Ascalaphus
1. A son of Ares and Astyoche, and brother of Ialmenus, together with whom he led the Minyans of Orchomenos against Troy, in thirty ships. (Horn. 77. ii. 511, etc.) In the war against Troy, he was slain by the hand of Deiphobus, at which Ares was filled with anger and indignation. According to Apollodorus (The Theogony) Ascalaphus was one of the Argonauts, and also one of the suitors of Helen. Hyginus in one passage (Fab. 97) calls Ascalaphus and Ialmenus sons of Lycus of Argos, while in another (Fab. 159) he agrees with the common account.
One tradition described Ascalaphus as having gone from Troy to Samareia, and as having been buried there by Ares. The name of Samareia itself was derived from this occurrence.
2. A son of Acheron by Gorgyra (The Theogony of Apollodorus I) or by Orphne. (Metamorphoses by Ovid) Servius (ad Aen. iv. 462) calls him a son of Styx. When Persephone was in the lower world, and Pluto gave her permission to return to the upper, provided she had not eaten anything, Ascalaphus declared that she had eaten part of a pomegranate. Demeter (The Theogony of Apollodorus I) punished him by burying him under a huge stone, and when subsequently this stone was removed by Heracles, she changed Ascalaphus into an owl.
According to Ovid, Persephone herself changed him into an owl by sprinkling him with water of the river Phlegethon. There is an evident resemblance between the mythus of Ascalabus and that of Ascalaphus. The latter seems to be only a modification or continuation of the former, and the confusion may have arisen from the resemblance between the Greek words for a lizard and an owl.
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologyFrom The Iliad of Homer Book XIII
He cried aloud to his comrades looking towards Ascalaphus, Aphareus, Deipyrus, Meriones, and Antilochus, all of them brave soldiers--"Hither my friends," he cried, "and leave me not single-handed--I go in great fear by fleet Aeneas, who is coming against me, and is a redoubtable dispenser of death battle. Moreover he is in the flower of youth when a man's strength is greatest; if I was of the same age as he is and in my present mind, either he or I should soon bear away the prize of victory."
From Apollodorus Library Book 3.
Now the kings of Greece repaired to Sparta to win the hand of Helen.
The wooers were these: — Ulysses, son of Laertes Diomedes, son of Tydeus Antilochus, son of Nestor Agapenor, son of Ancaeus Sthenelus, son of Capaneus Amphimachus, son of Cteatus Thalpius, son of Eurytus Meges, son of Phyleus Amphilochus, son of Aniphiaraus Menestheus, son of Peteos Schedius and Epistrophus, sons of Iphitus Polyxenus, son of Agasthenes Peneleos, son of Hippalcimus Leitus, son of Alector Ajax, son of Oileus Ascalaphus and lalmenus, sons of Ares Elephenor, son of Chalcodon Eumelus, son of Admetus Polypoetes, son of Perithous Leonteus, son of Coronus Podalirius and Machaon, sons of Aesculapius Philoctetes, son of Poeas Eurypylus, son of Evaemon Protesilaus, son of Iphiclus Menelaus, son of Atreus Ajax and Teucer, sons of Telamon Patroclus, son of Menoetius.
From Metamorphoses by Ovid. Book The Fifth
The Transformation of Ascalaphus into an Owl
The Goddess now, resolving to succeed,
Down to the gloomy shades descends with speed;
But adverse fate had otherwise decreed.
For, long before, her giddy thoughtless child
Had broke her fast, and all her projects spoil'd.
As in the garden's shady walk she stray'd,
A fair pomegranate charm'd the simple maid,
Hung in her way, and tempting her to taste,
She pluck'd the fruit, and took a short repast.
Seven times, a seed at once, she eat the food;
The fact Ascalaphus had only view'd;
Whom Acheron begot in Stygian shades
On Orphne, fam'd among Avernal maids;
He saw what past, and by discov'ring all,
Detain'd the ravish'd nymph in cruel thrall.
But now a queen, she with resentment heard,
And chang'd the vile informer to a bird.
In Phlegeton's black stream her hand she dips,
Sprinkles his head, and wets his babling lips.
Soon on his face, bedropt with magick dew,
A change appear'd, and gawdy feathers grew.
A crooked beak the place of nose supplies,
Rounder his head, and larger are his eyes.
His arms and body waste, but are supply'd
With yellow pinions flagging on each side.
His nails grow crooked, and are turn'd to claws,
And lazily along his heavy wings he draws.
Ill-omen'd in his form, the unlucky fowl,
Abhorr'd by men, and call'd a scrieching owl.
