Apis of Argos

Apis (/ˈeɪpɪs/; Ancient Greek: Ἄπις derived from apios "far-off" or "of the pear-tree"[1][2]) was a king of Argos in Greek mythology.

Family

Apis was a son of Phoroneus by the nymph Teledice[3] or Cinna[4] or Cerdo,[5] and brother of Niobe. In some accounts, he was the son of Phoroneus by his first wife Peitho ("Persuasion") and thus brother to Aegialeus.[6] Yet, Apis' possible mother was also called Laodice[7] or Perimede.[8]

Reign

During Apis' reign he established a tyrannical government and called the Peloponnesus after his own name Apia, but was eventually killed in a conspiracy headed by Thelxion, king of Sparta, and Telchis.[3] In the former of these passages Apollodorus of Athens states that Apis, the son of Phoroneus, was killed by Aetolus; but this is a mistake arising from the confusion of this Apis with another Apis who was the son of Jason, who was killed by Aetolus during the funeral games celebrated in honor of Azanes.[9] Argus Panoptes, a descendant of his sister Niobe, avenged his murder by putting Thelxion and Telchis to death.[10]

APIS' CHRONOLOGY OF REIGN ACCORDING TO VARIOUS SOURCES
Kings of Argos	Regnal Years		Castor	Regnal Years		Syncellus	Regnal Years	Apollodorus	Hyginus	Tatian	Pausanias
Precessor	1652	60 winters & summers	Phoroneus	1649.5	60 winters & summers	Phoroneus	1650	Phoroneus	-do-	-do-	-do-
Apis	1622	35 winters & summers	Apis	1619.5	35 winters & summers	Apis	1625	Apis	-do-	-do-	-do-
Successor	1604.5	70 winters & summers	Argus	1602	70 winters & summers	Argus	1600	Argus	-do-	Argeius or Criasus	Argus

Serapis

Apis, the son of Phoroneus, is said, after his death, to have been worshiped as a god under the name of Serapis (Σάραπις). This confusion is still more manifest in the tradition, that Apis gave his kingdom of Argos to his brother, and went to Egypt, where he reigned for several years afterwards.[11][12] Apis is spoken of as one of the earliest lawgivers among the Greeks.[13] Both these stories show that Egyptian myths were mixed up with the story of Apis, see Apis (Egyptian mythology).

Notes

1. "Apis is the noun formed from apios, a Homeric adjective usually meaning ‘far off’ but, when applied to the Peloponnese (Aeschylus: Suppliants), ‘of the pear-tree’" as cited in Robert Graves' The Greek Myths
2. Robert Graves (1960). The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. s.v. Endymion. ISBN 978-0143106715.
3. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.1.1
4. Hyginus, Fabulae 145
5. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2. 21. 1
6. Scholiast on Euripides, Orestes 920
7. Tzetzes on Lycophron 177
8. Scholia on Pindar, Olympian Ode 3. 28
9. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 5.50.6
10. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.1.2
11. Eusebius, Chronicle, n. 271
12. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 18. 5
13. Theodoret. Graec. Affect. Cur. vol. iv. p. 927, ed. Schulz.

References

• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pseudo-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. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Apis". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 226.