Butes

Βουτης

1. A son of Boreas and the half-brother of Lycurgus. They had different mothers, neither of them being Orithyia, the god's legitimate wife. Butes sought to kill his half-brother Lycurgus, but when his intentions were discovered, he had to flee with his followers and he established himself on Naxos, where he lived by armed robbery and piracy. During one of his forays, he attacked the Phthiotide in Thessaly, in order to abduct the women. On Naxos he encountered the female worshippers of Dionysus; most of them escaped, but the god's nurse, Coronis, was carried off and given to Butes. In answer to the girl's prayers, Butes was struck with madness by Dionysus. He threw himself into a well and died.
    
2. The son of Pandion, king of Athens, and his wife Zeuxippe (Table 11). His brother was Erechtheus and his sisters Philomela and Procne. On the death of Pandion, his estate was divided between his sons. Erechtheus received the kingship, and Butes the priesthood of Athena and Poseidon. He married the daughter of Erechtheus, Chthonia. It was on his being their ancestor that the priestly family of the Eteoboutades based their claim at Athens.
    
3. For Butes the Argonaut, who founded the town of Lilyboea in Sicily, see Argonauts and Eryx.

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources

1. - Diod. Sic. 5, 20, 2ff.
    
2. - Apollod. Bibl. 3, 14, 8