In Greek mythology, the name Caucon (/ˈkɔːkən, ˈkɔːkɒn/; Ancient Greek: Καύκων) may refer to:

  • Caucon, an Arcadian prince as one of the 50 sons of the impious King Lycaon either by the naiad Cyllene,[1] Nonacris[2] or by unknown woman.[3] He was an ancestral hero and eponym of the Caucones that were believed to have settled in Triphylia.[4] His tomb was shown at Lepreus,[5] with a statue of a man with a lyre standing over it.[6] Other traditions made him son of Poseidon and father of Lepreus by Astydameia.[7] Caucon and his brothers were the most nefarious and carefree of all people. To test them, Zeus visited them in the form of a peasant. These brothers mixed the entrails of a child into the god's meal, whereupon the enraged Zeus threw the meal over the table. Caucon was killed, along with his brothers and their father, by a lightning bolt of the god.[8]
  • Caucon, son of Celaenus and grandson of the autochthon Phlyus, from Eleusis. He was said to have brought the rites of the Great Goddesses from Eleusis to Andania in Messene.[9] Legend had it that he appeared to Epaminondas in a dream, prophesying him success in restoration of the Messenian state;[10] the Messenian allies of Epaminondas offered sacrifices to Caucon.[11]

Notes

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  1. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 1.13.1
  2. ^ Pausanias, 8.17.6
  3. ^ Apollodorus, 3.8.1; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 481
  4. ^ Scholia on Homer, Odyssey 3.366
  5. ^ Strabo, 8.3.16 remarking that Caucon might have been the progenitor of the tribe, or might have had the same name by coincidence
  6. ^ Pausanias, 5.5.5
  7. ^ Athenaeus, 10.412b; Aelian, Varia Historia 1.24
  8. ^ Apollodorus, 3.8.1
  9. ^ Pausanias, 4.1.5 & 4.2.6
  10. ^ Pausanias, 2.4.6–8
  11. ^ Pausanias, 4.27.6

References

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  • Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
  • Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae. Kaibel. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia translated by Thomas Stanley (d.1700) edition of 1665. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
  • Claudius Aelianus, Claudii Aeliani de natura animalium libri xvii, varia historia, epistolae, fragmenta, Vol 2. Rudolf Hercher. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1866.
  • Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.