In Greek mythology, Idas was a Messenian prince, son of Aphareus and Arene and brother of Lynceus, with whom he is often paired as the Apharetidae. He took part in the voyage of the Argonauts and the Calydonian Boar hunt, and was renowned for his boldness, even contending against the gods. He carried off Marpessa as his bride and ultimately died in a feud with the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Idas" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Idas was the son of Aphareus and Arene, and brother of Lynceus and Pisus. In some accounts he was instead said to be a son of Poseidon, and his mother is occasionally named Polydora or Laocoosa in variant traditions.
He married Marpessa, daughter of Evenus, and by her became the father of a daughter, Cleopatra, who married the hero Meleager.
II.Mythology
Idas took part in the great collective adventures of the heroic age, joining the Argonautic expedition and the Calydonian Boar hunt, and the sources describe him as keen and spirited, willing even to contend with the gods themselves.
III.Contest for Marpessa's hand
Idas came from Messenia to seek the hand of Marpessa, but her father Evenus refused, wishing to keep his daughter unmarried. Idas then appealed to Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot. With it he carried Marpessa off from among a band of dancers and fled to Pleuron in Aetolia. Evenus pursued them but, unable to overtake the pair, killed his horses and drowned himself in the river Lycormas, which afterward bore his name.
Apollo also pursued the couple, contending with Idas for Marpessa. Zeus intervened and bade Marpessa choose between her mortal lover and the god. She chose Idas, reasoning that Apollo, being a god, would in time abandon her once she had grown old.
IV.Fight with the Dioscuri
In the version given by Hyginus, the daughters of Leucippus, Phoebe and Hilaeira, were betrothed to Idas and Lynceus. The divine twins Castor and Pollux, taken with their beauty, carried the maidens off, and the Messenian brothers armed themselves in response. In the fighting Castor killed Lynceus. Grief-stricken, Idas left off the battle and began to build a funeral monument for his brother. When Castor tried to stop him, treating him as a defeated enemy, Idas in anger either pierced Castor's thigh with his sword or toppled the monument upon him, killing him. Pollux then overcame Idas in single combat, recovered Castor's body, and performed the funeral rites.
According to the account of Apollodorus in the Bibliotheca, the quarrel arose not from the abduction but from a dispute over cattle taken as plunder from Arcadia. Idas was given the task of dividing the spoil. He cut a cow into four parts and declared that whoever ate his portion first should take half the booty, and the next to finish the other half. He swiftly devoured both his own share and that of Lynceus, and so won the cattle for the Messenians. Feeling cheated, the Dioscuri marched against Messene to recover the livestock. In the ambush that followed, Lynceus caught sight of Castor and pointed him out to Idas, who killed him. Pollux slew Lynceus with a spear, though Lynceus had struck him with a stone. Zeus then struck Idas with a thunderbolt, and afterward raised his son Pollux to immortality, which Pollux shared with his mortal brother.
After the deaths of these Messenian princes the kingdom was left without male heirs. Nestor, son of Neleus and a distant relative, inherited their lands, except for Tricca, which remained under the sons of Asclepius, Machaon and Podalirius.
V.Other adventures
Idas attempted to seize the kingdom of Teuthras, king of Moesia, but was defeated in battle by Telephus, the son of Auge and Heracles, who was aided by Parthenopaeus, son of Atalanta.
During the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece, Idas avenged the death of the seer Idmon by slaying the wild boar that had wounded and killed him.