He first married Pyrgo and afterwards Euaechme, and was the father of Ischepolis (Ἰσχέπολις), Callipolis (Καλλίπολις), Iphinoe, Periboea, and Automedusa.
[2][3] Pausanias relates that after Euippus, son of king Megareus, was killed by the Lion of Cithaeron, Megareus, whose elder son Timalcus had likewise fallen by the hands of Theseus, offered his daughter Euaechme and his kingdom to anyone who could slay the lion.
[4] Alcathous undertook the task, killed the lion, and thus obtained Euaechme for his wife, and afterwards became the successor of Megareus.
[6][7][8] Echepolis, one of the sons of Alcathous, was killed during the Calydonian hunt in Aetolia, and when his brother Callipolis hastened to carry the sad tidings to his father, he found him engaged in offering a sacrifice to Apollo, and thinking it unfit to offer sacrifices at such a moment, he snatched away the wood from the altar.
Alcathous imagining this to be an act of deliberate sacrilege, killed his son on the spot with a piece of wood.