Neleus (; ) was a mythological king of Pylos. In some accounts, he was also counted as an Argonaut instead of his son, Nestor.[Hyginus, Fabulae 10 & 14]
Family
Neleus was the son of
Poseidon and
Tyro, and brother of
Pelias.
[Hyginus, Fabulae 157] According to Pausanias, Neleus was the son of
Cretheus, King of
Iolcus, who was himself a son of Aeolus.
[Pausanias, 4.2.5]
With Chloris,[Homer, Odyssey 11.284: "the youngest daughter"; Pausanias, 9.36.8; Scholia ad Odyssey 11.281 citing Pherecydes fr. 117= Fowler (2013), vol. 1 p. 338; see Strabo, 8.3.19] Neleus was the father of Pero, Periclymenus,[Apollodorus, 1.9.16] Alastor, Chromius, Asterion, Deimachus, Epilaus, Eurybius, Eurymenes, Evagoras, Phrasius, Pylaon, Taurus and Nestor. Some say that Chloris was mother only of three of Neleus' sons (Nestor, Periclymenus and Chromius), whereas the rest were his children by different women,[Aristarchus in scholia on Homer, Iliad 11.692][Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 1.152 — apparently following Odyssey 11.285, where only Nestor, Chromius and Periclymenus are enumerated] but other accounts explicitly disagree with the statement.[Apollodorus, 1.9.9; Diodorus Siculus, 4.68.6; Hyginus, Fabulae 10, 97 & 273] Otherwise, the mother of Nestor was called Polymede.
Mythology
Tyro was married to
Cretheus (with whom she had three sons,
Aeson,
Pheres, and
Amythaon), though she loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day,
Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus. From their union were born
Pelias and Neleus, twin boys. Tyro exposed her sons on a mountain, but they were found and raised by a maid.
When they reached adulthood, Pelias and Neleus found their mother Tyro and then killed her stepmother, Sidero, for having mistreated her. Sidero tried to hide in a temple to Hera but Pelias killed her anyway, earning himself Hera's undying hatred. Neleus and Pelias then fought for the crown, and Neleus was banished to Messenia. There he was welcomed by his cousin Aphareus who gave him the maritime part of the land where he settled and established his palace. Neleus eventually became King of Pylos.
Heracles later asked Neleus to cleanse him of the blood-debt he gained by killing his own wife and children, but was refused. In retaliation, he killed Neleus and his sons, except for Nestor.[Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.536 ff.; Hyginus, Fabulae 31]
Notes
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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.
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Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
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Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888–1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
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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. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
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Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Ovid, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Further reading
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Douglas Frame (2009). Hippota Nestor. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies
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Douglas Frame (1978). The Myth of Return in Early Greek Epic. New Haven: Yale University Press.
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Keith Dickson (1995). Nestor: Poetic Memory in Greek Epic. NY: Garland Publishers.
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Keith Dickson (1993). "Nestor Among the Sirens", Oral Tradition. 8/1: 21–58.
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Richard R. Martin (2012). Review of Douglas Frame Hippota Nestor 2009 in American Journal of Philology. 133.4 (Winter 2012): 687-692
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Hanna Roisman (2005). "Nestor the Good Counselor". Classical Quarterly 55: 17-38.
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Victoria Pedrick (1983). "The Paradignatic Nature of Nestor's Speech". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Assn.. 113: 55–68.
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R.M. Frazer (1971). "Nestor's Generations, Iliad 2.250-2". Glotta. 49:216-8.
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V.C. Mathews (1987). "Kaukonian Dyme: Antimachus fr.27-8 and the text of Homer". Eranos. 85: 91–7.
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Jack L. Davis (ed) (1998). Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino. Austin: University of Texas Press.
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William G. Loy (1970). Land of Nestor: A Physical Geography of the Southwest Peloponnesos. Washington, DC. National Academy of Sciences.
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Carl Blegen and Marion Rawson (ed) (1966). Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia for University of Cincinnati by Princeton University Press.
