AMYCUS

1. A son of Poseidon by Bithynis, or by the Bithyaiian nymph Melia. He was ruler of the country of the Bebryces, and when the Argonauts landed on the coast of his dominions, he challenged the bravest of them to a boxing match.

Polydeuces, who accepted the challenge, killed him. (Apollodorus i.) The Scholiast on Apollonius (ii. 98) relates, that Polydeuces bound Amycus. Previous to this fatal encounter with the Argonauts, Amycus had had a feud with Lycus, king of Mysia, who was supported by Heracles, and in it Mydon, the brother of Amycus, fell by the hands of Heracles.

Apollodorus relates, that upon the tomb of Amycus there grew a species of laurel (laurus insana), which had the effect that, when a branch of it was taken on board a vessel, the crew began to quarrel, and did not cease until the branch was thrown overboard.

Three other mythical personages of this name occur in Metamorphoses by Ovid xii and Virgil's Aeneid x.