A powerful Thracian people, known as devotees of Dionysus, who took their name either from Edonus, son of Ares and Callirhoe, daughter of the river-god Nestos, traditionally the brother of Biston, Odomas and Mygdon, or from Mount Edonus, a spur of Haemus, which however cannot be identified with any of the names used today for those mountains. The boundaries and extent of their territory are thought to have varied, but they seem to have occupied the whole area between the Strymon and the Nestos. The river known today as the Gallikos was once called Edonos, which would seem to indicate their presence there. According to mythological tradition their king, Lycurgus, was punished with madness for his hostility towards Dionysus. He took an axe to his son, thinking he was cutting down a grapevine. When he recovered his senses, he found that his land had become barren. The oracle of Dionysus said the drought would continue until Lycurgus was killed, and so the Edonians took him to Mount Pangaeon where he was torn apart by wild horses. In another version, Edonus was the son of Poseidon and Helle, who had been saved by the god of the sea when she fell from the back of the golden-fleeced ram.
