Phineus
(
Φινεύς).
1.
Son of Belus and Anchinoë, and brother of Cepheus. He was slain by Perseus. For
details see
Andromeda and
Perseus.
2.
Son of Agenor, and king of Salmydessus in Thrace. He was first married to Cleopatra , the
daughter of Boreas and Orithyia, by whom he had two children, Oryithus (Oarthus) and Crambis;
but their names are different in the different legends: Ovid calls them Polydectus and
Polydorus. Afterwards he was married to Idaea (some call her Dia, Eurytia, or Idothea), by
whom he again had two sons, Thynus and Mariandynus.
Phineus was a blind soothsayer, who had received his prophetic powers from Apollo; but the
cause of his blindness is not the same in all accounts. He is most celebrated on account of
his being tormented by the Harpies, who were sent by the gods to punish him on account of his
cruelty towards his sons by the first marriage. His second wife falsely accused them of
having made an attempt upon her virtue, whereupon Phineus put out their eyes, or, according
to others, exposed them to be devoured by wild beasts, or ordered them to be half buried in
the earth, and then to be scourged. Therefore the gods struck him with blindness and sent the
Harpies to torment him. Whenever a meal was placed before Phineus, the Harpies darted
down from the air and carried it off; later writers add that they either devoured the food
themselves or rendered it unfit to be eaten. When the Argonauts visited Thrace, Phineus
promised to instruct them respecting their voyage, if they would deliver him from the
monsters. This was done by Zetes and Calaïs, the sons of Boreas, and brothers of
Cleopatra (
Apollon. ii. 284). Phineus now explained to the
Argonauts the further course they had to take, and especially cautioned them against the
Symplegades. According to another story the Argonauts, on their arrival at Thrace, found the
sons of Phineus half buried, and demanded their liberation, which Phineus refused. A battle
thereupon ensued, in which Phineus was slain by Heracles. The latter also delivered Cleopatra
from her confinement, and restored the kingdom to the sons of Phineus; and on their advice he
also sent the second wife of Phineus back to her father, who ordered her to be put to death.
Some traditions, lastly, state that Phineus was killed by Boreas, or that he was carried off
by the Harpies into the country of the Bistones or Milchessians. Those accounts in which
Phineus is stated to have put out the eyes of his sons add that they had their sight restored
to them by the sons of Boreas, or by Asclepius.