In Greek mythology, Argus (Ancient Greek Ἄργος, Argos) is the early king and eponym of Argos — son of Zeus and Niobe daughter of Phoroneus — who succeeds to power over the Peloponnese, names the land after himself, and fathers the line that leads through Criasus toward Io and Danaus.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Argus (king of Argos)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family and reign
Apollodorus, Hyginus, and Pausanias make Argus son of Zeus and Niobe, brother in some lists of Pelasgus. He marries Evadne daughter of Strymon (or Peitho the Oceanid) and begets sons including Criasus, Ecbasus, Iasus, Peiras, Epidaurus, and Tiryns — city-eponyms among them. A scholiast on Homer and the chronographers Castor, Jerome, and Eusebius also treat him as successor of Apis; Jerome gives a seventy-year reign over Argeia.
Pausanias still saw the tomb of Argus at Argos and knew a grove sacred to him in Laconia where Argive fugitives burned after defeat by Cleomenes I.
II.Homonym care
The atlas id argus-eponym is this Phoroneid eponym-king alone. Do not merge him with argus-panoptes (the hundred-eyed watchman), argus-arestor (another Argive stem), argus-colchis (builder of the Argo), or Homeric dog Argos.