Akastos or Acastus
Akastos (in Latin Acastus), in Greek mythology was a famous hunter. He was the son of Peleus, king of Iolcos in Thessaly, and Anaxibia. Against his father’s wishes, he joined the expedition of the Argonauts due to his deep friendship with Jason. He also took part in the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
He married Astydamia, the daughter of Cretheus, with whom he had three daughters: Sterope, Laodamia, and Sthenele. According to Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, Sthenele became the wife of Menoetius and the mother of Patroclus. Tradition also mentions another wife for Akastos, Hippolyta Cretheid, also a daughter of Cretheus.
When Jason, obeying the command of Iolcos, delivered the Golden Fleece to him, Iolcos no longer wished to keep his promise to grant him the throne. After the return of the Argonauts, Medea, a famous sorceress who, enamored with Jason, had helped him with her magical arts in the extremely difficult quest for the Golden Fleece, persuaded the daughters of old Pelias to rejuvenate him by cutting their father into pieces and cooking him with a mixture of herbs she had prepared. When Akastos discovered this, he buried his father and expelled the conspirators — Jason, Medea, and his own sisters — from the kingdom.
Since Jason renounced the throne, Akastos claimed the crown and organized splendid funerals for his father, which became popular themes in ancient poetry and art (such as works by Stesichorus). Akastos also established funeral games, in which Peleus — that he would later become the father of Achilles — participated. Peleus had sought refuge in Iolcos to be purified by Akastos for having accidentally killed his father-in-law, Eurytion, king of Phthia.
Astydamia falsely accused Peleus of attempting to assault her after he spurned her advances. Heartbroken, she sent a message to Peleus's wife, Antigone (Eurytion’s daughter), claiming that Peleus intended to marry her daughter, Sterope. Astydamia then told Akastos that Peleus had tried to assault her. Unaware that the accusations were false, Akastos did not kill Peleus outright but invited him on a hunting trip to Mount Pelion. There, Akastos hid Peleus's sword while he slept and abandoned him to be killed by centaurs. However, Chiron, the wise centaur (or Hermes, in some accounts), saved Peleus, returning his sword and helping him escape. Peleus, with Jason and the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux), later attacked Iolcos, killed Astydamia, and (according to some accounts) Akastos, dismembering her body and marching through the remains. The kingdom eventually passed to Thessalus, Jason’s son.
Peleus (left) and Centaur Chiron (right). White-ground black-figured lekythos by the Edinburgh Painter, ca. 500 BCE. From Eretria. National Archaeological Museum in Athens, 1150.
Another tradition describes Akastos as the son of Medon, making him the second lifetime archon, according to Eusebius’s Chronicon. In one version, he was the first archon. Aristotle mentions both accounts, noting that proponents of the latter argue that the nine archons swore oaths "under Akastos" to fulfill their duties. This oath-taking formula likely stems from a period when kingship had diminished to an annual magistracy, with the polemarch and thesmothetes established, shifting the oath-taking originally done by the main archon alone.
Last update: November 9, 2024
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