Neleus

Neleus was a son of Poseidon and Tyro, the twin brother of Pelias, and the founder of the kingdom of Pylos in Messenia. He was the father of Nestor, the old counsellor of the Trojan War, and of eleven other sons. Heracles killed Neleus and all his sons but Nestor when he captured Pylos.

Birth and Early Life

Tyro, a daughter of Salmoneus, fell in love with the river Enipeus. Poseidon took the river’s shape and lay with her where it meets the sea, and told her that within a year she would bear glorious children (Homer, Odyssey 11.235–252). She bore “Pelias and Neleus, two mighty servants of great Zeus” (Odyssey 11.254–255), both born from that one union. Apollodorus says plainly that they were twins: that Tyro secretly gave birth to twin sons and exposed them. A passing horse-keeper found them, and one of the infants was marked on the face by a mare’s hoof, so the keeper named that child Pelias (from pelios, “livid”), and the other Neleus (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.8). In Homer Tyro is already married to Cretheus, and in Apollodorus she was brought up by him; she later bore Cretheus the sons Aeson, Pheres and Amythaon (Odyssey 11.237, 11.258–259).

When the twins grew up they learned who their mother was. She was being ill-used by her stepmother Sidero, so they attacked her. Sidero took refuge in the precinct of Hera, but Pelias cut her down on the altar, and he treated Hera with contempt ever after (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.8).

Neleus in Pylos

The brothers later quarrelled, and Neleus was banished. He came to Messenia and founded Pylos (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.9). Pausanias says that Aphareus, his cousin, received him when Pelias drove him out of Iolcus and gave him the coastal part of the land, where he built his palace at Pylos (Pausanias 4.2.5). In Homer, Pelias lives in Iolcus and Neleus in sandy Pylos (Odyssey 11.256–257), and Pylos is called the city of Neleus (Iliad 11.682).

Family

Neleus married Chloris, the youngest daughter of Amphion who ruled at Minyan Orchomenus. Neleus gave her great gifts. She was queen of Pylos and bore Nestor, Chromius and the proud Periclymenus, and a daughter, Pero (Odyssey 11.281–287). Apollodorus names more sons: Taurus, Asterius, Pylaon, Deimachus, Eurybius, Epilaus, Phrasius, Eurymenes, Evagoras and Alastor, as well as Nestor and Periclymenus (Library 1.9.9). Nestor says that Neleus had twelve sons (Iliad 11.692). Poseidon gave Periclymenus the power of changing his shape (Library 1.9.9), and he sailed with the Argonauts (Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.156–160); Neleus himself is not among them.

Many neighbouring men wanted to marry Pero, but Neleus would give her only to the man who drove the cattle of Iphicles away from Phylace. The seer Melampus promised to do it. He was caught and imprisoned for a year, and then Iphicles set him free (Odyssey 11.287–297). Elsewhere Homer names him as Melampus of Pylos: while he lay in bonds, Neleus held his property by force for a full year, but Melampus escaped his fate, drove the cattle from Phylace to Pylos, punished Neleus for the wrong and brought Pero home as a wife for his brother (Odyssey 15.225–238).

Neleus and Heracles

In the Iliad Nestor remembers how Heracles came to Pylos and harmed it, killing the best men, including the twelve sons of Neleus; Nestor alone was left (Iliad 11.690–693). The Epeians of Elis took advantage of Pylos’ weakness. Nestor also recalls that Neleus once took a large herd of cattle and flocks of sheep from Elis as payment for a debt: King Augeias had seized four prize horses and a chariot sent to compete for a tripod (Iliad 11.696–702).

Apollodorus explains the quarrel with Heracles. After Heracles killed Iphitus, a son of Eurytus, he went to Neleus to be purified. Neleus refused, because he was a friend of Eurytus, and Heracles was purified at Amyclae by Deiphobus (Library 2.6.2). Heracles later marched on Pylos and took the city. He killed Periclymenus, who in the fight turned himself into a lion, a snake and a bee, then Neleus and his sons, except for Nestor, who was being raised among the Gerenians (Library 1.9.9, 2.7.3).

Neleus Sources

Homer, Odyssey 11.235–259, 11.281–297, 15.225–238; Homer, Iliad 11.682, 11.690–702; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.8–9, 2.6.2, 2.7.3; Pausanias 4.2.5; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.156–160.

See Also: Poseidon, Tyro, Pelias, Cretheus, Enipeus, Hera, Nestor, Chloris, Heracles, Periclymenus