In Greek mythology, Mestor (/ˈmɛstər/; Ancient Greek: Μήστωρ, lit. 'adviser, counsellor') was the name of four men.
- Mestor, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, according to the mythographer Apollodorus. By Lysidice, daughter of Hippodamia and Pelops, he sired Hippothoe, who mothered Taphius by the god Poseidon.[1]
- Mestor, a son of the king Pterelaus, and thus a great-grandson of the above.[2]
- Mestor, a son of the king Priam. He is mentioned in the Iliad, where he is praised by his father.[3] In the Bibliotheca, Achilles kills him on Mount Ida.[4] According to Dictys Cretensis, he was taken captive by Neoptolemus, who later dressed up in Mestor's Phrygian clothes to deceive Acastus.[5]
- In Plato's Critias, Mestor was the second of the fourth set of twins borne of Poseidon and the mortal, Cleito, and one of the first princes of Atlantis.[6] His older twin brother was Elasippus, and his other siblings were Atlas and Eumelus, Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, and lastly, Azaes and Diaprepes.[7] Mestor, along with his nine siblings, became the heads of ten royal houses, each ruling a tenth portion of the island, according to a partition made by Poseidon himself, but all subject to the supreme dynasty of Atlas who was the eldest of the ten.[8]
Notes
- Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Mestor (1); Apollodorus, 2.4.5. Herodorus (FGrHist 31 F15) has their children as Alcaeus, Sthenelus, Electryon, and Mestor.
- RE, s.v. Mestor (2); Apollodorus, 2.4.5; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 932.
- Homer, Iliad 24.257.
- RE, s.v. Mestor (2); Apollodorus, E.3.32.
- Dictys Cretensis, 6.9
- Plato, Critias 114 c
- Plato, Critias 114a-c
- Plato, Critias 114d
References
- Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 8, Lyd – Mine, edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, Leiden, Brill, 2006. ISBN 9004122710.
- Dictys Cretensis, from The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer, Jr. (1931-). Indiana University Press. 1966. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital xLibrary.
- Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band XV, Halbband 1, edited by Wilhelm Kroll, Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1931. Wikisource.