Eryx
Sicel · demigod · pre Greek Sikel Sicani religion (Greco Roman attested) · demigod
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
Domains
- strength
- city founding
Sources
- Reference treatment of Eryx, king of Sicily and son of Aphrodite.
- Reference treatment of the Elymian sanctuary on Mount Eryx, venerating a mother goddess of fertility and the heavens.