Butes
（
Βούτης).
1.
A Thracian, the son of Boreas. His brother Lycurgus, whose life he had attempted, banished
him, and he settled on the island of Strongylé or Naxos. Finding here no wives for
himself and his companions, he carried off some women from Thessaly, while they were
celebrating a sacrifice to Dionysus. One of these, Coronis, whom he had forced to be his
wife, prayed to Dionysus for vengeance. The god drove him mad, and he threw himself into a
well.
2.
An Athenian hero, son of the Athenian Pandion and Zeuxippé. A tiller of the
soil, and a neat-herd, he was a priest of Athené, the goddess of the stronghold,
and of Poseidon Erechthens, and thus ancestor of the priestly caste of the Butadae and
Eteobutadae. He shared an altar in the Erechtheum with Poseidon and Hephaestus. The later
story represented him as the son of Teleon and Zeuxippé, and as taking part in the
expedition of the Argonauts.
3.
A descendant of Amycus, king of the Bebryces. He was one of the Argonants, and on passing
the island of the Sirens leaped overboard in order to swim to it, but was caught up by
Aphrodité, who conveyed him to Lilybaeum in Sicily. Here she became by him the
mother of
Eryx (q.v.). He was renowned as a boxer.
4.
An armourbearer of Anchises, and afterwards of Ascanius. Apollo assumed his form when he
descended from heaven to encourage Ascanius in battle. Butes was killed by Turnus. See Verg.
Aen. ix. 647 foll.
