Absyrtus
or
Apsyrtus (
Ἄψυρτος). The son of
Aeëtes, king of Colchis, whom Medea took with her when she fled with Iason. Being
pursued by her father, she murdered her brother, cut his body in pieces, and threw them into
the sea, that her father might be detained by gathering the limbs of his child. Tomi, the
place where this horror was committed, was believed to have derived its name from
τέμνω, “cut.” See
Argonautae;
Medea.