Aloeus

🗡 heroἈλωεύς

Farming, Giant-Fathers, Hubris

Thessalian king whose twin stepsons the Aloadae nearly defeated the Olympian gods.‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍

The Legend of Aloeus

Aloeus was a son of Poseidon and Canace, or in some accounts the mortal husband of Iphimedeia who raised the famous giant twins Otus and Ephialtes, collectively called the Aloadae.‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍ Though Poseidon fathered the twins, they bore Aloeus's name and are always identified by his patronymic. The twins grew at a prodigious rate — adding a cubit in breadth and a fathom in height every year — and threatened to storm Olympus by piling Ossa upon Pelion and Olympus upon Ossa. They imprisoned Ares in a bronze jar for thirteen months and sought to marry Hera and Artemis. Artemis ultimately tricked them into killing each other on the island of Naxos, where they had imprisoned Ares. Aloeus himself is a minor figure, but his name defines the most audacious mortal challenge to Olympian authority in all Greek myth.

Parents

Poseidon (divine father); Canace (mother)

Children

Otus, Ephialtes (stepsons by Poseidon)

Symbols

bronze jarmountaingrain

Fun Fact

The Aloadae imprisoned Ares in a bronze jar for thirteen months — the only time the god of war was captured and rendered helpless in Greek myth.

Explore Further

Proetus

🗡 hero

None recorded

A king of Tiryns who quarrelled with his twin brother Acrisius over the throne of Argos, an enmity that began in the womb and persisted throughout their lives

Bucolion

🗡 hero

Herding, nobility

Eldest but illegitimate son of the Trojan king Laomedon who was raised among herdsmen

Iphicles

🗡 hero

Mortal twin of Heracles

Iphicles was the mortal twin brother of Heracles — born the same night to the same mother but fathered by a mortal, creating the perfect contrast to divine strength.

Alexiares

🗡 hero

None recorded

A son of Heracles and Hebe born on Mount Olympus after Heracles' deification, serving as a divine guardian against war

Leucippus of Messene

🗡 hero

Fatherhood, Daughters, Spartan Rivalry

Messenian king whose daughters Hilaeira and Phoebe were carried off by Castor and Polydeuces.

Aegyptus

🗡 hero

None recorded

A mythological king with fifty sons who demanded marriage to the fifty daughters of his brother Danaus, precipitating one of the most infamous mass killings in Greek mythology

egypt