Pelagon's name immediately suggests 'sea' (pelagos), but it has also been understood as pelogonos, meaning 'born from clay' (pelos, 'clay', 'mud' and gone, 'offspring'). Both these are possibilities for one who lived in a 'sea' region (Phocis bordered the Gulf of Corinth to the west of Boeotia) and who was originally a 'bumpkin' herdsman, as Pelagon was before he became king.
