In Greek mythology, Macistus or Makistos (Ancient Greek: Μάκιστος means 'tallest' or 'greatestLSJ: Attic: mêkistos Doric: μάκιστος) may refer to the following person and surname:
Macistus, a Boeotian prince as the son of King Athamas probably by the cloud-nymph Nephele, thus the brother of Phrixus and Helle. From Macistus, the town of Macistus in Triphylia was believed to have derived its name.Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Makistos Makistios, an epithet of Heracles, who had a temple in the neighbourhood of the town of Macistus in Triphylia, Elis (Peloponnese).Strabo, 8.3.21, p. 348: — In the intervening space are both the temple of the Macistian Heracles and the Acidon River.. Makistios as an epithet of Heracles was behind the cinematic character of Maciste, popular in Italian sword and sandals films. In English translations, the name was often replaced by the more familiar ones of Hercules and Atlas.Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film, Benjamin Robert Brewster, Lea Jacobs, Oxford University Press, 1998.
See also Mecisteus
Notes
References
Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project. Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.