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...

, Cragaleus was a son of Dryops

Dryops

Dryops may refer to:* Dryops, a genus of beetles in family DryopidaeIn Greek mythology:* Dryops, a son of King Priam of Troy* Dryops , a king of Oeta & son of river-god Spercheus* Dryops, a son of Apollo by Dia...

 who dwelt in the land Dryopis next to a spring which was believed to have appeared at a place where Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

 hit the earth with his club. He was renowned as just and wise, and was one day visited by Apollo

Apollo

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

, 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"...

, and Heracles who asked him to act as an arbiter in their argument as to which of the three should become patron of Ambracia

Ambracia

Ambracia, occasionally Ampracia , was an ancient Corinthian colony, situated about 7 miles from the Ambracian Gulf in Greece, on a bend of the navigable river Arachthos , in the midst of a fertile wooded plain.-History:...

, Epirus

Epirus

The name Epirus, from the Greek "Ήπειρος" meaning continent may refer to:-Geographical:* Epirus - a historical and geographical region of the southwestern Balkans, straddling modern Greece and Albania...

. Apollo argued that the city should belong to him on account of the fact that Epirus was once conquered by his son Melaneus

Melaneus

In Greek mythology, Melaneus was a son of Apollo. He was the founder of Oechalia , variously located in Thessaly, Messenia or Euboea....

, and that he assisted the Ambraciotes in the war against the natives of Epirus, and brought law and order to Ambracia. Artemis reminded that it was she who saved the Ambraciotes from the tyrant Phalecus, having sent a lioness to kill him. Finally, Heracles brought up the fact that it was he who destroyed the many non-Greek peoples of Epirus for trying to steal the kine of Geryones from him, and that the Corinth

Corinth

Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...

ians, who later came to Epirus and founded Ambracia, were his descendants. Cragaleus considered Heracles' argument the most convincing and declared him the winner. Apollo was enraged and turned Cragaleus into stone. Since then, the Ambraciotes sacrificed to Apollo the Saviour, but believed their city to belong to Heracles and the Heracleidae

Heracleidae

In Greek mythology, the Heracleidae or Heraclids were the numerous descendants of Heracles , especially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira Other Heracleidae included Macaria, Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus...

, and honored Cragaleus with sacrifices as well.