Actor

Actor is the name of several unrelated men in Greek myth. The best known are Actor of Elis, whose sons, the Moliones, fought Heracles; Actor, father of Menoetius and so grandfather of Patroclus; and the Actor of Phthia who, in one version, purified Peleus. The sources do not always make clear which Actor is meant.

Actor of Elis

This Actor was a brother of King Augeas of Elis. His wife was Molione, and their sons Eurytus and Cteatus were called Actoriones or Moliones, after father and mother (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.2). Homer names them “the two Moliones, of the blood of Actor” and says their real father was Poseidon, who hid them in mist when Nestor would have killed them (Iliad 11.709–752). Apollodorus likewise says that their father was said to be Poseidon, that they surpassed all men of their generation in strength, and that Augeas made them generals of the Eleans when Heracles marched against him (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.2).

Pausanias gives Actor’s descent: his father was Phorbas, son of Lapithus, and his mother Hyrmina, daughter of Epeius, after whom he named the city of Hyrmina. Actor and his sons shared the kingdom of Elis with Augeas (Pausanias 5.1.10–11). Diodorus also makes Actor and Aegeus the two sons of Phorbas who received the kingship of the Eleans (Diodorus 4.69). The sons of Actor were strong enough to put Heracles’ allies to flight, and Iphicles was wounded by them (Pausanias 5.2.1, 8.14.9). Heracles killed them later in an ambush when they came as envoys to the Isthmian games (Pausanias 5.2.1–2; compare the scene on the throne at Amyclae, where Heracles kills the children of Actor, Pausanias 3.18.15). Their sons Amphimachus and Thalpius, grandsons of Actor, led Epeians at Troy (Iliad 2.620–621; Pausanias 5.3.3).

Family of Actor

Parents: Deion, Diomede, Hyrmina, Myrmidon, Oenops, Phorbas, Pisidice
Consorts: Aegina, Molione
Children: Menoetius, Cteatus (versions differ), Eurytion (versions differ), Eurytus (versions differ)
Siblings: Augeas, Hyperbius, Cephalus (versions differ)

See the full family tree

Actor, Father of Menoetius

Another Actor, whose home was Opus, was the father of Menoetius, who was among the Argonauts. Apollonius says Actor sent his son from Opus to join the heroes (Apollonius, Argonautica 1.69–70), and Apollodorus lists Menoetius, son of Actor, in the crew (Library 1.9.16). Pindar names his mother as well: Menoetius was the son of Actor and Aegina, the daughter of the river Asopus, and his son went with the Atreidae to the plain of Teuthras (Pindar, Olympian 9.69–71). Menoetius in turn was the father of Patroclus. In the Iliad Achilles asks whether “Menoetius, Actor’s son” is still alive (Iliad 16.14), and Nestor recalls how Menoetius, son of Actor, charged his own son to guide the greater Achilles (Iliad 11.785–790). Apollodorus names a different Argonaut also called Actor, the son of Hippasus (Library 1.9.16), and elsewhere lists an Actor among the sons of Deion, king of Phocis, and Diomede (Library 1.9.4). In Homer there is also an Actor, son of Azeus, in whose palace in Orchomenos the maiden Astyoche conceived Ascalaphus and Ialmenus by Ares (Iliad 2.512–515), and an Actor whose son Echecles married the mother of Eudorus (Iliad 16.179–192).

Actor of Phthia

When Peleus fled from Aegina after the death of Phocus, he came to Phthia. Apollodorus says Eurytion, son of Actor, purified him and gave him his daughter Antigone and a third of the country (Library 3.13.1). Diodorus gives a different version: Peleus was purified by Actor himself, king of the region, who was childless, and Peleus succeeded to the kingdom (Diodorus 4.72.6). Apollodorus also lists Actor among the sons of Myrmidon and Pisidice, together with Antiphus (Library 1.7.3), but he does not say that this Actor ruled Phthia.

Actor, Son of Oenops

In Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes, the Theban scout lists the defenders matched with each of the attackers. Hyperbius, the trusted son of Oenops, is chosen to face Hippomedon at the gate of Athena Onca (Seven against Thebes 486–508). His brother Actor is set against the Arcadian Parthenopaeus: a man who does not boast, whose hand sees what must be done, and who will not let a tongue without deeds carry evil in through the gates (Seven against Thebes 553–557).