In Greek mythology, Alcinous (Alcinoüs; Ancient Greek Alkínoos, "mighty mind") is the king of the Phaeacians on Scheria (later identified with Corcyra). Son of Nausithous and brother of Rhexenor, he marries his niece Arete after Rhexenor's death and fathers Nausicaa and several sons. Homer makes him Odysseus's last great host; Apollonius and Apollodorus also place Jason and Medea under his protection when the Argonauts call at the island.
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I.King of the Phaeacians
Homer presents Alcinous as the happy ruler of Scheria, whose people excel in seamanship and whose palace, gardens, and entertainments fill Books 6–13 of the Odyssey. By Arete he has five sons and one daughter, Nausicaa. After Apollo kills Rhexenor, Alcinous marries Arete and honours her above all wives; the people greet her as a goddess when she walks through the city.
Variant genealogies make his father Phaeax, son of Poseidon and the nymph Corcyra, rather than Nausithous. Conon tells of a quarrel with a brother Locrus after Phaeax's death, ending with Alcinous keeping the Phaeacian kingship while Locrus colonizes Italy.
II.Host of Odysseus
Guided by Nausicaa and Athena, Odysseus enters the palace and clasps Arete's knees; Alcinous receives him with feasts, athletic games, and the songs of the blind bard Demodocus. When Odysseus weeps at tales of Troy and finally reveals his name, the king promises gifts and a swift ship to carry him sleeping to Ithaca — the Phaeacians' last convoy before Poseidon, angered at their aid to a man he hates, turns their returning vessel to stone.
The hospitality sequence is one of the poem's most sustained portraits of civilized guest-friendship: the king's generosity closes the wanderings and restores the hero to his own shore.
III.The Argonauts
In Apollonius's Argonautica (and in Apollodorus), Alcinous and Arete dwell on Drépané/Corcyra when Jason and Medea arrive pursued by Colchians. Alcinous rules that if Medea is still a virgin she must be returned to her father, but if she is already Jason's wife he will protect the couple. Arete warns them by night; they consummate the marriage, and the Colchians depart empty-handed after receiving rich parting gifts from the king.
Thus Alcinous stands at the intersection of two epic nostoi — Odysseus's homecoming and the Argonauts' return — as the island king whose judgment and hospitality decide a stranger's fate.