Cynaegirus
| Cynaegirus | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Κυνέγειρος or Κυναίγειρος |
| Born | Eleusis |
| Died | 490 BC Marathon |
| Allegiance | Athens |
| Rank | General |
| Battles/wars | Battle of Marathon |
| Memorials |
|
| Relations | |
Cynegeirus, also spelled Cynaegeirus or Cynegirus (Greek: Κυνέγειρος or Κυναίγειρος Kynegeiros or Kynaigeiros; died 490 BC) was an ancient Greek hero of Athens and had three siblings. His two brothers were the playwright Aeschylus and Ameinias, hero of the battle of Salamis, while his sister was Philopatho (Greek: Φιλοπαθώ), the mother of the Athenian tragic poet Philokles. He was the son of Euphorion (Greek: Ευφορίωνας) from Eleusis and member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica.
In 490 BC Cynegeirus and his brothers Aeschylus and Ameinias fought to defend Athens against Darius's invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon. According to Plutarch, Cynegeirus was one of the Athenian Generals.
Despite their numerical superiority, the Persians were routed and fled to their ships. The Athenians pursued them, and Cynegeirus in his attempt to hold on the stern of a Persian ship with his bare hands had his hand cut off with an axe and died. According to another version of his death, recorded by the Roman historian Justin, when Cynaegyrus lost his right hand, he grasped the enemy's vessel with his left, but Persians cut off this hand too. Here the hero, having successively lost both his hands, hangs on by his teeth, and even in his mutilated state fought desperately with the last mentioned weapons, " like a rabid wild beast!"
There was a custom at Athens that the father of the man who had the most valorous death in a battle should pronounce the funerary oration in public. The father of Cynaegirus and the father of Callimachus had an argument about that. Polemon of Laodicea declaimed first on behalf of Cynaegirus and then on behalf of Callimachus.
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