Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Phorōneus

（Φορωνεύς). A son of Inachus and the Oceanid Melia or Archia, was a brother of Aegialeüs and the ruler of Argos. He was married to the nymph Laodicé, by whom he became the father of Niobé, Apis, and Car. According to other writers, his sons were Pelasgus, Iasus, and Agenor, who, after their father's death, divided the kingdom of Argos among themselves. Phoroneus is said to have been the first who offered sacrifices to Heré at Argos, and to have united the people, who, until then, had lived in scattered habitations, into a city which was called after him ἄστυ Φορωνικόν (Pausan. ii. 15, 5). The patronymic Phoronĭdes is sometimes used of the Argives in general, and especially to designate Amphiaraüs and Adrastus. Ovid ( Met. i. 668) calls Io, who was a descendant of Phoroneus, Phoronis.