Acontius is also a spider genus (Cyrtaucheniidae).

Acontius , was in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 a beautiful youth of the island of Ceos, the hero of a love-story told by Callimachus

Callimachus

Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes...

 in a poem now lost, which forms the subject of two of Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

's Heroides (xx, xxi). During the festival of Artemis

Artemis

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...

 at Delos

Delos

The island of Delos , isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece...

, Acontius saw Cydippe

Cydippe

The name Cydippe is attributed to four individuals in Greek mythology.*Cydippe was the mother of Cleobis and Biton. Cydippe, a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the goddess' honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis pulled the cart...

, a well-born Athenian maiden of whom he was enamoured, sitting in the temple of the goddess. He wrote on an apple the words, "I swear by Artemis that I will marry Acontius", and threw it at her feet. She picked it up, and mechanically read the words aloud, which amounted to a solemn undertaking to carry them out. Unaware of this, she treated Acontius with contempt; but, although she was betrothed more than once, she always fell ill before the wedding took place. The Delphic oracle at last declared the cause of her illnesses to be the wrath of the offended goddess; whereupon her father consented to her marriage with Acontius (Aristaenetus

Aristaenetus

Aristaenetus was an ancient Greek epistolographer who flourished in the 5th or 6th century AD. He was formerly identified with Aristaenetus of Nicaea , who perished in an earthquake at Nicomedia, 358, but internal evidence points to a much later date...

, Epistolae, i.10; Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300.His only surviving work is the Metamorphoses, , a collection of forty-one very briefly summarised tales about mythical metamorphoses effected by offended deities, unique in that they are...

, Metamorphoses, i, tells the story with different names, see Ctesylla

Ctesylla

In Greek mythology, Ctesylla was a maiden of Ioulis in Ceos, daughter of Alcidamas.During the Pythian festival, an Athenian named Hermochares saw Ctesylla dancing in front of the altar of Apollo and fell in love with her...

).