[3] By other accounts his father was the Lelegian king Altes, which accords well with Ancaeus's rule over the Leleges of Samos.
According to a lost epic of his house, sung by the Samian poet Asios, he married Samia, daughter of the river god Maeander, who bore him Perilaus, Enudus, Samus, Alitherses, and Parthenope, the mother of Lycomedes.
Ancaeus then joined the voyage of the Argonauts, and returned home safely, by which time the grapes were ripe and had been made into wine.
He summoned the seer before him, and raised a cup of his own wine to his lips, and was ready to taste it for the first time.
He then mocked the seer, who retorted, "There is many a slip between the cup and the lip" (Πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου).