Menoetius

Not to be confused with Menoeceus.

For the moon, see 617 Patroclus.

Menoetius or Menoetes (/məˈniːʃiəs/; Ancient Greek: Μενοίτιος, Μενοίτης Menoitios), meaning doomed might, is a name that refers to three distinct beings from Greek mythology:

• Menoetius, a second generation Titan, son of Iapetus and Clymene or Asia, and a brother of Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus. Menoetius was killed by Zeus with a flash of lightning in the Titanomachy, and banished to Tartarus.^[1] His name means "doomed might", deriving from the Ancient Greek words menos ("might, power") and oitos ("doom, pain"). Hesiod described Menoetius as hubristic, meaning exceedingly prideful and impetuous to the very end. From what his name suggests, along with Hesiod's own account, Menoetius was perhaps the Titan god of violent anger and rash action.^[2]
• Menoetes, guard of the cattle of Hades. During Heracles twelfth labor, which required him to steal the hound Cerberus from the Underworld, he slays one of Hades' cattle. A certain Menoetes, son of Keuthonymos, challenges Heracles to a wrestling match, during which Heracles hugs him and breaks his ribs before Persephone intervenes.^[3]
• Menoetius from Opus was one of the Argonauts,^[4] and son of Actor^[5] and Aegina. He was the father of Patroclus and Myrto^[6] by either Damocrateia,^[7] Sthenele,^[8] Philomela^[9][10] Polymele, or Periopis.^[11] Among the settlers of Locris, Menoetius was chiefly honored by King Opus II, son of Zeus and Protogeneia.^[12]

Notes

1. Hesiod, Theogony 507–516; Apollodorus, 1.2.3; Scholia to Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 347
2. Smiley, Charles N. (1922). "Hesiod as an Ethical and Religious Teacher". The Classical Journal. 17 (9). The Classical Association of the Middle West and South: 519. ISSN 0009-8353. JSTOR 3288491. OCLC 5546543301. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
3. Apollodorus, 2.5.10
4. Apollodorus, 1.9.16
5. Homer, Iliad 11.785 & 16.14; Apollodorus, 1.9.16
6. Plutarch, Aristides 20.6
7. Pythaenetos, quoting the scholiast on Pindar, Olympian Odes 9.107
8. Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 1.46; on Homer, Iliad 16.14
9. Eustathius on Homer, p. 1498; Scholia on Homer, Odyssey 4.343 and 17.134; Hyginus, Fabulae 97
10. Tzetzes, John (2015). Allegories of the Iliad. Translated by Goldwyn, Adam; Kokkini, Dimitra. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. pp. 33, Prologue 430, pp. 41, Prologue 525. ISBN 978-0-674-96785-4.
11. Apollodorus, 3.13.8 mentions the three possible mothers of Patroclus: (1) Polymele, daughter of Peleus (according to Philocrates), (2) Sthenele, daughter of Acastus and lastly (3) Periopis, daughter of Pheres
12. Pindar, Olympian Odes 9.65 ff.

References

• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pindar, Odes translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pindar, The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Tzetzes, John, Allegories of the Iliad translated by Goldwyn, Adam J. and Kokkini, Dimitra. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0-674-96785-4