Apis of Argos

Apis (/ˈeɪpɪs/; Ancient Greek: Ἄπις derived from apios "far-off" or "of the pear-tree") was a king of Argos in Greek mythology.

Apis was a son of Phoroneus by the nymph Teledice, or Cinna, or Cerdo, or Perimede and brother of Niobe. According to a scholiast on Euripides's Orestes, he was the son of Phoroneus by his first wife Peitho ("Persuasion") and brother to Niobe, Aegialeus, and Europs.

Apollodorus reports that during his reign, Apis established a tyrannical government and called the Peloponnesus Apia, after his own name, and that he was eventually killed in a conspiracy headed by Thelxion, king of Sparta, and Telchis. In another passage Apollodorus states that Apis, the son of Phoroneus, was killed by Aetolus; Pausanias, however, gives the latter story in relation to Apis, son of Jason, who was killed by Aetolus during the funeral games celebrated in honor of Azanes. Argus Panoptes, a descendant of his sister Niobe, avenged his murder by putting Thelxion and Telchis to death.

Apis, the son of Phoroneus, is said, after his death, to have been worshiped as a god under the name of Serapis (Σάραπις). This confusion is still more manifest in the tradition, that Apis gave his kingdom of Argos to his brother, and went to Egypt, where he reigned for several years afterwards. Apis is spoken of as one of the earliest lawgivers among the Greeks. Both these stories show that Egyptian myths were mixed up with the story of Apis, see Apis (Egyptian mythology).

• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Apis". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 226.