Brewer's: Idomeneus

(4 syl.). King of Crete, and ally of the Greeks in the siege of Troy After the city was burnt he made a vow to sacrifice whatever he first encountered, if the gods granted him a safe return to his kingdom. It was his own son that he first met, and when he offered him up to fulfil his vow he was banished from Crete as a murderer. (Homer: Iliad.)

Compare the story of Jephthah in Judges xi.

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