Alectryon (mythology)

Alectryon (from Ancient Greek: ἀλεκτρυών for "rooster"), in Greek mythology, was a young soldier who was assigned by Ares to stand guard outside his door while the god indulged in a love affair with Aphrodite. He fell asleep on guard duty and the sun-god, Helios, discovered them the following morning. Helios then alerted Hephaestus, Aphrodite's husband, to the actions of the two, prompting Hephaestus to create a net to ensnare and shame them. Furious, Ares punished Alectryon by turning him into a rooster which never forgets to announce the arrival of the sun in the morning by its crowing. He thus became the god of chickens and roosters, looking after them for all eternity.

For the coterminous genus of plants, see Alectryon (plant)

Both the words Alectryon and Halcyon might have been corrupted from Halaka, one of the old Persian appellations of the sun. In the 'Vendidad' it is said that the sacred bird Parodars, called by men kahrkatak, raises its voice at the dawn; and in the "Bundehasb", the sun is spoken of as Halaka, the cock, the enemy of darkness and evil, which flee before his crowing.[1]

According to Lucian, Alectryon was said to have been 'an adolescent boy, beloved of Ares, who kept company with the god at drinking parties, caroused with him, and was his companion in lovemaking'.[2]