In Greek mythology, Nyctimus (Ancient Greek: Νύκτιμος, Nyktimos) was an Arcadian prince, one of the fifty sons of the impious King Lycaon. After the destruction of Lycaon and his line, Nyctimus succeeded to the throne of Arcadia, but his reign was brief: it coincided with the great flood of the age of Deucalion. He is also remembered as an early ancestor in the Arcadian royal line.
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I.Family
Nyctimus was the youngest of the fifty sons of King Lycaon of Arcadia. His mother is variously named: she may have been the naiad Cyllene, or Nonacris, or an otherwise unknown woman.
He is also placed at the head of a line of Arcadian descendants. Nyctimus fathered Periphetes, through whom the genealogy continues Periphetes → Parthaon → Aristas → Erymanthus → Arrhon → Psophis, the last being a possible eponym of the city of Psophis.
II.Mythology
Nyctimus figures in two versions of the downfall of Lycaon's house. In one, Nyctimus himself was killed and served up at a feast to test Zeus, and was afterwards restored to life. In the other, when Zeus blasted Lycaon's impious sons with thunderbolts, Nyctimus was the only one to survive, saved through the intervention of Gaia.
In both versions Nyctimus succeeded his father as king of Arcadia. His rule, however, was short-lived: it fell in the age of Deucalion, when the great flood came upon the land.
III.Interpretation
Some scholars identify Lycaon with Zeus Lycaeus — Zeus in his role as god of light — who slays Nyctimus ("the dark"), or is succeeded by him, in allusion to the perpetual succession of night and day.
Sir James George Frazer, in his notes to Apollodorus' Library, explained Nyctimus' accession differently: he conjectured that among the early Greeks inheritance was once regulated by ultimogeniture, the succession of the youngest son. In the secluded Arcadian highlands, where ancient customs lingered, Lycaon is accordingly said to have been succeeded by his youngest son.