Phlegyas
Fiery king who burned Apollo's temple and was punished in Tartarus.
Phlegyas, whose name means 'fiery' in Ancient Greek, was a king of the Lapiths or the Phlegyans in Greek mythology. He is notable for his role as the father of Coronis and for his punishment in the underworld after burning the temple of Apollo at Delphi.
Quick Facts
- Etymology
- Fiery
- Culture
- Greek mythology
- Title
- King of the Lapiths (or the Phlegyans)
- Father
- Ares
- Mother
- Chryse (daughter of Halmus) or Dotis
- Children
- Ixion (in some accounts)
- Coronis
- Gyrtone
Facts from the source article.
Family
Phlegyas was the son of Ares and Chryse, daughter of Halmus, or of Dotis; one account called him an autochthon. He was brother to Ixion and Gyrton, the latter being eponym of a Thessalian town. Phlegyas fathered Ixion in some accounts, as well as Coronis, whose mother was Cleopheme, daughter of Malus and the Muse Erato. One tradition held he had no children. Another daughter, Gyrtone, also gave her name to Gyrton.
Mythology
Phlegyas succeeded Eteocles, who died without issue, in governing the district of Orchomenos, which he renamed Phlegyantis after himself. When his daughter Coronis, pregnant with Asclepius, fell in love with Ischys, Apollo had Artemis kill her; Hermes rescued the baby and gave it to Chiron. Angry at Apollo, Phlegyas torched the Apollonian temple at Delphi. Apollo killed him with arrows and condemned him to severe punishment in the underworld. In another version, Phlegyas had no children and Lycus and Nycteus caused his death. In Virgil's Aeneid, Phlegyas is tormented in Tartarus, warning others not to despise the gods. In Statius' Thebaid, he is entombed in a rock by Megaera and starved before an eternal feast.
Other appearances
In Dante's Inferno, Phlegyas ferries Virgil and Dante across the River Styx, portrayed as a marsh where the wrathful and sullen lie within Hell's Circle of Wrath. In the video game Dante's Inferno, he appears as a giant fiery rock monster; Dante unknowingly rides across the Styx on his crown, later takes control of Phlegyas to break into the City of Dis, and Phlegyas plummets into the abyss after breaking the ground at the circle of Heresy. In the animated film Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic, Phlegyas is a green-skinned humanoid who willingly takes Dante and Virgil through the fifth circle without incident, and is knocked out by Lucifer when Dante controls him to charge Lucifer.
More in Mythological Founders of Populated Places
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