Lycus or Lykos ( ; ), in Greek mythology, was a king of Libya and son of the god AresHyginus. Fabulae, 159. Translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies and the father of Callirhoê.Pseudo-Plutarch. Parallela minora 23. English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
Lycus had the custom of sacrificing strangers to honor his father. After the sack of Troy, Diomedes was cast up on the Libyan coast and was to be offered as a sacrifice. However, the king's daughter Callirhoê fell in love with the hero and betrayed her father by loosening his bonds and rescued him eventually. She committed suicide upon his departure.
References
Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project. Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, Moralia with an English Translation by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.