Alectryon (mythology) Alectryon (mythology) Alectryon (Ancient Greek: ἀλεκτρυών) is the Ancient Greek word for "rooster". In Greek mythology, Alectryon was a young soldier who was assigned by Ares to stand guard outside his door while the god indulged in illicit love with Aphrodite. He fell asleep on guard duty and Helios walked in on the couple where Helios then alerted Hephaestus on what Ares was doing with Aphrodite. 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. Both the words Alectryon and Halcyon might have been
Modern understanding of Greek mythology mythology to the still poorly understood pre-Hellenic societies of Greece, such as the Minoans and so-called Pelasgians. This is especially true in the case of chthonic deities and mother goddesses. Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connencted with Crete: the god as bull — Zeus and Europa; Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur; agrarian mysteries with a sacred marriage (Demeter's union with Iasion) etc. Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and Orchomenus figure so large in later Greek mythology. For some, the three main generations of gods in