Eryx

Eryx gave his name to the most striking mountain in western Sicily and to the city on its summit. The tradition makes him a king and a boxer, strong enough that his contest with Heracles became the standard story about him, and a son of the goddess of love — which is why the sanctuary on his mountain belonged to Aphrodite for the Greeks and to Venus Erycina for the Romans. Underneath that lies something older: the Elymians venerated a mother goddess of fertility and the heavens on the summit long before either. His paternity is reported inconsistently, so only the maternal line is recorded here.

Parentage

• parent: Aphrodite

Variant accounts

• Eryx's father is given differently in different accounts.His mother is consistently the goddess of love; his father is variously Butes the Argonaut and Poseidon. Because the accounts disagree, only the maternal line is authored, and the record's tier follows from that single divine parent.Reference treatment of Eryx noting the divergent paternities. (secondary)

Domains

• strength
• city founding

Sources

• Eryx is the eponymous hero of Mount Eryx and its city in western Sicily, a king celebrated for his strength as a fighter and named as a son of the goddess of love; the mountain carried an Elymian sanctuary of a mother goddess long before Greek or Roman contact.: Reference treatment of Eryx, king of Sicily and son of Aphrodite. (secondary); Reference treatment of the Elymian sanctuary on Mount Eryx, venerating a mother goddess of fertility and the heavens. (secondary)