Sthenelus, a son of Perseus and Andromeda, was one of the five Perseid sons reared at Mycenae, brother of Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, and Electryon, and of Gorgophone whom Perieres married. By Nicippe, daughter of Pelops, he fathered the daughters Alcyone and Medusa, and afterward the son Eurystheus who would reign over Mycenae.1
Apollodorus places Sthenelus at the head of the Mycenaean branch of the house of Perseus. After Perseus by Andromeda had Perses, whom he left behind with Cepheus, he begot at Mycenae Alcaeus and Sthenelus and Heleus and Mestor and Electryon, together with a daughter, Gorgophone, whom Perieres married. Sthenelus thus stands among brothers whose descendants would knot together the destinies of Tiryns, Mycenae, and Thebes.2
By his wife Nicippe, daughter of Pelops, Sthenelus had two daughters, Alcyone and Medusa, and afterward a son, Eurystheus, who reigned in his turn over Mycenae. The same Apollodoran passage records why that succession mattered: when Heracles was about to be born, Zeus declared among the gods that the descendant of Perseus then about to be brought forth would be king of Mycenae.3
Homer tells the consequence of that divine boast. Hera darted down from Olympus and came swiftly to Achaean Argos, where she knew the stately wife of Sthenelus, son of Perseus, was carrying a son in her womb, the seventh month come. The goddess brought this child to the light before his full tale of months, while she stayed Alcmene's bearing and held back the Eileithyiae, so that Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus the son of Perseus, was the Argive lord whom the oath had named.4
Sthenelus came into his kingdom through a kinsman's blood. When Amphitryon accidentally killed Electryon, Sthenelus seized the pretext to banish him from the whole of Argos, took for himself the throne of Mycenae and of Tiryns, and entrusted Midea to Atreus and Thyestes, the sons of Pelops, whom he had sent for.5
⁂
the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story