Autolycus

Master-thief of Mount Parnassus, the heteropaternal twin of Philammon: son of Hermes by the mortal Chione of Phocis (greek_chione), born the same night as Apollo's son Philammon (Ovid Met. 11.301-317). Authored as a demigod (Olympian father Hermes + mortal mother Chione → divinity fraction 0.5). From Hermes he had unmatched skill in theft, the power to disguise and re-colour what he stole, and the binding oath (Homer Od. 19.394-397); he taught Heracles to wrestle (Apollod. 2.4.9, possibly conflated with the homonymous Argonaut). Father of Anticlea (greek_anticlea_ithaca) and maternal grandfather of Odysseus (greek_odysseus), whom he named at the cradle and on whose Parnassus boar-hunt the scar-recognition of Odyssey 19 turns. Wired to greek_chione + greek_hesiod_hermes as parents and reciprocally to his twin greek_philammon.

Parentage

• mother: Chione of Phocis
• father: Hermes

Domains

• thievery and trickery
• oaths and cunning speech
• wrestling and the palaestra

Powers

• Steals so cunningly as never to be caught
• Changes the form and colour of what he steals
• Swears and exploits binding oaths

Epithets

• πολύτροπος (in spirit — the all-cunning), the master-thief of ParnassusHomer, Odyssey 19.394-397 (primary)

Relations

• twin sibling: PhilammonHeteropaternal twin: Autolycus by Hermes, Philammon by Apollo, conceived on the same day and born together to Chione.Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.301-317 (heteropaternal twins of Chione born the same night) (primary)
• father of: AnticleaFather of Anticlea of Ithaca, who married Laertes and bore Odysseus (one-way relation; Anticlea is already registered as greek_anticlea_ithaca).Homer, Odyssey 11.85, 19.394-416; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.9.16 (primary)
• grandfather of: OdysseusMaternal grandfather of Odysseus; he came to Ithaca and named the newborn 'Odysseus' (the man of wrath). One-way relation; Odysseus is already registered as greek_odysseus.Homer, Odyssey 19.399-412 (Autolycus names the infant Odysseus) (primary)

Sources

• existence: Homer, Odyssey 19.394-466 (the locus classicus: Autolycus son-of-Hermes, father of Anticlea, namer of Odysseus, Parnassus boar-hunt) (primary); Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.301-317 (parentage by Hermes of Chione; twin of Philammon; the shape-changing theft-craft) (primary); Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.4.9 (wrestling-master of Heracles); 1.9.16 (father of Anticlea) (primary); Hyginus, Fabulae 200-201 (Autolycus, Chione, and the cattle-theft contest with Sisyphus) (primary); Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993), pp. 173-176 (secondary)