In Greek mythology, Elephenor (Ancient Greek Ἐλεφήνωρ) was king of the Abantes of Euboea, son of Chalcodon by Imenarete, Melanippe, or Alcyone. A suitor of Helen, he led thirty or forty Euboean ships to Troy and was killed by Agenor while trying to drag off the body of Echepolus. He had earlier sheltered Theseus' sons Acamas and Demophon when they fled Menestheus.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Elephenor" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family and exile
Elephenor was son of Chalcodon; ancient notices name his mother as Imenarete, Melanippe, or Alcyone. One tradition holds that he unwittingly killed his grandfather Abas and was expelled from Euboea, so that he had to muster his Trojan War contingent on a rock in the Euripus opposite the island. Plutarch also records that he purified Poemander of the murder of Leucippus.
II.Theseus' sons and the Trojan War
Pausanias and Plutarch say Elephenor received Acamas and Demophon, sons of Theseus, when they fled the usurper Menestheus at Athens; the pair later sailed with him to Troy.
As a suitor of Helen he was bound to the Greek expedition. Homer's Catalogue gives him the Abantes — great-hearted, long-haired spearmen — with ships from Euboea and Chalcis (thirty or forty in later tallies). On the day Pandarus broke the truce, Elephenor was killed by Agenor while trying to drag away the corpse of Echepolus (Iliad 4.463–470).
III.The return
Post-Homeric nostos stories diverge. In one, Elephenor's men are wrecked off Epirus and found Apollonia. In another he survives, settles on Othronos, is driven out by a serpent, and goes on to Abantia in Illyria.