9. καὶ ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς …

I guess I never realized that (autos) was a declinable noun (although the textbook clearly shows it has a stem). I assumed because there was no article to memorize with it, that it was somehow different to some of the words we have been learning. I wonder, can (autos) ever be preceeded by an article? If so which ones? I know (although not why yet) that it cannot be neuter. Therefore, is it fair to say that autos, can never really mean "it" - but only he/she/them because of the limited gender options?