Œbalus

Role: mythic king · First appears: Book 2 · Chapter 2

Œbalus was the son of Cynortas. In Book 2, Chapter 21, he married Medusa after her husband Perieres had died; the account says she had lived with Perieres “from her virginity.” In Book 3, Chapter 1, at Argos, Œbalus married Gorgophone and fathered Tyndareus.

In Book 4, Chapter 2, Gorgophone is again said to have married Œbalus, and Arene is named as his daughter. The account also gives two traditions for Pirene’s parentage: one says she was the daughter of Œbalus, while another names Achelous. In Book 4, Chapter 12, at Ithome, Œbalus secretly placed one hundred clay tripods at Zeus’s altar before returning to Sparta to tell the Lacedæmonians what he had done.

Relationship record

Book 2 · Chapter 2

• child: Pirene (An alternative tradition identifies Œbalus as Pirene’s father.) “The Corinthian seaports got their names from Leches and Cenchrias, who were reputed to be the sons of Poseidon by Pirene the daughter of Achelous: though in Hesiod’s poem the great Eœæ Pirene is said to be the daughter of Œbalus.”

Book 2 · Chapter 21

• with Perieres (Œbalus became Medusa's second husband after Perieres died.) “she married one Œbalus, when her husband Perieres the son of Æolus was dead”
• married with Medusa “for she married one Œbalus, when her husband Perieres the son of Æolus was dead”

Book 3 · Chapter 1

• parent: Cynortas “And Cynortas had a son called Œbalus.”
• married with Gorgophone “He married Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus from Argos, and had a son Tyndareus.”
• child: Tyndareus “He married Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus from Argos, and had a son Tyndareus.”

Book 4 · Chapter 2

• child: Arene “the daughter of Œbalus, his wife and uterine sister”
• married with Gorgophone “For Gorgophone was married to Œbalus”

⭐ Constellation map → · 📖 Read the original → · 🗂 Character index → · 🕰 Chronicle → · 📍 Places →

Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.