TFBT: The Argonaut Menoetius

I was researching the Argonaut Menoetius of Opus.  First let’s not confuse him with the very glorious and outrageous Titan Menoetius, blasted into Tartarus for his “mad presumption and exceeding pride."(Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8) 

We are speaking about a mortal man here.  There didn’t seem much to say about him.  He is father of Patroclus, (Il 9.608) an Argonaut, maybe the first to give Heracles annual heroic honors (Diodorus 4.39.1), "Menoetius, the child of Aegina and Actor." (Pindar, Olympian Ode 9. 69) was half-brother of Aeacus and grandfather of the goddess Eucleia who presided over the Greek victory at Marathon. (Paus. i.14.4)

But on closer examination, maybe there is something to say.  There is only on reference to Menoetius being an Argonaut; “Moreover Actor sent his son Menoetius from Opus that he might accompany the chiefs.”  (Argonautica 1.69)  It sounds as though he was a dutiful son rather than someone chasing after the glory of the ancestors.  

When young Patroclus kills the son of Amphidamas over a dice game, Menoetius whisked the boy off to Peleus in Phthia to be educated with his cousin Achilles. (Hom. Il. 23.85) Quite the loving father, not something you see often in Greek myth.  

Myth is skimpy about Menoetius, but as an Argonaut he would have known Heracles personally prior to the disappearance of Hylas.  And yet years later he offers up his old war-buddy heroic honors. 

Son of a nymph, he doesn’t rate as a demi-god, but Menoetius’ daughter

Myrto, with Heracles assistance, bore a gracious goddess in her father’s house.  (Plutarch, Aristides, 20. 6) Which has to say something about his dash of divinity and maybe even his piety. 

With a little optimism, the man I see when considering Menoetius is an honorable, loving man devoted to his friends and family, friend to demi-gods (Heracles) and if Plutarch is right,  family to the gods.  

 of Opus.  First let’s not confuse him with the very glorious and outrageous Titan Menoetius, blasted into Tartarus for his “mad presumption and exceeding pride."(Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8)

We are speaking about a mortal man here.  There didn’t seem much to say about him.  He is father of Patroclus, (Il 9.608) an Argonaut, maybe the first to give Heracles annual heroic honors (Diodorus 4.39.1), "Menoetius, the child of Aegina and Actor." (Pindar, Olympian Ode 9. 69) was half-brother of Aeacus and grandfather of the goddess Eucleia who presided over the Greek victory at Marathon. (Paus. i.14.4)

But on closer examination, maybe there is something to say.  There is only on reference to Menoetius being an Argonaut; “Moreover Actor sent his son Menoetius from Opus that he might accompany the chiefs.”  (Argonautica 1.69)  It sounds as though he was a dutiful son rather than someone chasing after the glory of the ancestors.  

When young Patroclus kills the son of Amphidamas over a dice game, Menoetius whisked the boy off to Peleus in Phthia to be educated with his cousin Achilles. (Hom. Il. 23.85) Quite the loving father, not something you see often in Greek myth.  

Myth is skimpy about Menoetius, but as an Argonaut he would have known Heracles personally prior to the disappearance of Hylas.  And yet years later he offers up his old war-buddy heroic honors. 

Son of a nymph, he doesn’t rate as a demi-god, but Menoetius’ daughter

Myrto, with Heracles assistance, bore a gracious goddess in her father’s house.  (Plutarch, Aristides, 20. 6) Which has to say something about his dash of divinity and maybe even his piety. 

With a little optimism, the man I see when considering Menoetius is an honorable, loving man devoted to his friends and family, friend to demi-gods (Heracles) and if Plutarch is right,  family to the gods.