Licymnius was the bastard son of Electryon of Mycenae by the Phrygian woman Midea, half-brother of Alcmena and so the maternal uncle of Heracles.1
Apollodorus, cataloguing the house of Mycenae, records that Electryon got many legitimate sons upon Anaxo, and "after these he had also a bastard son, Licymnius, by a Phrygian woman Midea." Because his half-sister was Alcmena, Pausanias can name him plainly "the brother of Alcmene" — and thereby uncle to her son Heracles.2
When the Taphians raided Electryon's cattle and the king's legitimate sons met the sons of Pterelaus in battle, the two broods challenged and slew one another. Of all Electryon's sons, Apollodorus writes, there survived only Licymnius, who was still young. He passed afterward with Amphitryon and Alcmena to Thebes, was settled there, and wedded Amphitryon's sister Perimede — the last branch of the Electryonid stock.3
In old age he fell to his own kin. Homer's Catalogue of Ships tells how Tlepolemus, grown to manhood, "slew his own father's dear uncle, Licymnius, scion of Ares, who was then waxing old," and fled overseas to Rhodes when the other sons and grandsons of Heracles threatened him. Apollodorus makes the killing accidental — Tlepolemus was beating a servant with his stick when Licymnius ran in between — and Pausanias, pointing out his grave at Argos beside the road to the Cylarabis gymnasium, says that for the homicide Tlepolemus was banished from Argos.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story