Admetus
- In mythology, a king of Pherae, in Thessaly, the husband of Alcestis, whose sheep Apollo was condemned by Jupiter to tend for a long time, Serv. ad Verg. G. 3, 9; id. A. 7, 761 (cf. Alcestis).—
- II In hist., a king of the Molossi, the friend and protector of Themistocles, Nep. Them. 8.
- 1. in de mythologie: koning v. Pherae in Thessalië, echtgenoot v. Alcestis;
- 2. in de geschiedenis: koning v.d. Molossen, vriend en beschermer v. Themistocles.
(Ἄδμητος), a son of Pheres, the founder and king of Pherae in Thessaly, and of Periclymene or Clymene. (Apollod. 1.9.2, 9.14.) He took part in the Calydonian chase and the expedition of the Argonauts. (Apollod. 1.9.16; Hyg. Fab. 14. 173.) When he had succeeded his father as king of Pherae, he sued for the hand of Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, who promised her to him on condition that he should come to her in a chariot drawn by lions and boars. This task Admetus performed by the assistance of Apollo, who served him according to some accounts out of attachment to him (Schol. ad Eurip. Alcest. 2; Callim. h. in Apoll. 46, &c.), or according to others because he was obliged to serve a mortal for one year for having slain the Cyclops. (Apollod. 3.10.4.) On the day of his marriage with Alcestis, Admetus neglected to offer a sacrifice to Artemis, and when in the evening he entered the bridal chamber, he found there a number of snakes rolled up in a lump. Apollo, however, reconciled Artemis to him, and at the same time induced the Moirae to grant to Admetus deliverance from death, if at the hour of his death his father, mother, or wife would die for him. Alcestis did so, but Kora, or according to others Heracles, brought her back to the upper world. (Apollod. 1.9.15; compare Alcestis.) [L.S]
(Ἄδμητος), king of the Molossians in the time of Themistocles, who, when supreme at Athens, had opposed him, perhaps not without insult, in some suit to the people. But when flying from the officers who were ordered to seize him as a party to the treason of Pausanias, and driven from Corcyra to Epirus, he found himself upon some emergency, with no hope of refuge but the house of Admetus. Admetus was absent; but Phthia his queen welcomed the stranger, and bade him, as the most solemn form of supplication among the Molossians, take her son, the young prince, and sit with him in his hands upon the hearth. Admetus on his return home assured him of protection; according to another account in Plutarch, he himself, and not Pthia enjoined the form as affording him a pretext for refusal : he, at any rate, shut his ears to all that the Athenian and Lacedaemonian commissioners, who soon afterwards arrived, could say; and sent Themistocles safely to Pydna on his way to the Persian court. (Thuc. 1.136, 137; Plut. Them. 24.) [A.H.C]
(Ἄδμητος), a Greek epigrammatist, who lived in the early part of the second century after Christ. One line of his is preserved by Lucian. (Demonax, 44; Brunck, Anal. iii. p. 21.) [C.P.M]
(Ἄδμητος). (1) King of Pherae, who sued for Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias. Pelias promised her on condition that he should come in a chariot drawn by lions and boars. This task Admetus performed by the assistance of Apollo. The god tended the flocks of Admetus for nine years, when he was obliged to serve a mortal for having slain the Cyclops. Apollo prevailed upon the Moerae, or Fates, to grant to Admetus deliverance from death if his father, mother, or wife would die for him. Alcestis died in his stead, but was brought back by Heracles from the lower world. See Euripides.
(2) King of the Molossians, to whom Themistocles fled for protection when pursued as a party to the treason of Pausanias. See Themistocles.