopius. In his wanderings, he met Temenus, son of Aristomachus, on a road. Temenus had been told by an oracle to look out for a man with three eyes, and Oxylus, having one eye himself and riding a horse or mule with two more, matched that description. Oxylus then, as the oracle had recommended, accompanied Temenus and his brother, Cresphontes, in their invasion of the Peloponnesus. For his aid, Oxylus received Elis, a fertile land, as his own; others say, though, that he had to win it.

He had been wanting the land for himself for a while and, suspecting that the Dorians would not give it to him, led them through Arcadia and not Elis, so they would not be able to observe the goodliness of it. Nevertheless, he did have to fight over the land with the Dorian Dius. The latter proposed that each side chose a single soldier to represent his army. Degmenus, an archer, fought for Dius and Pyraechmes, a slinger, for Oxylus; the latter won, and Oxylus received Elis as his domain. In accordance with a prophecy of the oracle, he brought in Agorius, great-grandson of Orestes and thus a descendant of Pelops, as a co-founder. The land became prosperous under him.

By his wife Pieria, Oxylus had two sons: Aetolus, who died before his parents, and , who inherited the kingdom after him.^[1]

Notes[]

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. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• 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. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

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