A king of Thrace. In the commonest tradition, he was said to be the son of Charops (from whom he learned the Dionysiac mysteries) or of Ares or of Pierus; his mother was Methone. Oeager, however, is also mentioned as a god and a river of Thrace. He may also have been a solitary hunter or field-dweller or may have owned land and kept sheep. He was the father of Orpheus, whose mother was the Muse Calliope, while Linus, Marsyas and Cymothon are also named as their sons. Calliope’s sister Muses Polhymnia, Urania and Clio are also traditionally considered as his wives. He is said to have accompanied Dionysus on his Indian expedition. Oeager is, in addition, described by Kathleen Freeman in The Pre-Socratic Philosophers as a Thracian wine god descended from Atlas.
