Arcas
Greek · demigod · heroic age · demigod
Half-Olympian son of Zeus by the Arcadian nymph Callisto; eponymous founder of Arcadia and ancestor of the Arcadian kings. Came near to matricide on his mother — by then transformed into a bear — before Zeus translated both into the constellations Ursa Major and Boötes, where they eternally pursue each other across the northern sky. The Lycaon-banquet variant transfers the Tantalus-Pelops motif to Arcadia and supplies the etiology of the werewolf-rite at Mt. Lycaon. The civilizing-hero attributes (agriculture, weaving, bread) mark Arcas as the structural founder-ancestor of the Arcadian people in the standard heroic-age pattern.
Parentage
Domains
- eponymous founder of arcadia
- civilizing arts agriculture weaving bread
- catasterism as bootes
- hunting
Powers
- Teach the arts of agriculture, weaving, and breadmaking
Epithets
- Ἀρκάς