Agapenor

In Greek mythology, Agapenor (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαπήνωρ, gen. Ἀγαπήνορος meaning 'loving manliness', 'manly') was a leader of the Arcadians in the Trojan War. According to the Pausanias's Description of Greece, Agapenor became the king of Arcadia after the death of Echemus. On the return journey from the battle at Troy his ships were wrecked by a storm and stranded on Cyprus, where he founded New Paphos. Homer names Ancaeus as the father of Agapenor, a detail repeated in both Apollodorus and Pausanias, the latter of whom adds that Agapenor's grandfather is thus Lycurgus. His mother is given by Hyginus as Iotis. In his commentary on the Alexandra of Lycophron (c. 330–325 BCE), the 12th Century CE Byzantine grammarian John Tzetzes gives Agapenor's father as Ancaeus, who is himself the son of Actor and, according to Tzetzes, Eurythemis (herself the daughter of Acastus), with Tzetzes being the only surviving source for this Eurythemis. Agapenor's lineage is referenced in the Alexandra of Lycophron, which rarely refers to figures by their names and instead uses cryptic allusions to the deeds or fates of a character to establish their identity. He is described here as 'one of the sons of the oak who took the shape of wolves after they cut Nyktimos to pieces', a reference to Lycaon, who was turned into a wolf by Zeus after attempting to feed him human flesh. In his commentary on the poem, Tzetzes traces two different genealogies for Agapenor in order to connect him to Lycophron, based on two different possibilities for the identity of the 'sons of the oak'. The first lineage, for which Tzetzes cites Eumelos and Charon of Lampsacus as a sources, is that of Arcas – here described as a son of either Zeus or Apollo – and Callisto, daughter of Lycaon.