Rhesus

• the son of a Muse, a king in Thrace, who was robbed of his horses and killed by Diomede and Ulysses before Troy, Cic. N. D. 3, 18, 45; Verg. A. 1, 469; Ov. M. 13, 249 sq. al.

Ῥῆσος.

1. A river-god in Bithynia, one of the sons of Oceanus and Thetys. (Hes. Th. 340; Hom. Il. 12.21; comp. Strab. xiii. p.590.)

2. A son of king Eioneus in Thrace, and an ally of the Trojans in their war with the Greeks. He possessed horses white as snow and swift as the wind, which were carried off by night by Odysseus and Diomedes, the latter of whom murdered Rhesus himself in his sleep (Hom. Il. 10.435, 495, &c.; Virg. Acn. 1.469, with Serv. note). In later writers Rhesus is described as a son of Strymon and Euterpe, or Calliope, or Terpsichore. (Apollod. 1.3.4; Conon, Narrat. 4; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 817; Eurip. Rhesus.) [L.S]

(Ρῆσος). (1) A river-god in Bithynia, one of the sons of Oceanus and Tethys.

(2) Son of king Eïoneus in Thrace. He marched to the assistance of the Trojans in their war with the Greeks. An oracle had declared that Troy would never be taken if the snow-white horses of Rhesus should once drink the water of the Xanthus and feed upon the grass of the Trojan plain. But as soon as Rhesus had reached the Trojan territory, and had pitched his tents late at night, Odysseus and Diomedes penetrated into his camp, slew Rhesus himself, and carried off his horses. The story is the subject of a play ascribed to Euripides, but regarded by many as not genuine.

• killed by Diomedes at Troy: Apollod. 1.3.3
• a Thracian, killed by Odysseus and Diomedes: Apollod. E.4.1