Cycnus- Greek HeroHero"Son of Ares"

The Brigand of the Delphic Road

Cycnus was born to Ares and, in Apollodorus's telling, to Pelopia. He settled in Thessaly along the road between Pagasae and Trachis, where pilgrims passed on their way to Apollo's oracle at Delphi. He killed them and took their skulls. The Shield of Heracles says he meant to build a temple to his father from the bones.

The Combat at Pagasae

Heracles and his charioteer Iolaus met Cycnus in a grove sacred to Apollo near Pagasae. Cycnus challenged him. Ares stood at his son's side. Athena came to the hero's.

The Shield gives the fight in full. Heracles drove his spear through Cycnus's neck, and the son of Ares fell in his armor. Ares charged to avenge him. Heracles did not back away. He put his spear through the war god's thigh, and Athena turned aside the counterblow. Phobos and Deimos carried their wounded father from the field.

Apollodorus places the killing at Itonus. Pindar, in the tenth Olympian, names Cycnus among warriors formidable enough to test Heracles.

The River's Judgment

Ceyx, king of Trachis and Cycnus's father-in-law, buried him with honors. Apollo sent the river Anaurus into flood. It swept the tomb away, so that nothing stood to mark the man who had butchered Apollo's pilgrims on the road to Delphi.