Arcas

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

• paternal: Zeus
• maternal: Callisto

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 greek · Arkáseponymous ancestor of the Arcadians; his bones were brought to Mantinea by oracle and he received a tomb-cultPausanias 8.9.3-4 (primary)

Relations

• foundational precursor to: Arcadians (people of Arcadia) · GreekEponymous ancestor of the Arcadian people and the central highland region of the Peloponnese.Apollod. 3.8.2; Paus. 8.4.1 (primary)

Sources

• existence: Apollodorus 3.8.2, 3.9.1; Pausanias 8.4.1-3; Ovid Metamorphoses 2.401-530; Hyginus Astronomica 2.1, 2.4, Fabulae 176-177; Eratosthenes Catasterismi 8; Lycophron Alexandra 480-483 (primary)
• parentage: Apollod. 3.8.2; Hes. cat. fr. 163 (primary)