ABSTRACT
Son of the River Inachus and the Oceanid Melia. Phoroneus was claimed as the mythical founder of Argos, which he called Phoronea. A nymph, Teledice, who was loved by Zeus, bore him Apis and Niobe (according to another tradition Niobe was the wife, not the daughter, of Phoroneus), and his wife Cerdo presented him with a son, Car, who became king of Megara. The Argives credited Phoroneus with the discovery of fire, and kept an eternal flame burning in his memory. He was also believed to have inaugurated Hera’s great sanctuary the Heraeum near the city.
