Demophon was a king of Athens and the son of Theseus and Phaedra.
History[]
Demophon was the son of Theseus and Phaedra and the brother of Acamas. He fought in the Trojan War and was among those who entered the city in the Trojan Horse. The brothers freed their grandmother Aethra, who had been captured by the Dioscuri and served Helen as a handmaid for a while, and brought her home.
Demophon married Phyllis, daughter of a Thracian king, while he stopped in Thrace on his journey home from the Trojan war. They had a son named Oxyntes by her. One day however, he had to leave, promising to return and take Phyllis with him as soon as possible. She gave him a casket and told not to open it unless he should lose every hope to return to Thrace. Demophon eventually settled in Cyprus and forgot about Phyllis. She would come to the sea shore every day, expecting to see the sails of his ship, but in vain. After the appointed date was past, she either died of grief or hanged herself. One day Demophon opened the casket out of curiosity; what he saw there was so horrifying that he jumped onto his horse and rode like wild till he fell off the horse on his own sword and died. Others, however, say that he did return, but Phyllis was already dead by the time; when he embraced the lifeless almond tree into which she was said to have transformed after death, it started to blossom.