King Echetus (/ˈɛkɪtəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἔχετος, romanized: Ékhetos), in Greek mythology, is a king of Epirus and son of Euchenor and Phlogea (Φλόγεα).
The story also described how Echetus had a daughter, Metope, who had an intrigue with a lover; as a punishment Echetus mutilated the lover and blinded Metope by piercing her eyes with bronze needles.
[1][2] Eustathius and the scholia on this passage call the daughter and her lover Amphissa and Aechmodicus respectively.
[3][4] It is thought that Echetus was a mythological creation, used to scare disobedient children or used as the villain in bedtime stories.
An alternate theory is that Echetus was a real king around the time of Homer, and that he was quite deformed and possibly a cannibal; no evidence currently exists to support this theory, however.