Neleus, who had an only daughter called Pero. She was so beautiful
that no one who had once seen her ever cared to look at any other
woman, and many princes came to Pylos to ask for her hand in
marriage, but King Neleus said that whoever wished to have her for
his wife must first bring him the cattle of Iphiclus, and that he
would not part with her on any other condition. These cattle were
renowned for their strength and beauty, and they were always spoken
of as the cattle of Iphiclus, although Iphiclus himself had been dead
a long time, and his son Phylacus now owned them. They were guarded
by a great fierce dog with a terrific voice, and if anyone came to
try and steal them, he barked so loudly that all the servants of
Phylacus came rushing out to seize the thief and carry him off to
prison. Nor could Phylacus be induced to part with the cattle for
any sum of money; so when the suitors heard that the king insisted
upon having the cattle of Iphiclus, they thought it was a hopeless
case and went away home again.
Now amongst those who came to sue for the hand of the beautiful Pero,
there was a man named Bias, the brother of Melampus, who loved her so
dearly and wished so much to have her for his wife, that he lost all
his spirits and fell into deep despondency because he could not think
of any means of obtaining the cattle. Melampus had a great affection
for his brother and longed to help him in this difficulty, so he
asked the birds if there was any way by which he could succeed in
procuring the cattle for Bias. The birds answered that if he would
be willing to be seized {70} by the servants and put into prison for
a year, he would be able to obtain the cattle at the end of that
time. Melarnpus was quite ready to do this for his brother, and he
set out at once, promising Bias that at the end of the year he would
return with the beautiful herd. When he came to the field where the
cattle of Iphiclus were grazing, it happened to him just as the birds
had foretold, and he was taken prisoner by the servants and thrust
into a dark dungeon. He could never see the sun there, but he was
able to count the days, for he could hear the birds singing, and when
they began to chirp in the morning, he knew that a new day must have
dawned upon the earth. At last, when there was only one day wanting
to make up the full year, he heard some wood-worms talking together
in one of the rafters of the house, and he listened to what they were
saying. One asked, 'Have you nearly finished the work?' and the
others answered, 'Before the sun goes down, the beam will be eaten
through and the house must fall.' Then Melampus understood that the
house was not safe, and he called the gaoler and told him that they
ought both to leave it without delay, for that before the setting of
the sun it would fall. The gaoler was not inclined to believe him,
for the house appeared to be in perfect condition, but Melampus would
not leave off warning and entreating him, and at last he took him to
another prison. They had scarcely left the house when they heard a
great noise, and as they looked back it fell in ruins. The gaoler
was very much astonished that Melampus should have known of this
beforehand, and he told King Phylacus about it.
The old king was at this time in great sorrow on {71} account of his
son, who was named Iphiclus after his grandfather. He had been
married for many years, but the gods gave him no children, and the
old king feared that after his death the kingdom would fall into the
hands of a stranger instead of being still governed by one of his own
race. He did not know why the gods were angry with his son, and no
one was able to tell him. When therefore he heard from the gaoler
how Melampus had foretold the downfall of the prison, he thought that
he must be a wise man, and he asked him whether he could find any
means of freeing him from his anxiety. Melarnpus answered that he
would try to do so if the king would promise him the beautiful cattle
as his reward, and Phylacus did not think this too great a price, but
swore to give them to him. Melampus then begged that the king's
servants might kill a cow and cut it in pieces, and that they would
take him to an open field, and leave him alone with the flesh beside
him. They did as he wished, and when the servants had gone away, a
number of birds of all sizes came flocking towards the pieces of
flesh. Melampus, however, would not let them come too near, but kept
them off with a stick, and said, 'Whichever of you can tell me why
the gods are angry with Iphiclus the Younger, shall have the best
piece of meat as a reward.' Then an old raven, nearly a hundred
years old, began to croak and said, 'When Iphiclus was a little boy,
his father placed a sacrifice under a sacred oak, but found himself
obliged to return to the house for something he had forgotten.
Meanwhile the little Iphiclus was left alone, and he took the
sacrificial knife and thrust it into the oak because he was {72}
frightened at the way it glittered. I was sitting on the tree
looking on when he did this. In the course of time, however, the
bark has quite grown over the knife, so that it cannot now be seen.'
Melampus gave the raven a great piece of flesh, and he took it in his
claws and flew away with it, and Melampus said, 'Whichever of you can
tell me how this maybe expiated, shall have the next best piece.'
Then a vulture came forward who was skilled in medicine, and a
physician among the birds, and who knew how to give counsel, and he
said, 'You must dig the knife out of the tree, and when you have
found it, scrape off the rust and pour it into a bowl of wine. Let
the king's son drink that, and then the gods will send him an heir.'
The vulture received the second best piece, and Melampus went away,
leaving the birds to feast upon the remainder of the flesh. He went
back to the palace and asked for an axe, with which he struck the
oak, and at the first stroke he discovered the knife. It was quite
red with rust, and he drew it out and scraped off the rust into a
bowl of wine and told the king that his son must drink some of this
every morning for ten days, and then the gods would be gracious to
him. Some time after this the wife of Iphiclus had a little son,
which was a great joy to the old king.
He did not fail to give Melampus the reward he had promised, and Bias
took the cattle to the palace of Neleus and again asked to be allowed
to marry the beautiful Pero. The king made no further objection, and
the wedding was celebrated that very same day.
The god Apollo loved Melampus because he was a {73} good man, and he
gifted him with the art of knowing the future by means of various
signs, and of understanding how to propitiate the wrath of the gods.
Many people came to ask advice of him when they were in trouble or
difficulty, and among others, Proetus the king of Argos, sent to beg
for his help, for he was in great distress. This king had three
daughters who were beautiful and virtuous, but they refused to offer
sacrifices to the god Dionysus, and therefore Dionysus punished them
by taking away their reason, so that they became mad. They ran about
the city, dancing and screaming and tearing their clothes, and if
anyone tried to restrain them they became wilder still, and foamed at
the mouth, so that no one could see them without feeling deeply
grieved. It was on account of this that Proetus sent to Melampus to
beg him to make his daughters well again. Melampus agreed to do so
if the king would promise him a third of his dominions as a reward;
but when Proetus heard of the condition, avarice prevailed over his
love for his daughters, and he refused to part with any of his land.
But the evil became worse and worse, for all the women in the country
were seized with the same disease as the princesses, and ran about
the streets and fields, raging as if they were intoxicated. Many had
taken their little children with them, thinking that they were young
deer which they must sacrifice to Dionysus, and it was a ghastly
sight to see them murder their own children, not knowing what they
were doing. The whole land was in such great trouble that the king
sent a messenger to tell Melampus that he would give him the third
part of his dominions if he would put an end to the misery, but
Melampus {74} now said that he must also give his brother Bias a
third, or he would do nothing for him. The king was very loth to
give away so much fertile territory, but he feared that he might at
last be obliged to win over Melampus at any price, and perhaps lose
his whole kingdom, so he promised to give him what he asked. Then
Melarnpus went to Argos and placed himself at the head of all the
young men in the city, whom he had told beforehand what they were to
do. They marched out of the city in an orderly band, till they met
the raving women who had formed themselves into a sort of wild army
with the princesses at their head. As soon as they saw the army of
youths they took flight, and the men pursued them, shouting as if
they were at war, till they reached the sea and could go no farther.
Then Melampus offered many sacrifices, until the gods were
propitiated and the women had their reason restored. After this,
they all returned to the city. The eldest princess, who was the most
afflicted of all, had fallen down dead during the chase, but the
other two came back to the palace and lived with their father as
before, and from this time they honoured Dionysus and offered
sacrifices to him.
Melampus and Bias now became princes, and they ruled over the land
which King Proetus gave them according to his promise.
{75}
XXI.
TANTALUS. PELOPS.
In the land of Phrygia, which lies in Asia Minor, there was once a
king named Tantalus, whom the gods loaded with all manner of favours.
They gave him great wealth, so that he was richer than any other
king, and they treated him as a friend and came to his house as
guests, and sometimes they allowed him to ascend to Mount Olympus in
one of their chariots and to drink nectar and eat ambrosia at their
table. But Tantalus was presumptuous, and turned the friendship with
which the gods honoured him to bad uses, for he stole nectar and
ambrosia and gave them to other men to taste, and he also repeated
things that he had heard the gods speak of among themselves, about
which he ought to have kept silence. He even once invited the gods
to a banquet in order to try and deceive them, and for this purpose
he killed his beautiful young son Pelops, and cut him in pieces and
roasted the flesh; and when the gods sat down to the banquet he
brought in the flesh and laid it before them, thinking that they
would eat it without knowing what it was. The goddess Demeter was at
this time in great trouble because her daughter Persephone had been
stolen away from her, and as she sat buried in sad thoughts, she eat
a {76} shoulder-piece without paying attention to what she was doing.
But the other gods did not eat any of the flesh, for they knew
directly what it was, and they were very angry with Tantalus. Zeus
commanded that Pelops should come to life again, and he was even more
beautiful than before, but his right shoulder was missing, for
Demeter had eaten it. The goddess could not replace it, but she took
a piece of ivory and cut out a shoulder, which she fitted into the
right place, so that it looked like the other limbs, only it was more
white and shining.
After this the gods would have nothing more to do with Tantalus, and
as they no longer blessed his fields or flocks, his prosperity was
now at an end, for the fields produced miserable crops, and the
flocks were diminished by plagues and diseases, and also by the
ravages of wolves and lions. Tantalus became worse and worse, and
committed many other crimes, and after his death the gods laid upon
him a never-ending punishment. He found himself standing in
beautiful clear water which reached up to his chin, and close above
his head there hung branches of magnificent fruit trees quite weighed
down with the quantity of fruit they bore, but whenever he tried to
sip the water it sank before him till there was nothing to be seen
but the black earth, and whenever he tried to gather some fruit the
branches raised themselves into the air, so that though he was
parched with thirst and was perpetually straining to quench it, if
but for a moment, he was never able to reach either the water or the
fruit.[1]
{77}
After the death of Tantalus, his son Pelops was king of Phrygia. But
there came another king, with an army of soldiers, who fought against
him and drove him away, so that he was obliged to leave his country
and travel into strange lands. After some time he came to the city
of Elis, in Greece, where at that time, there was a king called
Oenomaus who had a lovely daughter named Hippodamia. A great many
heroes desired to marry her, and the king had sent to ask the Oracle
which of them he should choose for her husband, but the answer that
he received was that when his daughter married, he himself would die.
He at once determined that his daughter should never marry; and as he
had two horses that could run like the wind and there were none in
the whole country that could compare with them in speed, he said that
anyone who wished to marry his daughter must compete with him in a
chariot race, and if he won the race he should have the maiden for
his wife, but if he failed to do so he must die. Hippodamia was so
beautiful that many heroes were willing to risk their lives for the
chance of winning her, and agreed to the conditions. At some
distance from the city there stood an altar to Poseidon, which was
the goal, and on each occasion the princess drove with the suitor for
her hand. Oenomaus used to let them start on in front whilst he
remained behind to sacrifice a ram to the gods, and when the
sacrifice was offered, he mounted the chariot with his lance in his
hand, and urged on the horses to their utmost speed. The race never
lasted long, for he very soon overtook the suitor and pierced him
through the back with his lance, so that he fell down dead from the
chariot.
{78}
Thirteen heroes had already lost their lives, and Oenomaus thought
that he had found a very good way of preventing his daughter from
ever being married. But Pelops heard of the beautiful Hippodamia,
and though he heard, too, of the cruel king who put all her suitors
to death, he resolved to set out for Elis and try his chance of
winning the maiden, for he was a true hero, brave and fearless. It
was a prize well worth trying for, for whoever won it would not only
have the beautiful princess for his wife, but would also inherit the
kingdom, for Oenomaus had no other child. Pelops came to Elis, and
Oenomaus told him, as he had told the others, that he must be
prepared to race with him, and fixed the race for the following day.
The king had outrun many swifter horses than those of Pelops, and if
the hero had not set to work cunningly he must have lost his life,
but he had thought of a plan by which he might get the better of the
king, if he could secure the help of the man to whom was entrusted
the care of the horses and chariot of Oenomaus. He watched until
this man took the horses to bathe in the river, and he followed him
there to have an opportunity of speaking to him privately and
promised him a great reward if, on the next day, he would leave out
some necessary part of the king's equipment, so that he might be
delayed in the race. Oenomaus was such a cruel man that his servants
had no affection for him, and the man promised Pelops that he would
help him to win the race.
The next day, many people came to the open space outside the city
where the race was to be run. They felt sorry for the hero, for his
horses were far less {79} strong and spirited than those of the king,
which pawed the ground with impatience, and snuffed the air in their
eagerness to set out. Oenomaus told his daughter to get into the
chariot with Pelops, and when he had the beautiful maiden sitting by
his side, Pelops felt how happy he would be if he could obtain her
for his wife, and he urged on his horses with all his might.
Meanwhile Oenomaus took a sacrificial knife and killed a ram, and
then he laid a part of the flesh in the flame of the fire that burnt
on the altar, and prayed to the gods to enable him to get the better
of Pelops and kill him. When the sacrifice was ended, he mounted his
chariot, with the reins in his left hand and a sharp-pointed lance in
his right hand, and the moment he shook the reins, the horses started
off at their utmost speed, and the chariot could not be seen for the
dust that it raised. He came close to Pelops, and raised his lance
to smite him. But the unfaithful servant had taken out the nails
which prevent the wheel from slipping off the axle, and just as
Oenomaus was overtaking the other chariot, the wheel rolled on one
side, and the chariot turned over. The king was thrown out, and he
fell upon a stone and was killed instantly.
So Pelops was the victor, and the sentence of the Oracle was
fulfilled. As soon as the beautiful Hippodamia had ended her
mourning for her father, she was married to Pelops, who became king
of Elis and ruled the country well and wisely. Long after his death
the Greeks still remembered him, and named the great peninsula in
which Elis lies, Peloponnesus, or the Island of Pelops.
[1] From this story comes the English word 'to tantalize.'
{80}
XXII.
NIOBE.
Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus, and the wife of King Amphion, who
by means of his singing and playing had built a wall round Thebes.[1]
She and her husband were rich and prosperous, but beyond all their
other treasures they prized their twelve noble and beautiful
children. There were six sons and six daughters, and they were the
pride of Niobe's heart. She looked down upon all other women because
they were none of them so fortunate as herself, and once she even
dared to say that she was superior to the goddess Leto, for that Leto
had only two children, and she had six times as many. When Leto
heard this she was stung to the quick, and she went weeping to her
children and told them of it. These children were the god Apollo and
the goddess Artemis, and they were very angry with Niobe for vexing
their mother, and resolved to punish her for her pride.
One day the sons of Niobe were in the courtyard wrestling with each
other, for they were skilled in wrestling as becomes young heroes,
and the mother and {81} sisters were standing by, watching them. All
at once one of the youths groaned, sank down, and died. He had been
hit by one of the arrows of Apollo, which were invisible and deadly,
killing instantly whoever was hit by them. The mother, brothers and
sisters gathered round the youth, unable to believe that he was dead,
when suddenly a maiden sank upon her knees, heaved a sigh, and died
also. She had been hit by one of the arrows of Artemis, which were
invisible like those of Apollo. Son after son, and daughter after
daughter was killed by the unseen arrows, and Niobe knew that this
was a punishment for her pride. The youth who was first struck down
was not yet cold when the only one of all her children left to Niobe
was the youngest daughter, whom she loved best of all. The little
girl had always found protection in her mother's lap, and now, when
the fear that she must die like her brothers and sisters came over
her, she ran to her mother and clung to her knees for shelter. Niobe
took her up in her arms, and wrapping her veil round her as if it
could shield her from the unseen enemy, she looked up to heaven and
cried from her inmost soul, 'Spare me but this one!' But at that
moment she felt her daughter convulsed in her arms, and the last of
her children was dead.
There was great distress throughout the city. King Amphion tore his
hair and threw himself on the earth with frantic cries of grief, and
the citizens wept and lamented. But Niobe shed no tears, no word of
sorrow came out of her mouth, and she kept her eyes fixed on the
ground, still clasping her youngest daughter to her {82} breast,
while the other corpses lay around her. The night came on and the
others went into the house, but Niobe remained standing in the
starlight amongst her dead children, and when the people came back in
the morning, she had turned to stone.
[1] See p. 50.
{83}
XXIII.
MELEAGER AND ATALANTA.
King Oeneus lived in the city of Calydon with his wife Althaea, and
they had already several children when another little son was born to
them. When the child was about seven days old, his mother awoke one
night and saw a fire burning on the hearth, and by the fire three
women standing, who were taller and statelier than any women she had
ever seen before: they were the three Fates, who are the goddesses
that decide whether the lives of men shall be brightened by happiness
or made heavy with misfortune. One of them said, 'I gift this child
with bravery.' The second said, 'I bestow upon him a generous
heart.' The third said, 'I grant him life until the day when this
firebrand shall be burnt to ashes.' Then they all disappeared, and
Althaea, to once got up and took the piece of stick from the fire,
and when she had put it out by pouring water upon it, she stowed it
away in the chest where she kept her most precious treasures. The
parents named their child Meleager, and he grew up to be a strong and
noble youth, fond of the chase and of war.
After Meleager had become a man, it happened one year that King
Oeneus raised a number of altars of green turf in the fields at
harvest-time, and placed on {84} each altar some of the corn that was
first cut, in order to show his gratitude to the gods for having
caused the fruits of the earth to grow and ripen; every god and every
goddess had an altar except Artemis the goddess of the chase, who was
forgotten. She was very angry with the king on account of this, and
sent a fierce wild boar to destroy his land. This boar was much
larger than any other that had ever been seen, and he had two long
pointed tusks which made him very frightful to look at. He roamed
about the country, and wherever he found a newly-sown field he tore
up the ground and laid it waste, and he ripped open the young trees
with his tusks, and broke in among the flocks, killing men and
cattle. He was so fierce and powerful that no hunter had courage to
attack him, and at last the evil became so serious that the king sent
messengers to a number of heroes to ask them to come to Calydon, and
all set out together to hunt the boar. All who were summoned
promised to come, and at the appointed time they assembled at
Calydon. There came also a maiden who was armed with a
hunting-spear, and who would not play with the king's daughters, but
said she wished to go to the hunt with the heroes.