Proetus

Proetus was a king of Tiryns in Greek mythology, the son of Abas and twin brother of Acrisius of Argos. After a quarrel over the throne he fled to Lycia, returned with Lycian help and built up Tiryns, where he ruled. He is also the father of the Proitides, the Argive princesses driven mad by a god, and the man who sent Bellerophon to Lycia with a letter that demanded his death.

Family

Apollodorus says that Abas, son of Lynceus, had twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus, by Aglaia, daughter of Mantineus (Library 2.2.1). Aglaia is therefore Proetus’ mother, not his wife. His wife was the daughter of the king of Lycia: Homer calls her Anteia and says she was the wife of Proetus (Iliad 6.160), while Apollodorus says that Proetus went to Lycia to the court of Iobates, or, as some say, of Amphianax, and married his daughter, whom Homer calls Antia and the tragic poets Stheneboea (Library 2.2.1). In the same Library the daughters of Proetus by Stheneboea are Lysippe, Iphinoe and Iphianassa, and after their cure he had a son, Megapenthes (Library 2.2.2).

The Quarrel with Acrisius

The twins quarrelled even in the womb, and as men they fought for the kingdom; in this war they were the first to invent shields. Acrisius won and drove Proetus out of Argos (Apollodorus, Library 2.2.1). Proetus went to Lycia, where his father-in-law restored him with a Lycian army, and he took Tiryns, which the Cyclopes fortified for him. The brothers then divided the Argive land, Acrisius ruling Argos and Proetus ruling Tiryns (Library 2.2.1; Pausanias 2.16.2, 2.16.5). Pausanias says the fight for the throne took place on the road from Argos to Epidaurus, at a building like a pyramid decorated with Argive shields; the battle ended in a draw and the brothers were reconciled, and those who fell on both sides were buried there in a common tomb (Pausanias 2.25.7). Strabo adds that the Cyclopes who walled Tiryns for Proetus were seven, and came from Lycia (Strabo 8.6.11).

Danae

The story of Danae gives a second cause for the quarrel. Acrisius shut his daughter Danae away because an oracle said that her son would kill him. According to Apollodorus, she was nevertheless seduced, “as some say, by Proetus, whence arose the quarrel between them”; but some say that Zeus came to her as a stream of gold (Library 2.4.1). The usual version is that Zeus was the father of Perseus.

The Daughters of Proetus

When the daughters of Proetus grew up, they went mad. Apollodorus reports that, according to Hesiod, this was because they would not accept the rites of Dionysus, but according to Acusilaus, because they disparaged the wooden image of Hera (Library 2.2.2). Virgil says that they filled the fields with imaginary lowing, as if they were cows (Eclogue 6.48–51).

The seer Melampus, son of Amythaon, promised to cure the maidens if he received a third of the kingdom. Proetus refused and the madness grew worse and spread to the other women, who left their homes and killed their children. In the end Proetus agreed, and Melampus asked for the same share for his brother Bias. Melampus took the strongest young men and chased the women from the mountains to Sicyon with shouts and a frenzied dance. Iphinoe, the eldest, died in the pursuit; the others were purified and recovered. Proetus gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias (Apollodorus, Library 2.2.2). Pausanias gives places connected with the cure: the temple of Apollo at Sicyon, which Proetus is said to have built where his daughters recovered (Pausanias 2.7.8), and Lusi in Arcadia, where Melampus brought them down from a cave in the Aroanian mountains (Pausanias 8.18.7–8).

Bellerophon

Bellerophon came to Proetus after he had killed a man by accident, and Proetus purified him. The wife of Proetus (Stheneboea in Apollodorus, Anteia in Homer) fell in love with him, and when he refused her, she told Proetus that Bellerophon had made a shameful proposal to her. In Homer she says to her husband, “Die, Proetus, or kill Bellerophon” (Iliad 6.160–165). Proetus did not wish to kill a guest, so he sent Bellerophon to Lycia with a folded tablet bearing deadly signs, to be shown to his father-in-law so that he would be killed (Iliad 6.166–170; Apollodorus, Library 2.3.1). Iobates sent Bellerophon against the Chimera, the Solymi and the Amazons (Iliad 6.179–186).

Perseus and Megapenthes

Ovid makes Perseus attack Proetus, who had driven his brother out and held the Acrisian citadel: Proetus could not withstand the Gorgon’s stare with weapons or walls (Metamorphoses 5.236–241). In Apollodorus and Pausanias the end of the story is different: after Perseus accidentally killed Acrisius with a discus, he was ashamed to take the kingdom of Argos and exchanged kingdoms with Megapenthes, the son of Proetus, so that Megapenthes ruled Argos and Perseus ruled Tiryns (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.4; Pausanias 2.16.3).

Proetus Sources

Homer, Iliad 6.155–195; Apollodorus, Library 2.2.1–2, 2.3.1, 2.4.1, 2.4.4; Strabo 8.6.11; Pausanias 2.7.8, 2.16.2–5, 2.25.7, 8.18.7–8; Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.236–241; Virgil, Eclogue 6.48–51.

See Also: Acrisius, Danae, Jobates, Dionysus, Hera, Bellerophon, Perseus, Melampus, Megapenthes, Tiryns