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...

, Idmon was an Argonaut

Argonauts

The Argonauts ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, the Argo, which was named after its builder, Argus. "Argonauts", therefore, literally means...

 seer. His father is said to have been Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 but his mortal father was Abas

Abas

Abas or ABAS may refer to:In people:*Abas , an ancient Greek sophist and rhetorician*Abas , several individuals in Greek and Roman mythology...

 (or Ampycus). His mother was Asteria

Asteria

In Greek mythology, Asteria was a name attributed to the following eight individuals:-Daughter of Coeus:Asteria was the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe and sister of Leto...

, daughter of Coronus

Coronus

-Greek mythology:*Coronus' the son of Caeneus. He was one of the Lapiths and was killed by Heracles.*Coronus, king of Sicyon, son of Apollo and Chrysorthe, and father of Lamedon and Corex. He was deposed by Epopeus.*Coronus, son of Thersander...

, or Cyrene

Cyrene (mythology)

In Greek mythology, as recorded in Pindar's 9th Pythian ode, Cyrene was the daughter of Hypseus, King of the Lapiths. When a lion attacked her father's sheep, Cyrene wrestled with the lion. Apollo, who was present, immediately fell in love with her and kidnapped her. He took her to North...

, or else Antianeira, daughter of Pheres

Pheres

In Greek mythology, Pheres , son of Cretheus and Tyro and brother of Aeson and Amythaon, was the founder of Pherae in Thessaly. He fled there from Iolcus after his half-brother, Pelias, seized the throne...

. By Laothoe

Laothoe

In Greek mythology, Laothoe can refer to five women:*Laothoe, a wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Lycaon. Her father was Altes, king of the Leleges.*Laothoe, one of the daughters of Thespius and Megamede...

 he had a son Thestor. Idmon foresaw his own death in the Argonaut expedition but joined anyway and was killed by a boar

Boar

Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...

 in the land of the Mariandyni, in Bithynia

Bithynia

Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...

. When in 559 BC the citizens of Megara Heraclea

Heraclea Pontica

Heraclea Pontica , an ancient city on the coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor, at the mouth of the river Lycus. It was founded by the Greek city-state of Megara c.560-558 and was named after Heracles who the Greeks believed entered the underworld at a cave on the adjoining Archerusian promontory .The...

 (today's Eregli

Eregli

Ereğli is a town and district of Konya Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2009 census, the population of the district is 135,008 of which 95,056 live in the town of Ereğli.-History:...

), they built a temple over the spot he was buried.

Other characters

The name Idmon may also refer to:

• One of the fifty sons of Aegyptus
  Aegyptus
  - Aegyptus, King of Egypt and Arabia :In Greek mythology, Aegyptus is a descendant of the heifer maiden, Io, and the river-god Nilus, and was a king in Egypt. Aegyptos was the son of Belus and Achiroe, a naiad daughter of Nile. Aegyptus fathered fifty sons, who were all but one murdered by the...
  
  , who married and was killed by the Danaid
  Danaus
  In Greek mythology Danaus, or Danaos , was the twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. The myth of Danaus is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus...
  
   Pylarge.
• The father of Arachne
  Arachne
  In Greco-Roman mythology, Arachne was a great mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of Minerva, the Latin parallel of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts. Arachne refused to acknowledge that her knowledge came, in part at least, from the goddess. The offended...
  
  .
• The herald of Turnus
  Turnus
  In Virgil's Aeneid, Turnus was the King of the Rutuli, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas.-Biography:Prior to Aeneas' arrival in Italy, Turnus was the primary potential suitor of Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, King of the Latin people. Upon Aeneas' arrival, however, Lavinia is promised to...
  
  .
• A figure briefly mentioned in Statius
  Statius
  Publius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the 1st century CE . Besides his poetry in Latin, which include an epic poem, the Thebaid, a collection of occasional poetry, the Silvae, and the unfinished epic, the Achilleid, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatory...
  
  ' Thebaid
  Thebaid
  The Thebaid or Thebais is the region of ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. It acquired its name from its proximity to the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes....
  
  . He came from Epidaurus
  Epidaurus
  Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. Two modern towns bear the name Epidavros : Palaia Epidavros and Nea Epidavros. Since 2010 they belong to the new municipality of Epidavros, part of the peripheral unit of Argolis...
  
  and was portrayed in the poem cleansing his wounds after a battle.

Sources

• Grimal, Pierre. Entry for Idmon. The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Blackwell, 1986. ISBN 0631201025.
• Seaton, R.C. (editor and translator). Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1912.
• William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 562, under Idmon