Galaxy/The codex of Androclus

In Greek legendary history, Androclus or Androklos (Ancient Greek Ἄνδροκλος) son of Codrus is the Athenian prince appointed king of the Ionians who sailed against Ephesus. He expelled the Leleges and Lydians from the upper city, seized Samos for a time, and died aiding Priene against the Carians; the Ephesians buried him on the road from the Artemision toward the Magnesian gate. Not the Roman folk-tale slave Androcles and the lion.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Ephesus" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Founder of Ephesus

Pausanias (7.2.8–9) makes Androclus son of Codrus king of the Ionians who sailed to Ephesus. He drove Leleges and Lydians from the upper city; those dwelling about Artemis' sanctuary exchanged oaths and escaped the war. He also took Samos from the Samians for a time. Later tradition adds a Delphic oracle fulfilled when a fish and a boar mark the site of the colony.

After the Samians returned, Androclus helped Priene against the Carians. The Greeks won the battle, but he fell; the Ephesians carried his body home and pointed out his tomb — with a statue of an armed man — on the road from the sanctuary past the Olympieum to the Magnesian gate. Later writers sometimes reassign foundation credit to Amazons or to Ephesus son of Cayster; the Codrid Androclus remains the Ionian civic founder in Pausanias' account.

II.Homonym care

The atlas id androclus-ionian is Codrus' Ephesian founder alone. Do not merge him with Androcles (Androclus) of the Aulus Gellius / Aesopic lion tale — same Latin spelling, different figure and genre.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameAndroklos (Ἄνδροκλος)
Typehero
DomainsIonian colonist · king of Ephesus
SymbolsFish and boar oracle · Founder's tomb (armed statue) · Ionian kingship at Ephesus
Cult centersEphesus (heroon / Androkloneion) · Athens (Codrid origin)
EtymologyGreek Ἄνδροκλος / Latin Androclus; Pausanias and Strabo preserve the Codrid foundation legend of Ionian Ephesus.
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