Aetolian king of the line of Pleuron, son of Demonice by Ares, and father by Eurythemis of the daughters Althaea, Leda, and Hypermnestra and of four sons.1
Apollodorus traces him to the Aetolian line of Pleuron: Pleuron's son Agenor married Epicaste, daughter of Calydon, and begat Porthaon and Demonice, and Demonice bore Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius to Ares. By Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboea, Thestius then had the daughters Althaea, Leda, and Hypermnestra, and the sons Iphiclus, Evippus, Plexippus, and Eurypylus.2
A rival genealogy detaches him from the war-god. Pausanias, citing the early epic poet Asius, makes Thestius the father of Leda the son of Agenor son of Pleuron, so that the sons of Tyndareus are descended on their mother's side from the Pleuronian stock rather than from Ares.3
Later mythography keeps him as the father of his two famous daughters. Hyginus repeatedly names Leda as daughter of Thestius and Althaea as daughter of Thestius, fixing him as the common ancestor of both the Spartan and the Calydonian houses through them.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
