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...

, Phoenix was a son of Agenor

Agenor

Agenor was in Greek mythology and history a Phoenician king of Tyre. Herodotus estimates that Agenor lived sometime before the year 2000 B.C..-Genealogy:...

 and Telephassa

Telephassa

In Greek mythology, Telephassa is a lunar epithet like Telephae that is sometimes substituted for Argiope, the wife of Agenor, according to his name a "leader of men" in Phoenicia, and mother of Cadmus. In some versions she is the daughter of Nilus, god of the Nile and Nephele, a soft cloud oceanid...

 (or Argiope), brother of Cadmus

Cadmus

Cadmus or Kadmos , in Greek mythology was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores...

, Cilix

Cilix

In Greek mythology, Cilix was a son of Agenor and Telephassa or Argiope and brother of Cadmus, Phoenix and Europa.When Europa was carried off by Zeus, Agenor sent his three sons out to find her, telling them not to return until they find her. The search was unsuccessful. Cilix eventually settled...

 and Europe

Europa (mythology)

In Greek mythology Europa was a Phoenician woman of high lineage, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. The name Europa occurs in Hesiod's long list of daughters of primordial Oceanus and Tethys...

.

When Europa was carried off by Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

, her three brothers were sent out by Agenor to find her, but the search was unsuccessful. Phoenix eventually settled in a country in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 which he named Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...

 after himself.

Phoenix was believed to have fathered a number of children with different women. By Cassiopeia, he had a daughter Carme

Carme (mythology)

Carme, the Latinized form of Greek Karmê , was a female Cretan spirit who assisted the grain harvest of Demeter's Cretan predecessor. According to the Olympian mythology, she was the mother, by Zeus, of the virginal huntress Britomartis, also called Diktynna, whom she bore at Kaino...

 and a son Atymnius

Atymnius

In Greek mythology, Atymnius is a name that may refer to:*Son of Zeus and Cassiopeia, a beautiful boy, who was beloved by Sarpedon. Others call him a son of Phoenix . He seems to have been worshipped at Gortyn in Crete together with Europa.*A Trojan warrior, son of Emathion and Pegasis. Was killed...

; by Alphesiboea

Alphesiboea

Alphesiboea was the name of several characters in Greek mythology:*Alphesiboea, the mother of Adonis with Phoenix .*Alphesiboea, a daughter of Phegeus, who married Alcmaeon. In some versions of this myth, she is called Arsinoe....

, he had Adonis

Adonis

Adonis , in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. The Greek , Adōnis is a variation of the Semitic word Adonai, "lord", which is also one of the names used to refer to God in the Old...

. According to the Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

, Europe was not his sister, but his daughter. Europe is otherwise called one of his two daughters by Perimede, daughter of Oeneus

Oeneus

In Greek mythology, Oeneus, or Oineus was a Calydonian king, son of Porthaon and Euryte, husband of Althaea and father of Deianeira, Meleager, Toxeus, Clymenus, Periphas, Agelaus, Thyreus , Gorge, Eurymede, Mothone, Perimede and Melanippe...

, the other one being Astypalaea

Astypalaea

In Greek mythology, Astypalaea was the daughter of Phoenix and Perimede and the sister of Europa. She was a lover of Poseidon who seduced her, and had two sons by him: Ancaeus, King of Samos, and Eurypylos, King of Kos....

; she is also included on the list of his children by Telephe, her siblings in this case being Peirus, Phoenice, and Astypale (apparently identical to the aforementioned Astypalaea). Telephe, daughter of Epimedusa, is probably the same as Telephassa, whom Moschus

Moschus

Moschus , ancient Greek bucolic poet and student of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC...

calls wife and not mother of Phoenix. Finally, Cadmus was believed by some to be a son of Phoenix and not his brother.