Phoroneus

THE first man to found and people a city with a market-town was Io’s brother Phoroneus, son of the River-god Inachus and the Nymph Melia; later its name, Phoronicum, was changed to Argos. Phoroneus was also the first to discover the use of fire, after Prometheus had stolen it. He married the Nymph Cerdo, ruled the entire Peloponnese, and initiated the worship of Hera. When he died, his sons Pelasgus, Iasus, and Agenor divided the Peloponnese between them; but his son Car founded the city of Megara.

1. Phoroneus’s name, which the Greeks read as ‘bringer of a price’ in the sense that he invented markets, probably stands for Fearinus (‘of the dawn of the year’, i.e. the Spring); variants are Bran, Barn, Bergn, Vrot, Ephron, Gwern, Fearn, and Brennus. As the spirit of the alder-tree which presided over the fourth month in the sacred year, during which the Spring Fire Festival was celebrated, he was described as a son of Inachus, because alders grow by rivers. His mother is the ash-nymph Melia, because the ash, the preceding tree of the same series, is said to ‘court the flash’-lightning-struck trees were primitive man’s first source of fire. Being an oracular hero, he was also associated with the crow. Phoroneus’s discovery of the use of fire may be explained by the ancient smiths’ and potters’ preference for alder charcoal, which gives out more heat than any other. Cerdo (‘gain or ‘art’) is one of Demeter’s titles; it was applied to her as weasel, or vixen, for both are considered prophetic animals. ‘Phoroneus’ seems to have been title of Cronus, with whom the crow and the alder are also associated and therefore the Titan of the Seventh Day. The division of Phoroneus’s kingdom between his sons Pelasgus, Iasus, and Agenor recalls that of Cronus’s kingdom between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, but perhaps describes a pre-Achaean partition of the Peloponnese.
2. Car is Q’re, or Carius, or the Great God Ker, who seems to have derived his title from his Moon-mother Artemis Caria, or Caryatis.