Cresphontes

Scion-tier son of Aristomachus, founder of the Messenian Heraclidae line. Secured Messenia in the Heraclidae lot-cast through the canonical clay-lot fraud (Apollodorus 2.8.4; Pausanias 4.3.4-5) — the foundation-narrative of the Messenian royal claim and the structural seed of the centuries-long Messenian-Spartan rivalry. Killed in a Messenian succession-coup by Polyphontes; avenged by his son Aepytus, the central tragic-narrative of Euripides' lost play Cresphontes whose recognition-scene Aristotle (Poetics 14) cites as the model for the long-lost-child-returning-to-avenge-the-father trope.

Parentage

• Aristomachus

Children

• Aepytus

Domains

• kingship

Powers

• Rule Messenia as Heraclid king
• Won Messenia by cheating the casting of lots

Relations

• spouse: Merope
• father: Aristomachus
• sibling: Temenus
• sibling: Aristodemus

Sources

• Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.8.2-5; Pausanias, Description of Greece 4.3.3-8; Hyginus, Fabulae 137 (the Aepytus-Polyphontes-revenge cycle); Euripides, Cresphontes (fragmentary, Aristotle Poetics 14 references the recognition-scene); Polybius 4.33.2-3
• Apollodorus 2.8.2