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...

, Autoleon was a hero of Croton

Crotone

Crotone is a city and comune in Calabria, southern Italy, on the Ionian Sea. Founded circa 710 BC as the Achaean colony of Croton , it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to the current one. In 1994 it became the capital of the newly established...

 in southern Italy, of which the following story is told. Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

 (iii. 19. §11) relates precisely the same story of one Leonymus.

It was customary with the Opuntian

Opuntian Locris

Opuntian Locris or Eastern Locris was an ancient Greek region inhabited by the eastern division of the Locrians, the so-called tribe of the Locri Epicnemidii or Locri Opuntii .-Geography:...

 Locrians

Locrians

The Locrians were an ancient Greek tribe in Greece. The Locrians spoke the Locrian dialect, a Doric-Northwest dialect, which indicates that they may have been relatives of the Dorians. They inhabited the ancient region of Locris in Central Greece....

, whenever they drew up their army in battle array, to leave one place in the lines open for their national hero Ajax

Ajax (mythology)

Ajax or Aias was a mythological Greek hero, the son of Telamon and Periboea and king of Salamis. He plays an important role in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War. To distinguish him from Ajax, son of Oileus , he is called "Telamonian Ajax," "Greater...

. Once in a battle between the Locrians and Crotonians in Italy, Autoleon wanted to penetrate into this vacant place, hoping thus to conquer the Locrians. But the shade

Shade

Shade is the blocking of sunlight by any object, and also the shadow created by that object. Shade also consists of the colors grey, black, white, etc...

 of Ajax appeared and inflicted on Autoleon a wound from which he suffered severely. The oracle advised him to conciliate the shade of Ajax by offering sacrifices to him in the island of Leuce

Snake Island (Black Sea)

Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island, , is a Ukrainian island located in the Black Sea near the Danube Delta.The island is populated. A rural settlement of Bile was established in February 2007, which is part of the Vylkove city, Kiliya Raion, Odessa Oblast...

. This was done accordingly, and Autoleon was cured.

While in the island of Leuce, Autoleon also saw Helen, who gave him a commission to Stesichorus

Stesichorus

Stesichorus was the first great poet of the Greek West. He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres but he is also famous for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing...

. This poet had censured Helen in one of his poems, and had become blind in consequence. Helen now sent him the message, that if he would recant, his sight should be restored to him. Stesichorus composed a poem in praise of Helen, and recovered his sight.