Abstract

The myth of Areïthoos the Clubman (Korynetes), killed by Lykourgos, told in simple form by Homer, was developed in later Greek literature, and linked to Arkadia by identifying Lykourgos with the son of Aleos, king of Tegea. All later versions seem to have developed from the Homeric account, but sometimes in divergent forms that disagreed with each other. Interest in the myth led to cult in Arkadia. At the Moleia Lykourgos was honoured and Areïthoos’ death remembered. The name of the sanctuary Korynition was evidently derived from Korynitas (Arkadian form of Korynetes), and there Areïthoos was presumably the object of cult developed from a different version of the myth. Neither the Moleia nor the Korynition can be located at any particular place in Arkadia: Pausanias mentions a claim that Areïthoos was killed in Mantinean territory, but without conviction, and another tradition put the death of Areïthoos at a place called Molychion.