Ancaeus
Encyclopedia
The name Ancaeus or Ankaios (Ἀγκαῖος) is attributed to two heroes in Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

. Both were among the Argonauts
Argonauts
The Argonauts ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, the Argo, which was named after its builder, Argus. "Argonauts", therefore, literally means...

, and each met his death at the tusks of a boar. They are often confused with one another.

Ancaeus of Arcadia

Ancaeus, son of King Lycurgus
Lycurgus (Arcadia)
Lycurgus, in Greek mythology, was the king of Arcadia. He was the son of Aleus, the previous ruler, and Neaera, daughter of Proteus. Lycurgus married either Cleophyle or Eurynome and fathered these sons: Ancaeus, Epochus, Amphidamas, and Iasius....

 of Arcadia
Arcadia
Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...

, was both an Argonaut and a participant in the Calydonian Boar
Calydonian Boar
The Calydonian Boar is one of the monsters of Greek mythology that had to be overcome by heroes of the Olympian age. Sent by Artemis to ravage the region of Calydon in Aetolia because its king failed to honor her in his rites to the gods, it was killed in the Calydonian Hunt, in which many male...

 hunt, in which he met his end. His arms were ominously hidden at home, but he set forth, dressed in a bearskin and armed only with a labrys
Labrys
Labrys is the term for a symmetrical doubleheaded axe originally from Crete in Greece, one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization; to the Romans, it was known as a bipennis....

(λάβρυς "doubled-bladed axe"). His wife was named Iotis, and his mother was either Cleophyle or Eurynome
Eurynome
Eurynomê was the Titan goddess of water-meadows and pasturelands, and one of the elder Oceanides, that is, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys...

 according to one account, or Antinoe according to another one. Ancaeus' son Agapenor
Agapenor
Agapenor was in Greek mythology a leader of the Arcadians in the Trojan war. He was a son of Ancaeus, and grandson of Lycurgus. As king of the Arcadians he received sixty ships from Agamemnon, in which he led his Arcadians to Troy. He also occurs among the suitors of Helen...

 led the Arcadian forces during the Trojan War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

.

Ancaeus of Samos

Ancaeus was king of the island of Samos
Samos Island
Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional...

, and an Argonaut
Argonaut
Argonaut may refer to:* Argonaut , a kind of octopus in the genus Argonauta* Jason and the Argonauts, sailors in Greek mythology* Argonauts of Saint Nicholas, a military order in Naples...

: helmsmanship was his special skill. He was a son of Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

 and Astypalaea
Astypalaea
In Greek mythology, Astypalaea was the daughter of Phoenix and Perimede and the sister of Europa. She was a lover of Poseidon who seduced her, and had two sons by him: Ancaeus, King of Samos, and Eurypylos, King of Kos....

, and brother of Eurypylus
Eurypylus
In Greek mythology, Eurypylus was the name of several different people.-Son of Thestius:One Eurypylus was a son of Thestius. He participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, during which he insulted Atalanta and was killed by Meleager.-Son of Euaemon:Another Eurypylus was a Thessalian king,...

. By other accounts his father was the Lelegian king Altes
Altes
In Greek mythology, Altes was a Lelegian king who resided at Pedasus, which was situated in or near the Troad. According to Homer's Iliad Altes was the father of Laothoe, one of the many wives of King Priam. In other accounts, Altes is also said to be the father of the Argonaut Ancaeus of...

, which accords well with Ancaeus's rule over the Leleges
Leleges
The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of southwest Anatolia , who were already there when the Indo-European Hellenes emerged. The distinction between the Leleges and the Carians is unclear. According to Homer the Leleges were a distinct Anatolian tribe Homer...

 of Samos. According to a lost epic of his house, sung by the Samian poet Asios, he married Samia, daughter of the river god Maeander
Meander (mythology)
Meander or Maiandros is a river in Greek mythology, patron deity of the Meander river in Caria, southern Asia Minor . He is one of the sons of Oceanus and Tethys, and is the father of Cyanee, Samia and Kalamos....

, who bore him Perilaus, Enudus, Samus, Alitherses, and Parthenope, the mother of Lycomedes
Lycomedes
Lycomedes , in Greek mythology, was the King of Scyros during the Trojan War.-Lycomedes and Achilles:Before the war, Thetis sent her son Achilles, disguised as a girl, to Lycomedes's court, as a prophecy had decreed that he would die at Troy. It was there that Achilles married Lycomedes' daughter...

. The most famous story surrounding this Ancaeus is the following: When planting a vineyard, for Samos was famed for its wine, he was told by a seer that he would never taste its wine. Ancaeus then joined the voyage of the Argonauts, and returned home safely, by which time the grapes were ripe and had been made into wine. He summoned the seer before him, and raised a cup of his own wine to his lips, and was ready to taste it for the first time. He then mocked the seer, who retorted, "There is many a slip between the cup and the lip" (Πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κὐλικος καὶ Χείλεος άκροὒ). Before Ancaeus had tasted the wine, an alarm was raised that a wild boar was ravaging the vineyard, and on hearing this, Ancaeus dropped the cup and went out to investigate – and was promptly killed by the boar.

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