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1. Megacles was a possibly legendary King of Athens from 922 BC to 892 BC.

2. Megacles was a member of the Alcmaeonidae family, and the archon eponymous in 632 BC when Cylon made his unsuccessful attempt to take over Athens. Megacles was convicted of killing Cylon (who had taken refuge on the Acropolis as a suppliant of Athena) and was exiled from the city, along with all the other members of his genos, the Alcmaeonidae. The Alcmaeonidae inherited a miasma ("stain") that lasted for generations among Megacles' descendants.

3. Megacles, the grandson of the above and member of the Alcmaeonidae family, was an opponent of Pisistratus in the 6th century BC. He drove out Pisistratus during the latter's first reign as tyrant in 560 BC, but the two then made an alliance with each other, and Pisistratus married Megacles' daughter. They also tricked the Athenians into believing Athena herself had arrived to proclaim Pisistratus tyrant, by dressing up a woman named Phye as the goddess. However, Megacles turned against Pisistratus when Pisistratus refused to have children with Megacles' daughter, which brought an end to the second tyranny.

This Megacles competed with Hippocleides to marry to Agarista, the daughter of CleisthenesCleisthenes (also Clisthenes or Kleisthenes was the tyrant of Sicyon, who aided in the war against Cirra that destroyed that city in 595 BC. He organized a competition with his daughter Agarista as a prize; the two main competitors for her were the Alcmae of SicyonSicyon an ancient Greek city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea. It was built on a low triangular plateau about 2 miles from the Corinthian Gulf. Between the city and its port lay a fertile plain with olive groves and orchard. His son with Agarista, also named Megacles, was the grandfather of yet another Megacles, who himself was the uncle of PericlesFor the Shakespeare play, see Pericles, Prince of Tyre''. Pericles (c. 495 BC 429 BC) was an influential and important leader of Athens during the Athenian Golden Age (specifically, between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars), from the Alcmaeonidae family.