Phoroneus
Family: Mythological · Role: father of Car · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 39
In Book 1, Phoroneus is named as the father of Car. In Book 2, he is said to be the son of Inachus, described as a river rather than a man. At Phoronicum, Phoroneus gathered people who had lived scattered and solitary into communities, and the city took its name from that gathering.
The accounts name Cerdo as his wife and Niobe, Europs, and Clymenus (son of Phoroneus) as his children. His daughter’s son Argos reigned after him and gave Argos his own name; another account identifies the daughter’s son as Argus. The invention of fire is attributed to Phoroneus, rather than Prometheus.
Relationship record
Life events
- Phoroneus gathered scattered people into communities, creating the city called Phoronicum.(Book 2 · Chapter 15 · 📍 Phoronicum)
- “And Phoroneus the son of Inachus first gathered men together in communities, who before lived scattered and solitary: so the city in which they were first gathered together was called Phoronicum.”
Book 1 · Chapter 39
- child: Car “Car, the son of Phoroneus”
Book 1 · Chapter 40
- child: Car (Phoroneus is Car's father.) “the Carian from Car the son of Phoroneus”
Book 1 · Chapter 44
- child: Car “a monument of Car the son of Phoroneus”
Book 2 · Chapter 15
- parent: Inachus “They also say that Phoroneus was the first mortal in this land, and that Inachus his father was not a man but a river:”
Book 2 · Chapter 16
- younger kin: Argos “And Argos his daughter’s son, who reigned after Phoroneus, gave Argos his own name.”
Book 2 · Chapter 19
- with Prometheus (The Argives attribute the invention of fire to Phoroneus rather than Prometheus.) “for they do not admit that Prometheus gave fire to men, but they attribute the invention of fire to Phoroneus”
Book 2 · Chapter 21
- married with Cerdo “tomb of Cerdo, the wife of Phoroneus”
Book 2 · Chapter 22
- child: Niobe “Argos, who was reputed to be the son of Zeus and Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus”
Book 2 · Chapter 34
- child: Europs “this Europs, who was certainly the son of Phoroneus”
- younger kin: Argus (Phoroneus is Argus's maternal grandfather.) “the kingdom of Argos would not have come to Argus the daughter’s son of Phoroneus”
- with Argus (Phoroneus is identified as Argus's maternal grandfather.) “the kingdom of Argos would not have come to Argus the daughter’s son of Phoroneus”
Book 2 · Chapter 35
- child: Clymenus (son of Phoroneus) “This temple the people of Hermione say was built by Clymenus, the son of Phoroneus, and by Chthonia the sister of Clymenus.”
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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.