ABSTRACT
Son of Hellen and the nymph Orseis, or of Aeolus and Enarete. According to the former (and more commonly accepted) version of his parentage he was the brother of Dorus and Aeolus: they were believed to have been the ancestors of the Doric and Aeolic branches of the Greek race, and he was ancestor of the Ionians and Achaeans. After ruling the Thessalian town of Iolcus for a time, Xuthus was driven out by his two brothers, on the grounds that he had stolen their patrimony. He then went to Athens, where he gave the king Erechtheus valuable help in a war against Chalcodon in Euboea, and received his daughter Creusa as his wife. When Erechtheus died, his sons asked Xuthus to choose one of them as the new king. He chose the eldest, Cecrops, whereupon the other drove Xuthus out of Athens. He took his wife and sons, Achaeus and lon, to the northern Peloponnese, and died in the land of Aegialus there: it was later renamed Achaea, after his son Achaeus.
