Idomeneus
Idomeneus
King of Crete, grandson of Minos, commander of the Cretan contingent of eighty ships at Troy (Hom. *Il.* 2.645–652). In Homer one of Agamemnon's most trusted counsellors; in the Homeric tradition his nostos is uneventful (Hom. *Od.* 3.191 says simply that all the Cretans the war spared came home). The post-Homeric tradition — elaborated by Servius (*ad Aen.* 3.121 + 11.264), Apollodorus (*Epit.* 6.10), and Lycophron (*Alex.* 1214–1225) — adds a storm at sea on the return, a rash vow to Poseidon, the sacrifice of his own son on landfall in Crete, a plague, and an exile to the Salento in south-eastern Italy, where he refounds his kingdom. Virgil *Aen.* 3.121–122 + 3.400–401 integrates the Italian exile into the Aeneid's southern-Italian backdrop.
Origin
Grandson of Minos, king of Crete (Hom. *Il.* 2.645–652). The direct parentage is given variously as Deucalion of Crete (Apollod. 3.3.1) or as another descendant of the Minoan line.