Lycomedes 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...

, was the King of Scyros during the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

.

Lycomedes and Achilles

Before the war, Thetis

Thetis

Silver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as the goddess of water, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths...

 sent her son Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....

, disguised as a girl, to Lycomedes's court, as a prophecy had decreed that he would die at Troy

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

. It was there that Achilles married Lycomedes' daughter Deidamia, who bore a son, Neoptolemus

Neoptolemus

Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia in Greek mythology. Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles' birth that there would be a great war. She saw that her only son was to die if he fought in the war...

. Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....

 and Diomedes

Diomedes

Diomedes or Diomed is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War.He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus. In Homer's Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all...

 came to Scyros seeking Achilles. Odysseus devised a trick to draw Achilles out of his disguise as a girl; Diomedes and Odysseus then took Achilles to Troy. Neoptolemus stayed with his grandfather until he too was summoned during the later stages of the war.

Lycomedes and Theseus

Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 says that Lycomedes also killed Theseus

Theseus

For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...

who had fled to his island in exile by pushing him off a cliff for he feared that Theseus would dethrone him.

Lycomedes

1. A king of the Dolopians, in the island of Scyros, near Euboea, father of Deidameia, and grandfather of Pyrrhus or Neoptolemus. (Apollod. iii. 13. § 8.) Once when Theseus came to him, Lycomedes, dreading the influence of the stranger upon his own sub ects, thrust him down a rock. Some related that the cause of this violence was, that Lycomedes would not give up the estates which Theseus had in Scyros, or the circumstance that Lycomedes wanted to gain the favour of Menestheus. (Plut. Thes. 35; Paus. i. 17, in fin.; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 1324; Soph. Phil. 243; Apollod. iii. 13.)

2. A son of Creon, one of the Greek warriors at Troy (Hom. Il. ix. 84); he was represented as a wounded man by Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi. (Paus. x. 25. § 2.)

3. A son of Apollo and Parthenope (Paus. vii. 4. § 2.)