In Greek mythology, Schoeneus (Ancient Greek: Σχοινεύς) was a Boeotian king, the son of Athamas and Themisto. He is best known as the father of the swift huntress Atalanta in the Boeotian tradition of her myth. He was said to have given his name to a village and river called Schoenus, and according to some accounts emigrated to Arcadia. The name was borne by several other minor figures in Greek myth as well.
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I.Family
Schoeneus was a Boeotian king, named as the son of Athamas and Themisto. Through Athamas he belonged to the Aeolid line.
His most celebrated child was Atalanta, the famous huntress and runner of the Boeotian tradition. He is also named as the father of the Arcadian Clymenus, who appears in the grim myth of Harpalyce.
II.Mythology
Schoeneus is connected with the eponym of a place called Schoenus: a village named Schoenus and a river Schoeneus that flowed past it were believed to have been named after him.
He was said by some accounts to have emigrated from Boeotia to Arcadia, a tradition used to explain why landmarks bearing the name appear in Arcadia as well. The race-courses of Atalanta near the Arcadian Schoenus were thought to have taken their name from his daughter.
In the Boeotian strand of Atalanta's story, Schoeneus is her father, in contrast with the rival Arcadian tradition that makes Iasus her parent. As Atalanta's father he is associated with the legend of the fatal foot-race by which suitors sought her hand.
III.Other figures of the name
Schoeneus was the name of several other individuals in Greek mythology besides the Boeotian king.
One Schoeneus was a son of Autonous (son of Melaneus) and Hippodamia, and brother of Erodius, Acanthus, Acanthis and Anthus. After his brother Anthus was killed by horses, Zeus and Apollo took pity on Schoeneus and transformed him into a bird.
Another Schoeneus was the man who reared Orestes and from whose care the young Orestes was directed to Argos to avenge the death of his father upon Clytaemnestra.