Dryops (eponym of the Dryopians)

For other uses, see Dryops (mythology).

In Greek mythology, Dryops (/ˈdraɪ.ɒps/, Ancient Greek: Δρύοψ means 'man of oak')^[1] was the eponym of the Dryopians.

Family

Dryops was the son of the river god Spercheus and the Danaid Polydora,^[2] or of Apollo by Dia, daughter of King Lycaon of Arcadia.^[3][4] As a newborn infant, he was concealed by Dia in a hollow oak-tree.^[5] He had one daughter, Dryope,^[2] and also a son Cragaleus.^[6]

Reign

Dryops had been king of the Dryopes, who derived their name from him. 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.^[7] Dryops reigned in the neighborhood of Mount Oeta.^[2] The people, original inhabitants of the country from the valley of the Spercheius and Thermopylae, as far as Mount Parnassus.^[8] They retained the name after having transferred to Asine in Peloponnesus.^[9][10]