View source for Alcinous

{{short description|Greek mythical character}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
[[Image:Francesco Hayez 028.jpg|thumb|300px|''[[Odysseus at the Court of Alcinous]]'' by [[Francesco Hayez]]. The blind minstrel [[Demodocus (Odyssey character)|Demodocus]] is playing the harp.]]

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Alcinous''' (also '''Alcinoüs'''; {{IPAc-en|æ|l|ˈ|s|ɪ|n|ə|ʊ|ə|s}};<ref>[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/alcinous Alcinoüs definition and meaning] in ''[[Collins English Dictionary]]'', Retrieved 25 December 2024</ref> {{langx|grc|Ἀλκίνοος}} ''Alkínoos'' {{lit|mighty mind}}) was a son of [[Nausithous]] and brother of [[Rhexenor]].<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' 7.2</ref> After the latter's death,<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' 7.54–68</ref> he married his brother's daughter [[Arete (mythology)|Arete]] who bore him [[Nausicaa]], [[Halius]], [[Clytoneus]] and [[Laodamas]].<ref name="DGRBM">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Schmitz|first=Leonhard|title=Alcinous (1)|editor=[[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]]|encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]|volume=1|pages=102|publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]]|location=Boston|year=1867|url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0111.html|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028160524/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0111.html|archive-date=2007-10-28}}</ref> In some accounts, Alcinous' father was [[Phaeax (mythology)|Phaeax]], son of [[Poseidon]] and [[Corcyra (mythology)|Corcyra]], and brother of [[Locrus]].<ref name=":0">[[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]], [https://topostext.org/work/489#3 3]</ref>

== Mythology ==

=== Argonautica ===
In the myth of [[Jason]] and the [[Argonauts]], Alcinous is represented as living with his wife [[Arete (mythology)|Arete]] on Drépané island.  The Argonauts, on their return from [[Colchis]], came to his island, and were hospitably received.  When the Colchians, in their pursuit of the Argonauts, likewise arrived in Drépané, and demanded that [[Jason]]'s lover [[Medea]] should be delivered up to them, Alcinous declared that if she was still a virgin she should be restored to them, but if she was already the wife of Jason, he would protect her and her husband against the Colchians.  The Colchians were obliged, by the contrivance of Arete, to depart without their princess, and the Argonauts continued their voyage homeward, after they had received expensive presents from Alcinous.<ref>[[Apollonius of Rhodes]], 4.990–1225</ref><ref>''[[Argonautica Orphica|Orphic Argonautica]]'' 1288</ref><ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 1.9.25–26</ref> He was also the King of the Phaeacians.

=== Odyssey ===
[[Image:OdysseyDemodokos.png|thumb|[[Demodocus (Odyssey character)|Demodocos]] singing to [[Odysseus]] and Alcinous, illustration by [[John Flaxman]] (1810)]]
According to [[Homer]], Alcinous is the happy ruler of the [[Phaiacia]]ns in the island of [[Scheria]], who has by Arete five sons and one daughter, Nausicaa.<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' 6.12 & 6.62</ref> The description of his palace and his dominions, the mode in which [[Odysseus]] is received, the entertainments given to him, and the stories he related to the king about his own wanderings, occupy a considerable portion of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'' (from book vi. to xiii.), and form one of its most charming parts.<ref>compare [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#125 125] & [https://topostext.org/work/206#126 126]</ref> Alcinous has a squire, Pontonous, who serves wine during this feast.

=== Other accounts ===
In [[Conon (mythographer)|Conon's]] ''Narrations'', when Phaiax who reigned on the island of Corcyra died, Alkinous and his brother Lokros, after quarreling agreed upon on the basis that Alcinous would be the king of the Phaeacians and Locrus would take the heirlooms and part of the ethnos to make a colony. The latter sailed to Italy where he married the Laurine, daughter of King [[Latinus]] of the Italians and for this reason, the Phaiakians claim the Lokrians in Italy as relatives.<ref name=":0" />

== See also ==
* [[11428 Alcinoös]], Jovian asteroid named after Alcinous
* [[Garden of Alcinous]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
* [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius Rhodius]], ''Argonautica'' translated by Robert Cooper Seaton (1853–1915), R. C. Loeb Classical Library Volume 001. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1912. [https://topostext.org/work/126 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* Apollonius Rhodius, ''Argonautica''. George W. Mooney. London: Longmans, Green. 1912. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0227 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]]'', Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople'' translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190322161405/https://topostext.org/work/489 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]], ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* [[Homer]], [[Odyssey|''The Odyssey'']] with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135 Greek text available from the same website].
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
* [[Argonautica Orphica|''The Orphic Argonautica'']], translated by Jason Colavito. 2011. [https://topostext.org/work/549 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061215024437/http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden-designer/world-garden-design/7gardenofalcinous.htm JC Loudon (1835) on the Garden of Alcinous]

{{Characters in the Odyssey}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcinous}}
[[Category:Kings in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Characters in the Argonautica]]
[[Category:Characters in the Odyssey]]
[[Category:Phaeacians]]