LYCAON, a king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus V. and Melibaea, or Cyllene. Some make him son of Hermes (Sch.
Lycania
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Lycia.
ad Theocr. i. 124). It has been supposed by some that there are two distinct kings of the same name, but there seems no sufficient reason for such a supposition. He was the father of many sons; some say fifty, and others only twenty-two. According to the traditions of the Arcadians, he was the first who instituted the worship of Zeus as the Supreme Being, founding Lycosura upon the top of Mount Lycus (Paus. viii. 2, § 1). He is said to have offered human victims on the altar of Zeus; and from this the poets embellished the story in the manner that Ovid tells it (Ovid, Met., i. 198). Rumours of the impiety of Lycus and his sons reached Jupiter, and he came down to examine their truth. They placed before him part of the body of a child dressed for dinner, when Lycus and all his sons, with the exception of Nyctimus, were killed by Zeus with a flash of lightning, or, as others say, were changed into wolves (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 481; Eratosth., Catast. 8). Some say that the flood of Deucalion was the immediate consequence of the crimes of the sons of Lycus (Apollod. iii. 8, § 1).