A Perseid prince, son of Alcaeus, who ransomed Electryon's stolen cattle and won Alcmena, but in the quarrel that followed slew his uncle Electryon and fled into exile at Thebes. There he reared Heracles, the elder twin Zeus had fathered on Alcmena by guile, while begetting on her himself the younger twin, Iphicles.1
Amphitryon belonged to the second Perseid generation: he was the son of Alcaeus, one of the sons Perseus and Andromeda raised in Mycenae alongside Sthenelus, Heleus, Mestor, and Electryon, and the daughter Gorgophone. Apollodorus names his mother as Astydamia, daughter of Pelops, but adds that some give her instead as Laonome, daughter of Guneus, and others as Hipponome, daughter of Menoeceus — a disputed maternity beneath an undisputed line.2
When the sons of Pterelaus raided Electryon's cattle and Electryon's sons died fighting the Taphians, Amphitryon ransomed the lifted herds from Polyxenus and brought them back to Mycenae. Electryon, before setting out to avenge his sons upon the Teleboans, committed the kingdom to Amphitryon together with his daughter Alcmena, binding him by oath to keep her a virgin until his return.3
In the quarrel that followed over the recovered cattle Amphitryon killed Electryon, his uncle and father-in-law, and for the kin-slaying was driven into exile. Hyginus sets him plainly among the men who killed their relatives: Amphitryon killed Electryon, son of Perseus. Pausanias was shown at Thebes, by the Electran gate, the ruins of the house where they said Amphitryon came to live when exiled from Tiryns because of Electryon's death, with the chamber of Alcmena still pointed out among them.4
Before Amphitryon reached Thebes, Zeus came by night, prolonged the single night threefold, took the very likeness of Amphitryon, and lay with Alcmena. When the true husband afterward arrived and lay with her too, Alcmena bore twin sons: Heracles, whom she had by Zeus and who was elder by one night, and Iphicles, whom she had by Amphitryon.5
Homer fixes the same household in the oldest telling, naming in the Nekyia Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon, who lay in the arms of great Zeus and bore Heracles, lion-hearted.6
As the mortal father in that house, Amphitryon helped rear the elder twin: Apollodorus records that it was Amphitryon who taught Heracles to drive a chariot. He himself fell at last fighting bravely in the war against Erginus and the Minyans, the campaign in which Heracles came of age as a Theban champion.7
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
