Agenor

Agenor (; Ancient Greek: Ἀγήνωρ or Αγήνορας Agēnor; English translation: "heroic, manly") was in Greek mythology and history a Phoenician king of Tyre or Sidon. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC), born in the city of Halicarnassus under the Achaemenid Empire, estimated that Agenor lived either 1000 or 1600 years prior to his visit to Tyre in 450 BC at the end of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC). He was said to have reigned in that city for 63 years. Family Agenor was born in Memphis of Egypt to Poseidon and Libya and he had a twin brother named Belus. The latter remained in Egypt and reigned over there while Agenor departed to Phoenicia and reigned there. In a rare version of the myth, Agenor and Belus had another brother named Enyalios. According to other sources, he was the son of Belus and brother of Phineus, Phoenix, Aegyptus and Danaus. This tradition was followed by Tzetzes but he added Ninus as one of the six brothers. The same author claimed that there were two Agenors, the first one being the brother of Belus while the second was the son of the latter, thus uncle of the first Agenor. Sources differed also as to Agenor's children; he was said to have been the father of Europa, Cadmus, Cilix, Phoenix, Phineus, Thasus and sometimes, Syros and Cepheus. Agenor's wife was variously given as Telephassa, Argiope, Antiope, and Tyro, with the latter giving her name to the city of Tyre. According to Pherecydes of Athens, his first wife was Damno, daughter of Belus, who bore him Phoenix and two daughters, Isaia and Melia, who married Aegyptus and Danaus, respectively; Agenor then fathered Cadmus with Argiope, daughter of the river-god Neilus. In the Iliad, however, Europa was clearly a daughter of Phoenix. Either Cadmus or Europa were confirmed as children of Phoenix by the Ehoeae attributed to Hesiod, Bacchylides, Moschus and various scholia. Cilix and Phineus were also sons of Phoenix according to Pherecydes, who also added an otherwise unknown son named Doryclus.