Heracleidae

Get Babylon's Translation Software! Free Download Now!
Babylon 8 - Your all-in-one solution
Award winning translation software trusted by millions. Translate from any language to any language.
View Demo


Wikipedia English The Free EncyclopediaDownload this dictionary
Heracleidae
The Heracleidae or Heraclids were the numerous descendants of Heracles (Hercules), especially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira (Hyllus was also sometimes thought of as a son of Melite with Heracles). Other Heracleidae included MacariaLamosMantoBianorTlepolemus, and Telephus. These Heraclids were a group of Dorian kings who conquered the Peloponnesian kingdoms of MycenaeSparta and Argos; according to the literary tradition in Greek mythology, they claimed a right to rule through their ancestor. Since Karl Otfried Müller's Die Dorier (1830, English translation 1839), I. ch. 3, their rise to dominance has been associated with a "Dorian invasion". Though details of genealogy differ from one ancient author to another, the cultural significance of the mythic theme, that the descendants of Heracles, exiled after his death, returned after some generations in order to reclaim land that their ancestors had held in Mycenaean Greece, was to assert the primal legitimacy of a traditional ruling clan that traced its origin, thus its legitimacy, to Heracles.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

This article uses material from Wikipedia® and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Define Heracleidae

Translate Heracleidae





| Heracleidae in French | Heracleidae in German | Heracleidae in Russian | Heracleidae in Greek