Phlegyas succeeded Eteocles, who died without issue, in the government of the district of Orchomenos, which he named Phlegyantis, after himself.
When a hooded crow informed Apollo of the affair, he sent his sister Artemis to kill Coronis, unable to perform the task himself.
[8][9][10][11][12] In another version of the myth, Phlegyas had no children and the two brothers Lycus and Nycteus are responsible for his death.
In the Aeneid of Virgil, Phlegyas is shown tormented in Tartarus in the Underworld, warning others not to despise the gods.
In the Thebaid of Statius, Phlegyas is also shown to be in the Underworld entombed in a rock by Megaera (one of the Furies) and starved in front of an eternal feast (comparable to the torment of Tantalus).