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...

, Tegeates was a son of Lycaon, and the reputed founder and eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

 of Tegea

Tegea

Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. Its seat was the village Stadio....

 in 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...

.

Tegeates was married to Maera, daughter of Atlas

Atlas (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in north-west Africa...

, by whom he had five sons: Archedius, Gortys, Cydon, Leimon and Scephrus; Tegeates' and Maera's tombs were shown at Tegea. Of their children the following is related.

When Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 and Artemis

Artemis

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...

 were traveling about Greece in search for those who had once refused their mother Leto

Leto

In Greek mythology, Leto is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. The island of Kos is claimed as her birthplace. In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides, which Leto conceived after her hidden beauty accidentally caught the eyes of Zeus...

 to punish them, they came to Tegea, where Apollo had a private conversation with Scephrus. Leimon, suspecting that his brother was charging against him, killed Scephrus. For his crime, Leimon was shot by Artemis; afterwards, despite Tegeates and Maera offering sacrifices to propitiate the gods, famine fell on the land. To avert the calamity, rites in honor of Scephrus were instituted and have since then been performed during the festival of Apollo Agyieus: as part of the ritual, a priestess of Artemis pursued a man, imitating Artemis' pursuit of Leimon. The other three sons of Tegeates, Archedius, Gortys and Cydon, were said to have migrated to Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 and to have founded the cities Cydonia, Gortys and Catreus.