Phoenix

This article is about the Phoenician king. For the mythological bird, see Phoenix.

This article is about the Phoenician king. For figure with the same name in the Iliad, see Phoenix (son of Amyntor).

Phoenix (Ancient Greek: Φοῖνιξ Phoinix, gen. Φοίνικος Phoinikos means "sun-red") is the son of King Agenor and Queen Telephassa of Tyre and was the eponym of Phoenicia. After his sister, Europa, was captured by Zeus, he, along with his brothers, Cadmus and Cilix, and his mother, went to look for her.

Phoenix returned to become the king of Phoenicia after his father, Cilix, became the first king of Cilicia and Cadmus went on to become the first king of Thebes in Greece. Phoenix's son was Phineus.

Mythology[]

When Europa was carried off by Zeus, her three brothers were sent out by Agenor to find her, but the search was unsuccessful. Phoenix eventually settled in a country in Asia or Africa, which he named Phoenicia after himself. He was said to have founded Bithynia which was previously named Mariandyna.

Malalas recounted following account about Phoenix and Heracles the Tyrian:

"Herakles the philosopher, called the Tyrian, lived in the reign of King Phoenix. It was he who discovered the purple-shell. He was wandering on the coastal part of Tyre city when he saw a shepherd dog eating the so-called purple-shell, which is a small maritime species like a sea snail. The shepherd thought the dog was bleeding, and took a clump of sheep’s wool and wiped off what was coming out of the dog’s mouth, and it dyed the wool. Herakles noticed that it wasn’t blood but the virtue of a strange dye, and wondered at it. Recognizing that the dye deposited on the wool came from the purple-shell, and having taken the wool from the shepherd as a great gift, he brought it to Phoenix, the King of Tyre. He too was surprised by the sight of the strange color of the dye. Admiring his discovery, he ordered that wool be dyed from this purple-shell dye and become a royal mantle for him. He was the first to wear this purple mantle, and everyone marveled at his royal raiment, as a foreign spectacle. From then, King Phoenix commanded that no one under his rule dare to wear such virtuous clothing on land or sea, except himself and those who ruled Phoenicia after him, so that they would recognize the King in the army and the crowd from his marvelous and strange clothing."

Family[]

Phoenix was a son of King Agenor of Tyre by either Telephassa, Argiope, Antiope, Damno or Tyro. He was the brother of Europa, Cadmus, Cilix, Syros, Isaia and Melia.

In some accounts, Phoenix's father was called King Belus of Egypt and sibling to Agenor, Phineus, Aegyptus, Danaus and Ninus. In the latter's version of the myth, Phoenix' mother could be identified as Achiroe, naiad daughter of the river-god Nilus.

Phoenix was believed to have fathered a number of children with different women. By Cassiopeia, Phoenix had a daughter, Carme, and three sons: Cilix, Phineus, and Doryclus, as well as a stepson Atymnius, whose natural father was Zeus; by Alphesiboea, he had Adonis. Phoenix was also credited as the father of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, whose wife was another Cassiopeia.

According to early accounts, Europa was not Phoenix's sister, but his daughter, while Cadmus was identified as his son. Otherwise, Europa was called one of his two daughters by Perimede, daughter of Oeneus, the other one being Astypalaea; she was also included on the list of Phoenix's children by Telephe, daughter of Epimedusa, her siblings in this case being Peirus and Astypale (apparently identical to the aforementioned Astypalaea).

Telephe was probably the same as Telephassa, whom Moschus called Phoenix's wife and not his mother. In another account, his children were Cadmus, Europa and Thasus.

Phoenicid-Cilicid Genealogy in Greek mythology