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...

, Eteocles was a king of Orchomenus. The local tradition concerning him is preserved in Pausanias' Description of Greece, and runs as follows.

Eteocles was the son of Andreus

Andreus

Andreus was the son of the river-god Peneus in Thessaly, from whom the district about Orchomenos in Boeotia was called Andreis. In another passage Pausanias speaks of Andreus as the person who first colonized the island of Andros...

 (himself son of the river-god Peneus

Peneus

In Greek mythology, Peneus was a Thessalian river god, one of the three thousand Rivers , a child of Oceanus and Tethys. The nymph Creusa bore him one son, Hypseus, who was King of the Lapiths, and three daughters, Menippe , Daphne, and Stilbe. He also had a son Atrax with Bura, and Andreus with...

) and Euippe

Euippe

Euippe or Evippe is the name of six women in Greek mythology:*The daughter of Danaus and the naiad Polyxo. She married Imbrus, son of Aegyptus and Caliadne....

, daughter of Leucon, and successor to his father's throne. Alternately, he was called son of the river god Cephissus

Cephissus (Boeotia)

The northern Cephissus river or Cephisus rises at Lilaea in Phocis and flows by Delphi through Boeotia and eventually issues into Lake Copais which is therefore also called the Cephisian Lake...

 (hence referred to by the patronymic

Patronymic

A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...

 Cephisiades in some poetical texts). He was credited with having founded two tribes (phylae

Phyle

Phyle is an ancient Greek term for clan or tribe. They were usually ruled by a basileus...

), one of which received the name Cephisias after his possible father, and the other one was named after himself. He assigned a little of his land to Almus, son of Sisyphus

Sisyphus

In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity...

, who was believed to have given his name to the village Olmonas ("Almones" was the alleged original form of its name). Eteocles was also said to have been the first to offer sacrifices to the Charites

Charites

In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites , goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces"...

, and to have recognized three as the true number of the goddesses.

The mythological connection between Eteocles and the Charites is confirmed by the account of Theocritus

Theocritus

Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.-Life:Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems commonly attributed to him have little claim to...

, who refers to the Charites as "divine daughters of Eteocles".