Galaxy/The codex of Poeas

Poeas or Poias (Ancient Greek: Ποίας) was a king of Meliboea (or Malis), an Argonaut, and the father of Philoctetes by Methone. Ancient authors disagree whether it was Poeas or his son who lit Heracles' funeral pyre on Mount Oeta and received the hero's bow — the weapon that later took Troy. Distinct from other Meliboean or Magnesian catalogue names.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Poeas" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Argonaut

Apollodorus lists Poeas among the Argonauts, son of Thaumacus of Thaumacia and the group's greatest archer. In one version of Talos' death on Crete, Medea drugs the bronze giant and Poeas shoots the vulnerable ankle; other sources name Philoctetes as the Argonaut instead of his father.

II.Heracles' pyre

When Heracles, poisoned by the centaur's blood, demanded a pyre on Oeta, none of his own men would kindle it. Apollodorus has the passer-by Poeas light the fire and receive the bow and poisoned arrows in thanks; other tellings give the deed — and the bow — to Philoctetes, or have Poeas assign the task to his son. The bow then passes into the Trojan War cycle as Philoctetes' weapon.

AT A GLANCE

Greek namePoias (Ποίας)
Typehero
DomainsMeliboea and Olizon · the pyre on Oeta · father of Philoctetes
READ MOREWikipedia