Phoroneus
First gatherer of the Argolid into a single community — the City of Phoroneus. Pausanias' Argives begin human kingship with him; Hyginus makes him the first mortal to rule anywhere in Greece.1
Apis
Son of Phoroneus and Teledice; turned his power to tyranny, named the land Apia after himself, and died childless.2
Argus
Son of Zeus and Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus — eponym of the city and the whole land called Argos after him.3
Criasus
Son of Argus and Evadne, daughter of the river Strymon.4
Phorbas
Son of Criasus; during his reign the country was afflicted by a plague, and a Carian seer called in from Delphi ended it.5
Triopas
Son of Phorbas; father of Iasus and the seer Amphiaraus' ancestor through his daughter.6
Iasus
Son of Triopas; father of Io, whom Hera's jealousy drove from the land — and of the twin kings who would divide the kingdom after Danaus.7
Crotopus
Son of Agenor; succeeded Iasus on the native Argive throne and begat Sthenelas — his tomb stood at Argos beside the precinct of Cretan Dionysus.8
Sthenelas
Son of Crotopus; father of Gelanor. Pausanias spells the name Sthenelas — distinct from the later Sthenelus son of Capaneus.9
Gelanor
Son of Sthenelas; last king of Agenor's line before Danaus returned from Egypt — Apollodorus has him surrender the kingdom, Pausanias a contested claim decided by wolf and bull.10
Danaus
Returned from Egypt with his fifty daughters and took Argos from Gelanor son of Sthenelas — interrupting the Crotopid succession — then set the famous marriage contest that left all but Hypermnestra's bridegroom dead.11
Lynceus
The one son-in-law spared by Hypermnestra; in Apollodorus he succeeds Danaus and founds the line that leads to Acrisius.12
Abas
Son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra; so quarrelsome that even after death his ghost was said to haunt the chariot-race at the Isthmian games.13
Acrisius
Twin sons of Abas who divided the kingdom by lot — Acrisius took Argos, Proetus took Tiryns — and whose feud set the stage for Perseus' birth.14
Perseus
Grandson of Acrisius; having killed him by accident, he exchanged kingdoms with Megapenthes son of Proetus — giving Argos away and taking Mycenae for himself. Hyginus instead has Megapenthes murder him to avenge Proetus.15
Megapenthes⚖
Son of Proetus; received Argos from Perseus in the peaceful exchange attested by Apollodorus and Pausanias. Hyginus instead has him murder Perseus to avenge his father.16
Argeus
Son of Megapenthes; father of Anaxagoras in the native third of the divided kingdom.17
Anaxagoras
Son of Argeus, son of Megapenthes; held the native third at Argos when Melampus and Bias received equal shares. His house, Pausanias says, outlasted the other two thirds.18
Melampus
First king of the Melampid third: the seer who cured the maddened Argive women and won an equal share of the kingdom for himself and Bias. Pausanias counts six men in six generations from his house down to Amphilochus.19
Antiphates
Son of Melampus in the seer-line that runs to Amphiaraus — distinct from Mantius, who begot Polypheides in the collateral Melampodid branch.20
Oicles
Son of Antiphates; father of Amphiaraus the rouser of the host.21
Amphiaraus
The prophetic king of the Melampid third; swallowed alive by the earth at Thebes after Eriphyle sold him to death for the golden necklace.22
Alcmaeon
Son of Amphiaraus; leader of the Epigoni who slew Laodamas at Thebes, then wandered and colonized Acarnania before the Melampid roll reaches his brother.23
Amphilochus
Last king of the Melampid third in Pausanias' count — son of Amphiaraus, Epigon, and after Troy migrant to the people called Amphilochians.24
Bias
First king of the Biantid third: Melampus won him an equal share of Argos when the seer healed Proetus' daughters (Apollodorus) or the women of Anaxagoras' reign (Pausanias). From Bias, Pausanias counts five kings for four generations down to Cyanippus.25
Talaus
Son of Bias and Pero; married Lysimache and fathered Adrastus, Eriphyle, Pronax, Mecisteus, and Aristomachus in the Biantid roll.26
Adrastus
Son of Talaus; the only survivor among the Seven against Thebes, who mustered the host from Argos and outlived even the Epigoni war that killed his son Aegialeus at Glisas.27
Diomedes
Son of Tydeus and Deipyle; an Epigon who took Thebes and, in the Biantid king-list Pausanias preserves, reigns after Adrastus before Cyanippus — lord of Argos when he sailed to Troy.28
Cyanippus⚖
Last king named in the Biantid succession at Argos. Apollodorus makes him a son of Adrastus and brother of Aegialeus; Pausanias makes him son of Aegialeus — the terminal name of the house that began with Bias.29
Alector
Son of Anaxagoras; in the native third that endured after the Melampid and Biantid lines began.30
Iphis
Son of Alector; bequeathed his third of Argos to Sthenelus son of Capaneus.31
Sthenelus
Son of Capaneus; inherited the Anaxagoras third from Iphis, then the Biantid third when Cyanippus died without issue — reuniting two of the three kingdoms before his son Cylarabes became sole king.32
Cylarabes
Son of Sthenelus; sole king of reunited Argos after Amphilochus migrated and Cyanippus left no heir — but he too died childless.33
Orestes
Son of Agamemnon; seized Argos from the neighbouring Mycenae when Cylarabes' line failed, and at his height held Argos, much of Arcadia, and the Spartan throne.34
Tisamenus
Son of Orestes and Hermione; last Pelopid on the Argive throne before the Heracleidae returned in his reign.35
Temenus
Son of Aristomachus; leader of the returning Heraclidae who expelled Tisamenus and drew Argos by lot — Perseid descent, which Pausanias judged the juster claim to the city.36
⁂
the spine ignites as you read · the reign index on the card follows your place · starred rulers link to their codices
HER SKY
a mini-galaxy of 142 dwellers
MYTHS SET HERE
16 tales walk these walls
… and 11 more
ON THE MAP
in Argolis — Peloponnese
Coordinates: Pleiades gazetteer, CC BY · place 570106