In Greek mythology, Iasus (also spelled Iasius) was an Arcadian, the son of King Lycurgus of Arcadia by either Eurynome or Cleophyle, and a brother of Ancaeus, Epochus, and Amphidamas. By Clymene, daughter of Minyas, he became the father of the huntress Atalanta. He is one of several figures of Greek myth who bore the name Iasus or Iasius, and is distinct from the Argive Iasus, the father of Io, and the Samothracian Iasion.
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I.Family
Iasus was an Arcadian, the son of King Lycurgus of Arcadia. His mother is given as either Eurynome or Cleophyle, the sources leaving the matter open. His brothers were Ancaeus, Epochus, and Amphidamas.
By Clymene, a daughter of Minyas, Iasus became the father of Atalanta. His lineage thus places him within the royal house of Arcadia, with Atalanta as his only attested child.
II.Mythology
Iasus is remembered chiefly as the father of Atalanta. According to the tradition reported by Apollodorus, he exposed his infant daughter because he desired male children rather than a girl.
In this Arcadian account the abandoned child did not perish: a she-bear came repeatedly and suckled her, until hunters found the infant and raised her among themselves. Atalanta grew into the celebrated huntress and runner of Arcadian legend.
The same sources that name Iasus as Atalanta's father also preserve rival genealogies, with other authors making her the daughter of Schoeneus or of Maenalus instead. His paternity belongs specifically to the Arcadian strand of the tradition, attested in Callimachus's Hymn to Artemis, in Apollodorus, and in Hyginus's Fabulae.
III.Other figures of the name
Iasus or Iasius was the name of several distinct people in Greek mythology, and the Arcadian father of Atalanta is only one of them. Among the others are a Dactyl or member of the Curetes; Iasus, king of Argos; Iasus, son of Io; and Iasius, son of Eleuther and brother of Pierus, who is also given as an alternative name for Iasion.
Further bearers include Iasus, father of King Amphion of Orchomenus; Iasus, father of Nepeia, whose daughter gave her name to a plain near Cyzicus; an Iasius who won the horse race at games held by Heracles; and Iasus, father of Phaedimus, who fell in the war of the Seven against Thebes.
The name also belongs to two Homeric figures: Iasus, an Athenian war leader, son of Sphelus and grandson of Bucolus, who was killed by Aeneas at Troy; and Iasus, a king of Cyprus and father of Dmetor, who appears in a fabricated tale told by Odysseus. The Arcadian Iasus must be kept distinct from these homonyms.