Euphemus
heroArgonaut and son of Poseidon who could walk on water and was prophesied to be the ancestor of Cyrene's founders.
The Myth
He could walk on the surface of the sea without getting wet. Poseidon gave this gift to his son Euphemus, making him the most spectacular of the Argonauts after Heracles. During the voyage, the sea god Triton gave Euphemus a clod of Libyan earth as a guest-gift. Medea later prophesied that if the clod were planted in the earth, Euphemus's descendants would rule Libya. He accidentally dropped it in the sea near Thera (Santorini), delaying the prophecy by generations — but eventually his descendant Battus founded Cyrene, fulfilling it. Pindar tells this story in his fourth Pythian Ode, one of the longest choral poems to survive.
Symbols
Fun Fact
Euphemus's dropped clod of earth was said to have become the island of Thera (Santorini).
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