A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Δρύοψ), a son of the river-god Spercheius, by the Danaid Polydora (Ant. Lib. 32), or, according to others, a son of Lycaon (probably a mistake for Apollo) by Dia, the daughter of Lycaon, who concealed her new-born infant in a hollow oak tree (δρῦς; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 1.1283; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 480). The Asinaeans in Messenia worshipped him as their ancestral hero, and as a son of Apollo, and celebrated a festival in honour of him every other year. His heroum there was adorned with a very archaic statue of the hero. (Paus. 4.34.6.) He had been king of the Dryopes, who derived their name from him, and were believed to have occupied the country from the valley of the Spercheius and Thermopylae, as far as Mount Parnassus. (Ant. Lib. 4; Hom. Hymn. 6.34.)

There are two other mythical personages of this name. (Hom. Il. 20.454; Dict. Cret. 4.7; Verg. A. 10.345.)

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