Phoroneus

Phoroneus was an early king of Argos, the son of the river god Inachus. Argive tradition made him the first man in the land, the one who gathered the scattered people into a community and who first had fire; his grave at Argos received offerings as a hero. Through his daughter Niobe, the first mortal woman loved by Zeus, he was the ancestor of the royal house of Argos.

Parents and Family

Apollodorus says that Phoroneus and Aegialeus were the sons of Inachus and Melia, a daughter of Oceanus (Apollodorus, Library 2.1.1). Aegialeus died without children, and Phoroneus reigned over the whole land, later called the Peloponnese. By a nymph, Teledice, he had Apis and Niobe (Library 2.1.1). Pausanias also names a wife of Phoroneus, Cerdo, whose tomb stood in the market-place of Argos (Pausanias 2.21.1). Other sons of Phoroneus appear in local traditions. The Megarians named Car, after whom the citadel of Megara was called Caria (Pausanias 1.39.5, 1.40.6), and the people of Hermione said that their sanctuary of Demeter on Mount Pron was founded by Clymenus, son of Phoroneus, and his sister Chthonia (Pausanias 2.35.4). The historian Hellanicus, in a fragment preserved by a later commentator, gave Phoroneus three sons, Pelasgus, Iasus and Agenor: after their father’s death they divided the kingdom, Pelasgus taking the land along the river Erasinus, where he founded Larissa, and Iasus the land towards Elis, while Agenor received his father’s horsemen (Hellanicus, fragment 37). In the Argive line recorded by Pausanias, by contrast, Iasus and Agenor are much later descendants of Phoroneus (Pausanias 2.16.1).

Phoroneus the First Man of Argos

In Plato’s Timaeus, Solon, trying to tell the priests of Egypt the oldest Greek traditions, begins with “Phoroneus, who was said to be the first man, and Niobe” (Plato, Timaeus 22a). Pausanias reports an old story that Phoroneus was the first inhabitant of the land and that Inachus, his father, was the river itself and not a man. According to this account, Phoroneus was the first to gather the people, who had been living as isolated families, and the place where they were first brought together was named the City of Phoroneus (Pausanias 2.15.5). At Argos the Argives kept a fire burning that they called the fire of Phoroneus. They did not accept that Prometheus had given fire to mankind, and instead credited its discovery to Phoroneus (Pausanias 2.19.5). Pausanias saw the grave of Phoroneus at Argos, to which, he writes, offerings were still brought as to a hero (Pausanias 2.20.3).

Apis and Niobe

Apis, the son of Phoroneus, ruled harshly as a tyrant. He called the Peloponnese Apia after himself and was killed by a conspiracy of Thelxion and Telchis; he left no child, and was worshipped as a god under the name Sarapis (Apollodorus, Library 2.1.1). Niobe, the daughter of Phoroneus, was the first mortal woman with whom Zeus lay, and she bore him Argus (Apollodorus, Library 2.1.1; Diodorus Siculus 4.9). Pausanias reports that Argus took over the kingdom after Phoroneus and gave his name to the land (Pausanias 2.16.1), and that the grave of Argus, reputed to be the son of Zeus and Niobe, was shown at Argos (Pausanias 2.22.5). The line of descent from Argus runs through Peirasus and Phorbas to Triopas, whose sons were Iasus and Agenor; Io was the daughter of Iasus (Pausanias 2.16.1).

Phoroneus Sources

Apollodorus, Library 2.1.1; Plato, Timaeus 22a; Hellanicus, fragment 37; Pausanias 1.39.5, 1.40.6, 2.15.5, 2.16.1, 2.19.5, 2.20.3, 2.21.1, 2.22.5, 2.35.4; Diodorus Siculus 4.9.

See Also: Inachus, Niobe, Io, Argus, Zeus, Prometheus, Apis