Alectryon (mythology)

Alectryon (from Ancient Greek: ἀλεκτρυών, Alektruṓn pronounced [alektryɔ̌ːn], literally meaning "rooster") in Greek mythology, was a young soldier who was assigned by Ares, the god of war, to guard the outside of his bedroom door while the god took part in a love affair with the love goddess Aphrodite.

The story is an aetiological myth that attempts to explain both the origin of the roosters and the reason why they crow each morning at dawn, warning of the Sun approaching.

The myth is not mentioned by Homer, who first related the story of Ares and Aphrodite's infidelity in his Odyssey, but rather it was interpolated later by various authors.

And in memory of why he suffered this, before the Sun god yokes his chariot he drives away men's sleep through song.According to Lucian, Alectryon was said to have been 'an adolescent boy, beloved of Ares, who kept the god company at drinking parties, overindulged with him, and was his companion in lovemaking'.

In the 'Vendidad' it is said that the sacred bird Parodars, called by men kahrkatak, raises its voice at the dawn; and in the Bundahishn, the sun is spoken of as Halaka, the cock, the enemy of darkness and evil, which flee before his crowing.