In Greek mythology, Merops is king of the Ethiopians, husband of the Oceanid Clymene, and the reputed (mortal) father of Phaethon — though Helios is the true sire. Ovid and Hyginus place him in the Phaethon tragedy as the earthly husband Clymene names when the boy doubts his solar birth. Distinct from Merops of Percote, Merops of Cos, and other namesakes.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Merops (mythology)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Husband of Clymene
Merops rules the Ethiopians and weds Clymene, who bears Phaethon and the Heliades to Helios while married to the king. In Ovid, Phaethon is raised in Merops' house and stung when Epaphus mocks his claim to solar descent.
Clymene swears by Merops' head and by her marriage torch that Helios is the father — sending Phaethon east to the Sun's palace and the fatal chariot ride.
II.Homonym care
Greek myth knows many Meropes: the prophetic king of Percote (father of Adrastus and Amphius at Troy), the Coan king changed into an eagle, and lesser fathers in local stemmata.
The atlas id merops-ethiopia is Phaethon's Ethiopian stepfather alone — not merops-percote, the Iliad seer.