Crossword clues for astyanax
astyanax
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
son of Hector and Andromache ("Iliad"), Greek, literally "lord of the city," from asty "city" (see asteism) + anax "chief, lord, master." Also the epithet of certain gods.
Wikipedia
In Greek mythology, Astyanax (; Astyánax, "protector of the city") was the son of Hector, the crown prince of Troy and husband of Princess Andromache of Cilician Thebe. His birth name was Scamandrius (in Greek: Σκαμάνδριος Skamandrios, after the river Scamander), but the people of Troy nicknamed him Astyanax (i.e. high king, or overlord of the city), because he was the son of the city's great defender ( Iliad VI, 403) and the heir apparent's firstborn son.
During the Trojan War, Andromache hid the child in Hector's tomb, but the child was discovered. His fate was debated by the Greeks, for if he were allowed to live, it was feared he would avenge his father and rebuild Troy. In the version given by the Little Iliad and repeated by Pausanias (x 25.4), he was killed by Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus), who threw the infant from the walls. Another version is given in Iliou persis, in which Odysseus kills Astyanax. It has also been depicted in some Greek vases that Neoptolemus kills Priam, who has taken refuge near a sacred altar, using Astyanax's dead body to club the old king to death, in front of horrified onlookers. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the child is thrown from the walls by the Greek victors (13, 413ff). In Euripides's The Trojan Women (719 ff), the herald Talthybius reveals to Andromache that Odysseus has convinced the council to have the child thrown from the walls, and the child is in this way killed. In Seneca's version of The Trojan Women, the prophet Calchas declares that Astyanax must be thrown from the walls if the Greek fleet is to be allowed favorable winds (365–70), but once led to the tower, the child himself leaps off the walls (1100–3). Other sources for the story of the Sack of Troy and Astyanax's death can be found in the Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Hyginus (Fabula 109), Tryphiodorus (Sack of Troy 644–6).
Astyanax is a genus of freshwater fish in the family Characidae of the order Characiformes. Some of these fish, like many of their relatives, are kept as aquarium pets and known collectively as tetras. With around 150 described species and new ones being described every few months, this genus is among the largest of the entire order; Hyphessobrycon also has more than 145 species and which one is larger at any one time depends on whether more species have been recently described in one or the other. The blind cave fish, a form of A. mexicanus, is a famous member of this genus. A. jordani a different but closely related blind fish, was formerly considered to form its own genus, Anoptichthys.
The type species is A. mexicanus, the Mexican tetra. The generic name comes from Astyanax, a character in Greek mythology, who was the son of Hector of Troy; in homage to this, several specific epithets also refer to the Iliad.
Astyanax can refer to:
- Astyanax son of Hector, Trojan warrior,
- Astyanax (fish), a genus of fish
- The Astyanax, an arcade game
- Astyanax Douglass, an MLB player
- a son of Heracles and Epilais
Usage examples of "astyanax".
The divine Homer is the only poet who has succeeded in delineating it in those lines in which he describes Andromache with the young Astyanax in her arms, when Hector is leaving her to return to the battle.
If her skin was flayed off her, Astyanax would never look at her again!
The artist had caught Hector in the act of giving his son, Astyanax, back to his mother, but instead of looking at the child, she was gazing piteously at Hector.
He pleads with Hector to retreat within the walls, for he foresees all that is to come if his best son falls: little Astyanax hurled from the walls, Troy sacked.
Argive ships and that little Astyanax, whom his father and I had called Scamandrius, was to be their yearly heiffer chosen for sacrifice.
Aphrodite tells us that it was not she who slayed our beloved Scamandrius, our Astyanax, our young lord of the city.
His towering form strode over Ilium and walked across the miles between here and the shore like Astyanax playing in his sandbox, striding over his toy soldiers.