[208] Homer, Iliad, xix. 90-133; also viii. 361.—

Τὴν αἰεὶ στενάχεσχ᾽, ὅθ᾽ ἑὸν φίλον υἱὸν ὁρῷτο

Ἔργον ἀεικὲς ἔχοντα, ὑπ᾽ Εὐρυσθῆος ἀέθλων.

The legend, of unquestionable antiquity, here transcribed from the

Iliad, is one of the most pregnant and characteristic in the Grecian

mythology. It explains, according to the religious ideas familiar to

the old epic poets, both the distinguishing attributes and the endless

toil and endurances of Hêraklês,—the most renowned and most ubiquitous

of all the semi-divine personages worshipped by the Hellênes,—a being

of irresistible force, and especially beloved by Zeus, yet condemned

constantly to labor for others and to obey the commands of a worthless

and cowardly persecutor. His recompense is reserved to the close of

his career, when his afflicting trials are brought to a close: he is

then admitted to the godhead and receives in marriage Hêbê.[209] The

twelve labors, as they are called, too notorious to be here detailed,

form a very small fraction of the exploits of this mighty being, which

filled the Hêrakleian epics of the ancient poets. He is found not

only in most parts of Hellas, but throughout all the other regions

then known to the Greeks, from Gadês to the river Thermôdôn in the

Euxine and to Scythia, overcoming all difficulties and vanquishing

all opponents. Distinguished families are everywhere to be traced

who bear his patronymic, and glory in the belief that they are his

descendants. Among Achæans, Kadmeians, and Dôrians, Hêraklês is

venerated: the latter especially treat him as their principal hero,—the

Patron Hero-God of the race: the Hêrakleids form among all Dôrians a

privileged gens, in which at Sparta the special lineage of the two

kings was included.

His character lends itself to mythes countless in number as well as

disparate in their character. The irresistible force remains constant,

but it is sometimes applied with reckless violence against friends as

well as enemies, sometimes devoted to the relief of the oppressed. The

comic writers often brought him out as a coarse and stupid glutton,

while the Athênian philosopher Prodikos, without at all distorting

the type, extracted from it the simple, impressive, and imperishable

apologue still known as the Choice of Hercules.

After the death and apotheosis of Hêraklês, his son Hyllos and his

other children were expelled and persecuted by Eurystheus: the fear of

his vengeance deterred both the Trachinian king Kêyx and the Thêbans

from harboring them, and the Athênians alone were generous enough to

brave the risk of offering them shelter. Eurystheus invaded Attica,

but perished in the attempt by the hand of Hyllos, or by that of

Iolaos, the old companion and nephew of Hêraklês.[210] The chivalrous

courage which the Athênians had on this occasion displayed in behalf

of oppressed innocence, was a favorite theme for subsequent eulogy by

Attic poets and orators.

[209] Hesiod, Theogon. 951, τελέσας στονόεντας ἀέθλους. Hom.

Odyss. xi. 620; Hesiod, Eœæ, Fragm. 24, Düntzer, p. 36,

πονηρότατον καὶ ἄριστον.

[210] Apollod. ii. 8, 1; Hecatæ. ap. Longin. c. 27; Diodôr. iv.

57.

All the sons of Eurystheus lost their lives in the battle along with

him, so that the Perseid family was now represented only by the

Hêrakleids, who collected an army and endeavored to recover the

possessions from which they had been expelled. The united forces of

Iônians, Achæans, and Arcadians, then inhabiting Peloponnêsus, met

the invaders at the isthmus, when Hyllos, the eldest of the sons of

Hêraklês, proposed that the contest should be determined by a single

combat between himself and any champion of the opposing army. It

was agreed, that if Hyllos were victorious, the Hêrakleids should

be restored to their possessions—if he were vanquished, that they

should forego all claim for the space of a hundred years, or fifty

years, or three generations,—for in the specification of the time,

accounts differ. Echemos, the hero of Tegea in Arcadia, accepted the

challenge, and Hyllos was slain in the encounter; in consequence of

which the Hêrakleids retired, and resided along with the Dôrians

under the protection of Ægimios, son of Dôrus.[211] As soon as the

stipulated period of truce had expired, they renewed their attempt upon

Peloponnêsus conjointly with the Dôrians, and with complete success:

the great Dôrian establishments of Argos, Sparta, and Messênia were

the result. The details of this victorious invasion will be hereafter

recounted.

[211] Herodot. ix. 26; Diodôr. iv. 58.

Sikyôn, Phlios, Epidauros, and Trœzen[212] all boasted of respected

eponyms and a genealogy of dignified length, not exempt from the usual

discrepancies—but all just as much entitled to a place on the tablet

of history as the more renowned Æolids or Hêrakleids. I omit them here

because I wish to impress upon the reader’s mind the salient features

and character of the legendary world,—not to load his memory with a

full list of legendary names.

[212] Pausan. ii. 5, 5; 12, 5; 26, 3. His statements indicate how

much the predominance of a powerful neighbor like Argos tended to

alter the genealogies of these inferior towns.

CHAPTER V.

DEUKALION, HELLEN, AND SONS OF HELLEN.

In the Hesiodic Theogony, as well as in the “Works and Days,” the

legend of Promêtheus and Epimêtheus presents an import religious,

ethical, and social, and in this sense it is carried forward by

Æschylus; but to neither of the characters is any genealogical function

assigned. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women brought both of them into the

stream of Grecian legendary lineage, representing Deukaliôn as the son

of Promêtheus and Pandôra, and seemingly his wife Pyrrha as daughter of

Epimêtheus.[213]

[213] Schol. ad Apollôn. Rhod. iii. 1085. Other accounts of the

genealogy of Deukaliôn are given in the Schol. ad Homer. Odyss.

x. 2, on the authority both of Hesiod and Akusilaus.

Deukaliôn is important in Grecian mythical narrative under two points

of view. First, he is the person specially saved at the time of the

general deluge: next, he is the father of Hellên, the great eponym of

the Hellenic race; at least this was the more current story, though

there were other statements which made Hellên the son of Zeus.

The name of Deukaliôn is originally connected with the Lokrian towns

of Kynos and Opus, and with the race of the Leleges, but he appears

finally as settled in Thessaly, and ruling in the portion of that

country called Phthiôtis.[214] According to what seems to have been the

old legendary account, it is the deluge which transferred him from the

one to the other; but according to another statement, framed in more

historicizing times, he conducted a body of Kurêtes and Leleges into

Thessaly, and expelled the prior Pelasgian occupants.[215]

[214] Hesiodic Catalog. Fragm. xi.; Gaisf. lxx. Düntzer—

Ἤτοι γὰρ Λοκρὸς Λελέγων ἡγήσατο λαῶν,

Τούς ῥά ποτε Κρονίδης Ζεὺς ἄφθιτα μήδεα εἰδὼς,

Λεκτοὺς ἐκ γαίης λάας πόρε Δευκαλίωνι.

The reputed lineage of Deukaliôn continued in Phthia down to

the time of Dikæarchus, if we may judge from the old Phthiot

Pherekratês, whom he introduced in one of his dialogues as a

disputant, and whom he expressly announced as a descendant of

Deukaliôn (Cicero, Tuscul. Disp. i. 10).

[215] The latter account is given by Dionys. Halic. i. 17; the

former seems to have been given by Hellanikus, who affirmed that

the ark after the deluge stopped upon Mount Othrys, and not

upon Mount Parnassus (Schol. Pind. _ut. sup._) the former being

suitable for a settlement in Thessaly.

Pyrrha is the eponymous heroine of Pyrrhæa or Pyrrha, the ancient

name of a portion of Thessaly (Rhianus, Fragm. 18, p. 71, ed.

Düntzer).

Hellanikus had written a work, now lost, entitled Δευκαλιώνεια:

all the fragments of it which are cited have reference to places

in Thessaly, Lokris and Phokis. See Preller, ad Hellanitum, p.

12 (Dörpt. 1840). Probably Hellanikus is the main source of the

important position occupied by Deukaliôn in Grecian legend.

Thrasybulus and Akestodôrus represented Deukaliôn as having

founded the oracle of Dôdôna, immediately after the deluge (Etm.

Mag. v. Δωδωναῖος).

The enormous iniquity with which earth was contaminated—as Apollodôrus

says, by the then existing brazen race, or as others say, by the fifty

monstrous sons of Lykaôn—provoked Zeus to send a general deluge.[216]

An unremitting and terrible rain laid the whole of Greece under water,

except the highest mountain-tops, whereon a few stragglers found

refuge. Deukaliôn was saved in a chest or ark, which he had been

forewarned by his father Promêtheus to construct. After floating for

nine days on the water, he at length landed on the summit of Mount

Parnassus. Zeus having sent Hermês to him, promising to grant whatever

he asked, he prayed that men and companions might be sent to him in

his solitude: accordingly Zeus directed both him and Pyrrha to cast

stones over their heads: those cast by Pyrrha became women, those by

Deukaliôn men. And thus the “stony race of men” (if we may be allowed

to translate an etymology which the Greek language presents exactly,

and which has not been disdained by Hesiod, by Pindar, by Epicharmus,

and by Virgil) came to tenant the soil of Greece.[217] Deukaliôn on

landing from the ark sacrificed a grateful offering to Zeus Phyxios,

or the God of escape; he also erected altars in Thessaly to the twelve

great gods of Olympus.[218]

[216] Apollodôrus connects this deluge with the wickedness of the

brazen race in Hesiod, according to the practice general with

the logographers of stringing together a sequence out of legends

totally unconnected with each other (i. 7, 2).

[217] Hesiod, Fragm. 135. ed. Markts. ap. Strabo. vii. p. 322,

where the word λάας, proposed by Heyne as the reading of the

unintelligible text, appears to me preferable to any of the

other suggestions. Pindar, Olymp. ix. 47. Ἄτερ δ᾽ Εὐνᾶς ὁμόδαμον

Κτησάσθαν λίθινον γόνον· Λαοὶ δ᾽ ὠνόμασθεν. Virgil, Georgic i.

63. “Unde homines nati, durum genus.” Epicharmus ap. Schol.

Pindar. Olymp. ix. 56. Hygin. f. 153. Philochorus retained the

etymology, though he gave a totally different fable, nowise

connected with Deukaliôn, to account for it; a curious proof how

pleasing it was to the fancy of the Greek (see Schol. ad Pind. 1.

c. 68).

[218] Apollod. i. 7, 2. Hellanic. Fragm. 15. Didot. Hellanikus

affirmed that the ark rested on Mount Othrys, not on Mount

Parnassus (Fragm. 16. Didot). Servius (ad Virgil. Eclog. vi. 41)

placed it on Mount Athôs—Hyginus (f. 153) on Mount Ætna.

The reality of this deluge was firmly believed throughout the

historical ages of Greece: the chronologers, reckoning up by

genealogies, assigned the exact date of it, and placed it at the

same time as the conflagration of the world by the rashness of

Phaëtôn, during the reign of Krotôpas king of Argus, the seventh from

Inachus.[219] The meteorological work of Aristotle admits and reasons

upon this deluge as an unquestionable fact, though he alters the

locality by placing it west of Mount Pindus, near Dôdôna and the river

Achelôus.[220] He at the same time treats it as a physical phenomenon,

the result of periodical cycles in the atmosphere, thus departing from

the religious character of the old legend, which described it as a

judgment inflicted by Zeus upon a wicked race. Statements founded upon

this event were in circulation throughout Greece even to a very late

date. The Megarians affirmed that Megaros, their hero, son of Zeus by

a local nymph, had found safety from the waters on the lofty summit

of their mountain Geraneia, which had not been completely submerged.

And in the magnificent temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens, a cavity

in the earth was shown, through which it was affirmed that the waters

of the deluge had retired. Even in the time of Pausanias, the priests

poured into this cavity holy offerings of meal and honey.[221] In this,

as in other parts of Greece, the idea of the Deukalionian deluge was

blended with the religious impressions of the people and commemorated

by their sacred ceremonies.

[219] Tatian adv. Græc. c. 60, adopted both by Clemens and

Eusebius. The Parian marble placed this deluge in the reign of

Kranaos at Athens, 752 years before the first recorded Olympiad,

and 1528 years before the Christian æra; Apollodôrus also places

it in the reign of Kranaos, and in that of Nyctimus in Arcadia

(iii. 8, 2; 14, 5).

The deluge and the _ekpyrosis_ or conflagration are connected

together also in Servius ad Virgil. Bucol. vi. 41: he refines

both of them into a “mutationem temporum.”

[220] Aristot. Meteorol. i. 14. Justin rationalizes the fable

by telling us that Deukaliôn was king of Thessaly, who provided

shelter and protection to the fugitives from the deluge (ii. 6,

11).

[221] Pausan. i. 18, 7; 40, 1. According to the Parian marble (s.

5), Deukaliôn had come to Athens after the deluge, and had there

himself founded the temple of the Olympian Zeus. The etymology

and allegorization of the names of Deukaliôn and Pyrrha, given by

Völcker in his ingenious Mythologie des Iapetischen Geschlechts

(Giessen, 1824), p. 343, appears to me not at all convincing.

The offspring of Deukaliôn and Pyrrha were two sons, Hellên and

Amphiktyôn, and a daughter, Prôtogeneia, whose son by Zeus was

Aëthlius: it was however maintained by many, that Hellên was the

son of Zeus and not of Deukaliôn. Hellên had by a nymph three sons,

Dôrus, Xuthus, and Æolus. He gave to those who had been before called

Greeks,[222] the name of Hellênes, and partitioned his territory

among his three children. Æolus reigned in Thessaly; Xuthus received

Peloponnêsus, and had by Creüsa as his sons, Achæus and Iôn; while

Dôrus occupied the country lying opposite to the Peloponnêsus, on

the northern side of the Corinthian Gulf. These three gave to the

inhabitants of their respective countries the names of Æolians, Achæans

and Iônians, and Dôrians.[223]

[222] Such is the statement of Apollodôrus (i. 7, 3); but I

cannot bring myself to believe that the name (Γραϊκοὶ) Greeks is

at all old in the legend, or that the passage of Hesiod, in which

Græcus and Latinus purport to be mentioned, is genuine.

See Hesiod, Theogon. 1013, and Catalog. Fragm. xxix. ed.

Göttling, with the note of Göttling; also Wachsmuth, Hellen.

Alterth. i. 1. p. 311, and Bernhardy, Griech. Literat. vol. i. p.

167.

[223] Apollod. i. 7, 4.

Such is the genealogy as we find it in Apollodôrus. In so far as

the names and filiation are concerned, many points in it are given

differently, or implicitly contradicted, by Euripidês and other

writers. Though as literal and personal history it deserves no notice,

its import is both intelligible and comprehensive. It expounds and

symbolizes the first fraternal aggregation of Hellênic men, together

with their territorial distribution and the institutions which they

collectively venerated.

There were two great holding-points in common for every section of

Greeks. One was the Amphiktyonic assembly, which met half-yearly,

alternately at Delphi and at Thermopylæ; originally and chiefly for

common religious purposes, but indirectly and occasionally embracing

political and social objects along with them. The other was, the public

festivals or games, of which the Olympic came first in importance;

next, the Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian,—institutions which combined

religious solemnities with recreative effusion and hearty sympathies,

in a manner so imposing and so unparalleled. Amphiktyôn represents

the first of these institutions, and Aëthlius the second. As the

Amphiktyonic assembly was always especially connected with Thermopylæ

and Thessaly, Amphiktyôn is made the son of the Thessalian Deukaliôn;

but as the Olympic festival was nowise locally connected with

Deukaliôn, Aëthlius is represented as having Zeus for his father, and

as touching Deukaliôn only through the maternal line. It will be seen

presently, that the only matter predicted respecting Aëthlius is, that

he settled in the territory of Elis, and begat Endymiôn: this brings

him into local contact with the Olympic games, and his function is then

ended.

Having thus got Hellas as an aggregate with its main cementing forces,

we march on to its subdivision into parts, through Æolus, Dôrus and

Xuthus, the three sons of Hellen;[224] a distribution which is far

from being exhaustive: nevertheless, the genealogists whom Apollodôrus

follows recognize no more than three sons.

[224] How literally and implicitly even the ablest Greeks

believed in eponymous persons, such as Hellên and Iôn, as the

real progenitors of the races called after him, may be seen by

this, that Aristotle gives this common descent as the definition

of γένος (Metaphysic. iv. p. 118, Brandis):—

Γένος λέγεται, τὸ μὲν ... τὸ δὲ, ἀφ᾽ οὗ ἂν ὦσι πρώτου κινήσαντος

εἰς τὸ εἶναι. Οὕτω γὰρ λέγονται οἱ μὲν, Ἕλληνες τὸ γένος, οἱ δὲ,

Ἴωνες· τῷ, οἱ μὲν ἀπὸ Ἕλληνος, οἱ δὲ ἀπὸ Ἴωνος, εἶναι πρώτου

γεννήσαντος.

The genealogy is essentially post-Homeric; for Homer knows Hellas and

the Hellênes only in connection with a portion of Achaia Phthiôtis.

But as it is recognized in the Hesiodic Catalogue[225]—composed

probably within the first century after the commencement of recorded

Olympiads, or before 676 B. C.—the peculiarities of it, dating from

so early a period, deserve much attention. We may remark, first,

that it seems to exhibit to us Dôrus and Æolus as the only pure and

genuine offspring of Hellên. For their brother Xuthus is not enrolled

as an eponymus; he neither founds nor names any people; it is only

his sons Achæus and Iôn, after his blood has been mingled with that

of the Erechtheid Kreüsa, who become eponyms and founders, each of

his own separate people. Next, as to the territorial distribution,

Xuthus receives Peloponnêsus from his father, and unites himself with

Attica (which the author of this genealogy seems to have conceived as

originally unconnected with Hellên) by his marriage with the daughter

of the indigenous hero, Erechtheus. The issue of this marriage, Achæus

and Iôn, present to us the population of Peloponnêsus and Attica

conjointly as related among themselves by the tie of brotherhood, but

as one degree more distant both from Dôrians and Æolians. Æolus reigns

over the regions about Thessaly, and called the people in those parts

Æolians; while Dôrus occupies “the country over against Peloponnêsus on

the opposite side of the Corinthian Gulf,” and calls the inhabitants

after himself, Dôrians.[226] It is at once evident that this

designation is in no way applicable to the confined district between

Parnassus and Œta, which alone is known by the name of Dôris, and its

inhabitants by that of Dôrians, in the historical ages. In the view of

the author of this genealogy, the Dôrians are the original occupants of

the large range of territory north of the Corinthian Gulf, comprising

Ætôlia, Phôkis, and the territory of the Ozolian Lokrians. And this

farther harmonizes with the other legend noticed by Apollodôrus,

when he states that Ætolus, son of Endymiôn, having been forced to

expatriate from Peloponnêsus, crossed into the Kurêtid territory,[227]

and was there hospitably received by Dôrus, Laodokus and Polypœtês,

sons of Apollo and Phthia. He slew his hosts, acquired the territory,

and gave to it the name of Ætôlia: his son Pleurôn married Xanthippê,

daughter of Dôrus; while his other son, Kalydôn, marries Æolia,

daughter of Amythaôn. Here again we have the name of Dôrus, or the

Dôrians, connected with the tract subsequently termed Ætôlia. That

Dôrus should in one place be called the son of Apollo and Phthia,

and in another place the son of Hellên by a nymph, will surprise no

one accustomed to the fluctuating personal nomenclature of these old

legends: moreover the name of Phthia is easy to reconcile with that of

Hellên, as both are identified with the same portion of Thessaly, even

from the days of the Iliad.

[225] Hesiod, Fragm. 8. p. 278, ed. Marktsch.—

Ἕλληνος δ᾽ ἐγένοντο θεμιστόπολοι βασιλῆες

Δῶρός τε, Ξοῦθός τε, καὶ Αἴολος ἱππιοχάρμης.

Αἰολίδαι δ᾽ ἐγένοντο θεμιστόπολοι βασιλῆες

Κρηθεὺς ἠδ᾽ Ἀθάμας καὶ Σίσυφος αἰολομήτης

Σαλμωνεύς τ᾽ ἄδικος καὶ ὑπέρθυμος Περιήρης.

[226] Apollod. i. 7, 3. Ἕλληνος δὲ καὶ Νύμφης Ὀρσήϊδος (?),

Δῶρος, Ξοῦθος, Αἴολος. Αὐτὸς μὲν οὖν ἀφ᾽ αὑτοῦ τοὺς καλουμένους

Γραϊκοὺς προσηγόρευσεν Ἕλληνας, τοῖς δὲ παισὶν ἐμέρισε τὴν χώραν.

Καὶ Ξοῦθος μὲν λαβὼν τὴν Πελοπόννησον, ἐκ Κρεούσης τῆς Ἐρεχθέως

Ἀχαιὸν ἐγέννησε καὶ Ἴωνα, ἀφ᾽ ὧν Ἀχαιοὶ καὶ Ἴωνες καλοῦνται.

Δῶρος δὲ, ~τὴν πέραν χώραν Πελοποννήσου λαβὼν, τοὺς κατοίκους

ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ Δωριεῖς ἐκάλεσεν~. Αἴολος δὲ, βασιλεύων τῶν περὶ τὴν

Θετταλίαν τόπων, τοὺς ἐνοικοῦντας Αἰολεῖς προσηγόρευσε.

Strabo (viii. p. 383) and Conôn (Narr. 27), who evidently copy

from the same source, represent Dôrus as going to settle in the

territory property known as Dôris.

[227] Apollod. i. 7, 6. Αἰτωλὸς ... φυγὼν εἰς τὴν Κουρήτιδα

χώραν, κτείνας τοὺς ὑποδεξαμένους Φθίας καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος υἱοὺς,

Δῶρον καὶ Λαόδοκον καὶ Πολυποίτην, ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ τὴν χώραν Αἰτωλίαν

ἐκάλεσε. Again, i. 8, 1. Πλευρὼν (son of Ætôlus) γήμας Ξανθίππην

τὴν Δώρου, παῖδα ἐγέννησεν Ἀγήνορα.

This story, that the Dôrians were at one time the occupants, or

the chief occupants, of the range of territory between the river

Achelôus and the northern shore of the Corinthian Gulf, is at least

more suitable to the facts attested by historical evidence than the

legends given in Herodotus, who represents the Dôrians as originally

in the Phthiôtid; then as passing under Dôrus, the son of Hellên,

into the Histiæôtid, under the mountains of Ossa and Olympus; next,

as driven by the Kadmeians into the regions of Pindus; from thence

passing into the Dryopid territory, on Mount Œta; lastly, from thence

into Peloponnêsus.[228] The received story was, that the great

Dôrian establishments in Peloponnêsus were formed by invasion from

the north, and that the invaders crossed the gulf from Naupaktus,—a

statement which, however disputable with respect to Argos, seems highly

probable in regard both to Sparta and Messênia. That the name of

Dôrians comprehended far more than the inhabitants of the insignificant

tetrapolis of Dôris Proper, must be assumed, if we believe that they

conquered Sparta and Messênia: both the magnitude of the conquest

itself, and the passage of a large portion of them from Naupaktus,

harmonize with the legend as given by Apollodôrus, in which the Dôrians

are represented as the principal inhabitants of the northern shore of

the gulf. The statements which we find in Herodotus, respecting the

early migrations of the Dôrians, have been considered as possessing

greater historical value than those of the fabulist Apollodôrus. But

both are equally matter of legend, while the brief indications of the

latter seem to be most in harmony with the facts which we afterwards

find attested by history.

[228] Herod. i. 56.

It has already been mentioned that the genealogy which makes Æolus,

Xuthus and Dôrus sons of Hellên, is as old as the Hesiodic Catalogue;

probably also that which makes Hellên son of Deukaliôn. Aëthlius also

is an Hesiodic personage: whether Amphiktyôn be so or not, we have no

proof.[229] They could not have been introduced into the legendary

genealogy until after the Olympic games and the Amphiktyonic council

had acquired an established ascendancy and universal reverence

throughout Greece.

[229] Schol. Apollôn. Rhod. iv. 57. Τὸν δὲ Ἐνδυμίωνα Ἠσίοδος μὲν

Ἀεθλίου τοῦ Διὸς καὶ Καλύκης παῖδα λέγει.... Καὶ Πείσανδρος δὲ

τὰ αὐτά φησι, καὶ Ἀκουσίλαος, καὶ Φερεκύδης, καὶ Νίκανδρος ἐν

δευτέρῳ Αἰτωλικῶν, καὶ Θεόπομπος ἐν Ἐποποιΐαις.

Respecting the parentage of Hellên, the references to Hesiod are

very confused. Compare Schol. Homer. Odyss. x. 2, and Schol.

Apollôn. Rhod. iii. 1086. See also Hellanic. Frag. 10. Didot.

Apollodôrus, and Pherekydês before him (Frag. 51. Didot),

called Protôgeneia daughter of Deukaliôn; Pindar (Olymp. ix.

64) designated her as daughter of Opus. One of the stratagems

mentioned by the Scholiast to get rid of this genealogical

discrepancy was, the supposition that Deukaliôn had two names

(διώνυμος); that he was also named Opus. (Schol. Pind. Olymp. ix.

85).

That the Deukalidæ or posterity of Deukaliôn reigned in Thessaly,

was mentioned both by Hesiod and Hekatæus, ap. Schol. Apollôn.

Rhod. iv. 265.

Respecting Dôrus the son of Hellên, we find neither legends nor

legendary genealogy; respecting Xuthus, very little beyond the tale

of Kreüsa and Iôn, which has its place more naturally among the

Attic fables. Achæus however, who is here represented as the son of

Xuthus, appears in other stories with very different parentage and

accompaniments. According to the statement which we find in Dionysius

of Halicarnassus, Achæus, Phthius and Pelasgus are sons of Poseidôn and

Larissa. They migrate from Peloponnêsus into Thessaly, and distribute

the Thessalian territory between them, giving their names to its

principal divisions: their descendants in the sixth generation were

driven out of that country by the invasion of Deukaliôn at the head

of the Kurêtes and the Leleges.[230] This was the story of those who

wanted to provide an eponymus for the Achæans in the southern districts

of Thessaly: Pausanias accomplishes the same object by different

means, representing Achæus, the son of Xuthus as having gone back

to Thessaly and occupied the portion of it to which his father was

entitled. Then, by way of explaining how it was that there were Achæans

at Sparta and at Argos, he tells us that Archander and Architelês, the

sons of Archæus, came back from Thessaly to Peloponnêsus, and married

two daughters of Danaus: they acquired great influence at Argos and

Sparta, and gave to the people the name of Achæans after their father

Achæus.[231]

[230] Dionys. H. A. R. i. 17.

[231] Pausan. vii. 1, 1-3. Herodotus also mentions (ii. 97)

Archander, son of Phthius and grandson of Achæus, who married the

daughter of Danaus. Larcher (Essai sur la Chronologie d’Hérodote,

ch. x. p. 321) tells us that this cannot be the Danaus who came

from Egypt, the father of the fifty daughters, who must have

lived two centuries earlier, as may be proved by chronological

arguments: this must be another Danaus, according to him.

Strabo seems to give a different story respecting the Achæans in

Peloponnêsus: he says that they were the original population of

the peninsula, that they came in from Phthia with Pelops, and

inhabited Laconia, which was from them called Argos Achaicum,

and that on the conquest of the Dôrians, they moved into Achaia

properly so called, expelling the Iônians therefrom (Strabo, viii

p. 365). This narrative is, I presume, borrowed from Ephorus.

Euripidês also deviates very materially from the Hesiodic genealogy

in respect to these eponymous persons. In the drama called Iôn, he

describes Iôn as son of Kreüsa by Apollo, but adopted by Xuthus:

according to him, the real sons of Xuthus and Kreüsa are Dôrus and

Achæus,[232]—eponyms of the Dôrians and Achæans in the interior of

Peloponnêsus. And it is a still more capital point of difference, that

he omits Hellên altogether—making Xuthus an Achæan by race, the son of

Æolus, who is the son of Zeus.[233] This is the more remarkable, as

in the fragments of two other dramas of Euripidês, the Melanippê and

the Æolus, we find Hellên mentioned both as father of Æolus and son of

Zeus.[234] To the general public even of the most instructed city of

Greece, fluctuations and discrepancies in these mythical genealogies

seem to have been neither surprising nor offensive.

[232] Eurip. Ion, 1590.

[233] Eurip. Ion, 64.

[234] See the Fragments of these two plays in Matthiae’s edition;

compare Welcker, Griechisch. Tragöd. v. ii. p. 842. If we may

judge from the Fragments of the Latin Melanippê of Ennius (see

Fragm. 2, ed. Bothe), Hellên was introduced as one of the

characters of the piece.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ÆOLIDS, OR SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ÆOLUS.

If two of the sons of Hellên, Dôrus and Xuthus, present to us families

comparatively unnoticed in mythical narrative, the third son, Æolus,

richly makes up for the deficiency. From him we pass to his seven sons

and five daughters, amidst a great abundance of heroic and poetical

incident.

In dealing however with these extensive mythical families, it is

necessary to observe, that the legendary world of Greece, in the manner

in which it is presented to us, appears invested with a degree of

symmetry and coherence which did not originally belong to it. For the

old ballads and stories which were sung or recounted at the multiplied

festivals of Greece, each on its own special theme, have been lost: the

religious narratives, which the Exegêtês of every temple had present

to his memory, explanatory of the peculiar religious ceremonies and

local customs in his own town or Dême, have passed away: all these

primitive elements, originally distinct and unconnected, are removed

out of our sight, and we possess only an aggregate result, formed by

many confluent streams of fable, and connected together by the agency

of subsequent poets and logographers. Even the earliest agents in this

work of connecting and systematizing—the Hesiodic poets—have been

hardly at all preserved. Our information respecting Grecian mythology

is derived chiefly from the prose logographers who followed them, and

in whose works, since a continuous narrative was above all things

essential to them, the fabulous personages are woven into still more

comprehensive pedigrees, and the original isolation of the legends

still better disguised. Hekatæus, Pherekydês, Hellanikus, and Akusilaus

lived at a time when the idea of Hellas as one great whole, composed

of fraternal sections, was deeply rooted in the mind of every Greek;

and when the fancy of one or a few great families, branching out widely

from one common stem, was more popular and acceptable than that of a

distinct indigenous origin in each of the separate districts. These

logographers, indeed, have themselves been lost; but Apollodôrus and

the various scholiasts, our great immediate sources of information

respecting Grecian mythology, chiefly borrowed from them: so that the

legendary world of Greece is in fact known to us through them, combined

with the dramatic and Alexandrine poets, their Latin imitators, and the

still later class of scholiasts—except indeed such occasional glimpses

as we obtain from the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the remaining Hesiodic

fragments, which exhibit but too frequently a hopeless diversity when

confronted with the narratives of the logographers.

Though Æolus (as has been already stated) is himself called the son

of Hellên along with Dôrus and Xuthus, yet the legends concerning the

Æolids, far from being dependent upon this genealogy, are not all even

coherent with it: moreover the name of Æolus in the legend is older

than that of Hellên, inasmuch as it occurs both in the Iliad and

Odyssey.[235] Odysseus sees in the under-world the beautiful Tyrô,

daughter of Salmôneus, and wife of Krêtheus, son of Æolus.

[235] Iliad, vi. 154. Σίσυφος Αἰολίδης, etc. Again Odyss. xi.

234.—

Ἔνθ᾽ ἤτοι πρώτην Τυρὼ ἴδον ~εὐπατέρειαν~,

Ἣ φάτο Σαλμωνῆος ἀμύμονος ἔκγονος εἶναι,

Φῆ δὲ Κρηθῆος γυνὴ ἔμμεναι ~Αἰολίδαο~.

Æolus is represented as having reigned in Thessaly: his seven sons were

Krêtheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmôneus, Deiôn, Magnês and Periêrês: his

five daughters, Canacê, Alcyonê, Peisidikê, Calycê and Perimêdê. The

fables of this race seem to be distinguished by a constant introduction

of the god Poseidôn, as well as by an unusual prevalence of haughty and

presumptuous attributes among the Æolid heroes, leading them to affront

the gods by pretences of equality, and sometimes even by defiance. The

worship of Poseidôn must probably have been diffused and preëminent

among a people with whom these legends originated.

SECTION I.—SONS OF ÆOLUS.

Salmôneus is not described in the Odyssey as son of Æolus, but he is

so denominated both in the Hesiodic Catalogue, and by the subsequent

logographers. His daughter Tyrô became enamoured of the river

Enipeus, the most beautiful of all streams that traverse the earth:

she frequented the banks assiduously, and there the god Poseidôn

found means to indulge his passion for her, assuming the character

of the river god himself. The fruit of this alliance were the twin

brothers, Pelias and Nêleus: Tyrô afterwards was given in marriage

to her uncle Krêtheus, another son of Æolus, by whom she had Æsôn,

Pherês and Amythaôn—all names of celebrity in the heroic legends.[236]

The adventures of Tyrô formed the subject of an affecting drama of

Sophoklês, now lost. Her father had married a second wife, named

Sidêrô, whose cruel counsels induced him to punish and torture his

daughter on account of her intercourse with Poseidôn. She was shorn

of her magnificent hair, beaten and ill-used in various ways, and

confined in a loathsome dungeon. Unable to take care of her two

children, she had been compelled to expose them immediately on their

birth in a little boat on the river Enipeus; they were preserved by the

kindness of a herdsman, and when grown up to manhood, rescued their

mother, and revenged her wrongs by putting to death the iron-hearted

Sidêrô.[237] This pathetic tale respecting the long imprisonment of

Tyrô is substituted by Sophoklês in place of the Homeric legend, which

represented her to have become the wife of Krêtheus and mother of a

numerous offspring.[238]

[236] Homer, Odyss. xi. 234-257; xv. 226.

[237] Diodôrus, iv. 68. Sophoklês, Fragm. 1. Τυρώ. Σαφῶς Σιδηρὼ

καὶ φέρουσα τοὔνομα. The genius of Sophoklês is occasionally

seduced by this play upon the etymology of a name, even in the

most impressive scenes of his tragedies. See Ajax, 425. Compare

Hellanik. Fragm. p. 9, ed. Preller. There was a first and second

edition of the Tyrô—τῆς δευτέρας Τυροῦς. Schol. ad Aristoph.

Av. 276. See the few fragments of the lost drama in Dindorf’s

Collection, p. 53. The plot was in many respects analogous to the

Antiopê of Euripidês.

[238] A third story, different both from Homer and from

Sophoklês, respecting Tyrô, is found in Hyginus (Fab. lx.): it

is of a tragical cast, and borrowed, like so many other tales in

that collection, from one of the lost Greek dramas.

Her father, the unjust Salmôneus, exhibited in his conduct the most

insolent impiety towards the gods. He assumed the name and title even

of Zeus, and caused to be offered to himself the sacrifices destined

for that god: he also imitated the thunder and lightning, by driving

about with brazen caldrons attached to his chariot and casting lighted

torches towards heaven. Such wickedness finally drew upon him the wrath

of Zeus, who smote him with a thunderbolt, and effaced from the earth

the city which he had founded, with all its inhabitants.[239]

[239] Apollod. i. 9, 7. Σαλμωνεύς τ᾽ ἄδικος καὶ ὑπέρθυμος

Περιήρης. Hesiod, Fragm. Catal. 8. Marktscheffel.

Where the city of Salmôneus was situated, the ancient

investigators were not agreed; whether in the Pisatid, or in

Elis, or in Thessaly (see Strabo, viii. p. 356). Euripidês in

his Æolus placed him on the banks of the Alpheius (Eurip. Fragm.

Æol. 1). A village and fountain in the Pisatid bore the name

of Salmônê; but the mention of the river Enipeus seems to mark

Thessaly as the original seat of the legend. But the _naïveté_ of

the tale preserved by Apollodôrus (Virgil in the Æneid, vi. 586,

has retouched it) marks its ancient date: the final circumstance

of that tale was, that the city and its inhabitants were

annihilated.

Ephorus makes Salmôneus king of the Epeians and of the Pisatæ

(Fragm. 15, ed. Didot).

The lost drama of Sophoklês, called Σαλμωνεὺς, was a δρᾶμα

σατυρικόν See Dindorf’s Fragm. 483.

Pelias and Nêleus, “both stout vassals of the great Zeus,” became

engaged in dissension respecting the kingdom of Iôlkos in Thessaly.

Pelias got possession of it, and dwelt there in plenty and prosperity;

but he had offended the goddess Hêrê by killing Sidêrô upon her altar,

and the effects of her wrath were manifested in his relations with his

nephew Jasôn.[240]

[240] Hom. Od. xi. 280. Apollod. i. 9, 9. κρατέρω θεραπόντε Διὸς,

etc.

Nêleus quitted Thessaly, went into Peloponnêsus, and there founded

the kingdom of Pylos. He purchased by immense marriage presents, the

privilege of wedding the beautiful Chlôris, daughter of Amphiôn, king

of Orchomenos, by whom he had twelve sons and but one daughter[241]—the

fair and captivating Pêrô, whom suitors from all the neighborhood

courted in marriage. But Nêleus, “the haughtiest of living men,”[242]

refused to entertain the pretensions of any of them: he would grant his

daughter only to that man who should bring to him the oxen of Iphiklos,

from Phylakê in Thessaly. These precious animals were carefully

guarded, as well by herdsmen as by a dog whom neither man nor animal

could approach. Nevertheless, Bias, the son of Amythaôn, nephew of

Nêleus, being desperately enamored of Pêrô, prevailed upon his brother

Melampus to undertake for his sake the perilous adventure, in spite of

the prophetic knowledge of the latter, which forewarned him that though

he would ultimately succeed, the prize must be purchased by severe

captivity and suffering. Melampus, in attempting to steal the oxen,

was seized and put in prison; from whence nothing but his prophetic

powers rescued him. Being acquainted with the language of worms, he

heard these animals communicating to each other, in the roof over his

head, that the beams were nearly eaten through and about to fall in.

He communicated this intelligence to his guards, and demanded to be

conveyed to another place of confinement, announcing that the roof

would presently fall in and bury them. The prediction was fulfilled,

and Phylakos, father of Iphiklos, full of wonder at this specimen of

prophetic power, immediately caused him to be released. He further

consulted him respecting the condition of his son Iphiklos, who was

childless; and promised him the possession of the oxen on condition of

his suggesting the means whereby offspring might be ensured. A vulture

having communicated to Melampus the requisite information, Podarkês,

the son of Iphiklos, was born shortly afterwards. In this manner

Melampus obtained possession of the oxen, and conveyed them to Pylos,

obtaining for his brother Bias the hand of Pêrô.[243] How this great

legendary character, by miraculously healing the deranged daughters of

Prœtos, procured both for himself and for Bias dominion in Argos, has

been recounted in a preceding chapter.

[241] Diodôr. iv. 68.

[242] Νηλέα τε μεγάθυμον, ἀγαυότατον ζωόντων (Hom. Odyss. xv.

228).

[243] Hom. Od. xi. 278; xv. 234. Apollod. i. 9, 12. The basis of

this curious romance is in the Odyssey, amplified by subsequent

poets. There are points however in the old Homeric legend, as

it is briefly sketched in the fifteenth book of the Odyssey,

which seem to have been subsequently left out or varied. Nêleus

seizes the property of Melampus during his absence; the latter,

returning with the oxen from Phylakê, revenges himself upon

Nêleus for the injury. Odyss. xv. 233.

Of the twelve sons of Nêleus, one at least, Periklymenos,—besides the

ever-memorable Nestôr,—was distinguished for his exploits as well as

for his miraculous gifts. Poseidôn, the divine father of the race, had

bestowed upon him the privilege of changing his form at pleasure into

that of any bird, beast, reptile, or insect.[244] He had occasion for

all these resources, and he employed them for a time with success in

defending his family against the terrible indignation of Hêraklês,

who, provoked by the refusal of Nêleus to perform for him the ceremony

of purification after his murder of Iphitus, attacked the Nêleids

at Pylos. Periklymenos by his extraordinary powers prolonged the

resistance, but the hour of his fate was at length brought upon him

by the intervention of Athênê, who pointed him out to Hêraklês while

he was perched as a bee upon the hero’s chariot. He was killed, and

Hêraklês became completely victorious, overpowering Poseidôn, Hêrê,

Arês, and Hadês, and even wounding the three latter, who assisted in

the defence. Eleven of the sons of Nêleus perished by his hand, while

Nestôr, then a youth, was preserved only by his accidental absence at

Gerêna, away from his father’s residence.[245]

[244] Hesiod, Catalog. ap. Schol. Apollôn. Rhod. i. 156; Ovid,

Metam. xii. p. 556; Eustath. ad Odyss. xi. p. 284. Poseidôn

carefully protects Antilochus son of Nestôr, in the Iliad, xiii.

554-563.

[245] Hesiod, Catalog. ap. Schol. Ven. ad Iliad. ii. 336; and

Steph. Byz. v. Γερηνία; Homer, Il. v. 392; xi. 693; Apollodôr.

ii. 7, 3; Hesiod, Scut. Herc. 360; Pindar, Ol. ix. 32.

According to the Homeric legend, Nêleus himself was not killed

by Hêraklês: subsequent poets or logographers, whom Apollodôrus

follows, seem to have thought it an injustice, that the offence

given by Nêleus himself should have been avenged upon his sons

and not upon himself; they therefore altered the legend upon this

point, and rejected the passage in the Iliad as spurious (see

Schol. Ven. ad Iliad. xi. 682).

The refusal of purification by Nêleus to Hêraklês is a genuine

legendary cause: the commentators, who were disposed to spread a

coating of history over these transactions, introduced another

cause,—Nêleus, as king of Pylos, had aided the Orchomenians in

their war against Hêraklês and the Thêbans (see Sch. Ven. ad

Iliad. xi. 689).

The neighborhood of Pylos was distinguished for its ancient

worship both of Poseidôn and of Hadês: there were abundant local

legends respecting them (see Strabo, viii. pp. 344, 345).

The proud house of the Nêleids was now reduced to Nestôr; but Nestôr

singly sufficed to sustain its eminence. He appears not only as the

defender and avenger of Pylos against the insolence and rapacity

of his Epeian neighbors in Elis, but also as aiding the Lapithæ in

their terrible combat against the Centaurs, and as companion of

Thêseus, Peirithöus, and the other great legendary heroes who preceded

the Trojan war. In extreme old age his once marvellous power of

handling his weapons has indeed passed away, but his activity remains

unimpaired, and his sagacity as well as his influence in counsel is

greater than ever. He not only assembles the various Grecian chiefs

for the armament against Troy, perambulating the districts of Hellas

along with Odysseus, but takes a vigorous part in the siege itself,

and is of preëminent service to Agamemnôn. And after the conclusion

of the siege, he is one of the few Grecian princes who returns to his

original dominions, and is found, in a strenuous and honored old age,

in the midst of his children and subjects,—sitting with the sceptre

of authority on the stone bench before his house at Pylos,—offering

sacrifice to Poseidôn, as his father Nêleus had done before him,—and

mourning only over the death of his favorite son Antilochus, who had

fallen, along with so many brave companions in arms, in the Trojan

war.[246]

[246] About Nestôr, Iliad, i. 260-275; ii. 370; xi. 670-770;

Odyss. iii. 5, 110, 409.

After Nestôr the line of the Nêleids numbers undistinguished

names,—Bôrus, Penthilus, and Andropompus,—three successive generations

down to Melanthus, who on the invasion of Peloponnêsus by the

Herakleids, quitted Pylos and retired to Athens, where he became king,

in a manner which I shall hereafter recount. His son Kodrus was the

last Athênian king; and Nêleus, one of the sons of Kodrus, is mentioned

as the principal conductor of what is called the Ionic emigration from

Athens to Asia Minor.[247] It is certain that during the historical

age, not merely the princely family of the Kodrids in Milêtus, Ephesus,

and other Ionic cities, but some of the greatest families even in

Athens itself, traced their heroic lineage through the Nêleids up to

Poseidôn: and the legends respecting Nestôr and Periklymenos would

find especial favor amidst Greeks with such feelings and belief. The

Kodrids at Ephesus, and probably some other Ionic towns, long retained

the title and honorary precedence of kings, even after they had lost

the substantial power belonging to the office. They stood in the same

relation, embodying both religious worship and supposed ancestry,

to the Nêleids and Poseidôn, as the chiefs of the Æolic colonies to

Agamemnôn and Orestês. The Athenian despot Peisistratus was named after

the son of Nestôr in the Odyssey; and we may safely presume that the

heroic worship of the Nêleids was as carefully cherished at the Ionic

Milêtus as at the Italian Metapontum.[248]

[247] Hellanik. Fragm. 10, ed. Didot; Pausan. vii. 2, 3; Herodot.

v. 65; Strabo, xiv. p. 633. Hellanikus, in giving the genealogy

from Nêleus to Melanthus, traces it through Periklymenos and not

through Nestôr: the words of Herodotus imply that _he_ must have

included Nestôr.

[248] Herodot. v. 67; Strabo, vi. p. 264; Mimnermus, Fragm. 9,

Schneidewin.

Having pursued the line of Salmôneus and Nêleus to the end of its

lengendary career, we may now turn back to that of another son of

Æolus, Krêtheus,—a line hardly less celebrated in respect of the heroic

names which it presents. Alkêstis, the most beautiful of the daughters

of Pelias,[249] was promised by her father in marriage to the man

that could bring him a lion and a boar tamed to the yoke and drawing

together. Admêtus, son of Pherês, the eponymus of Pheræ in Thessaly,

and thus grandson of Krêtheus, was enabled by the aid of Apollo to

fulfil this condition, and to win her;[250] for Apollo happened at that

time to be in his service as a slave (condemned to this penalty by Zeus

for having put to death the Cyclôpes), in which capacity he tended the

herds and horses with such success, as to equip Eumêlus (the son of

Admêtus) to the Trojan war with the finest horses in the Grecian army.

Though menial duties were imposed upon him, even to the drudgery of

grinding in the mill,[251] he yet carried away with him a grateful and

friendly sentiment towards his mortal master, whom he interfered to

rescue from the wrath of the goddess Artemis, when she was indignant at

the omission of her name in his wedding sacrifices. Admêtus was about

to perish by a premature death, when Apollo, by earnest solicitation

to the Fates, obtained for him the privilege that his life should be

prolonged, if he could find any person to die a voluntary death in his

place. His father and his mother both refused to make this sacrifice

for him, but the devoted attachment of his wife Alkêstis disposed her

to embrace with cheerfulness the condition of dying to preserve her

husband. She had already perished, when Hêraklês, the ancient guest and

friend of Admêtus, arrived during the first hour of lamentation; his

strength and daring enabled him to rescue the deceased Alkêstis even

from the grasp of Thanatos (Death), and to restore her alive to her

disconsolate husband.[252]

[249] Iliad, ii. 715.

[250] Apollodôr. i. 9, 15; Eustath. ad Iliad. ii. 711.

[251] Euripid. Alkêst. init. Welcker; Griechisch. Tragœd. (p.

344) on the lost play of Sophoklês called Admêtus or Alkêstis;

Hom. Iliad., ii. 766; Hygin. Fab. 50-51 (Sophoklês, Fr. Inc.

730; Dind. ap. Plutarch. Defect. Orac. p. 417). This tale of the

temporary servitude of particular gods, by order of Zeus as a

punishment for misbehavior, recurs not unfrequently among the

incidents of the mythical world. The poet Panyasis (ap. Clem.

Alexand. Adm. ad Gent. p. 23)—

Τλῆ μὲν Δημήτηρ, τλῆ δὲ κλυτὸς Ἀμφιγυήεις,

Τλῆ δὲ Ποσειδάων, τλῆ δ᾽ ἀργυρότοξος Ἀπολλὼν

Ἀνδρὶ παρὰ θνητῷ θητεύσεμεν εἰς ἐνιαυτόν·

Τλῆ δὲ καὶ ὀβριμόθυμος Ἄρης ὑπὸ πατρὸς ἀνάγκης.

The old legend followed out the fundamental idea with remarkable

consistency: Laômedôn, as the temporary master of Poseidôn and

Apollo, threatens to bind them hand and foot, to sell them in the

distant islands, and to cut off the ears of both, when they come

to ask for their stipulated wages (Iliad, xxi. 455). It was a

new turn given to the story by the Alexandrine poets, when they

introduced the motive of love, and made the servitude voluntary

on the part of Apollo (Kallimachus, Hymn. Apoll. 49; Tibullus,

Elegii. 3, 11-30).

[252] Eurip. Alkêstis, Arg.; Apollod. i. 9, 15. To bring this

beautiful legend more into the color of history, a new version

of it was subsequently framed: Hêraklês was eminently skilled in

medicine, and saved the life of Alkêstis when she was about to

perish from a desperate malady (Plutarch. Amator c. 17. vol. iv.

p. 53, Wytt.).

The son of Pelias, Akastus, had received and sheltered Pêleus when

obliged to fly his country in consequence of the involuntary murder of

Eurytiôn. Krêthêis, the wife of Akastus, becoming enamored of Pêleus,

made to him advances which he repudiated. Exasperated at his refusal,

and determined to procure his destruction, she persuaded her husband

that Pêleus had attempted her chastity: upon which Akastus conducted

Pêleus out upon a hunting excursion among the woody regions of Mount

Pêlion, contrived to steal from him the sword fabricated and given

by Hêphæstos, and then left him, alone and unarmed, to perish by the

hands of the Centaurs or by the wild beasts. By the friendly aid of the

Centaur Cheirôn, however, Pêleus was preserved, and his sword restored

to him: returning to the city, he avenged himself by putting to death

both Akastus and his perfidious wife.[253]

[253] The legend of Akastus and Pêleus was given in great detail

in the Catalogue of Hesiod (Catalog. Fragm. 20-21, Marktscheff.);

Schol. Pindar Nem. iv. 95. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 224; Apollod.

iii. 13, 2.

But amongst all the legends with which the name of Pelias is connected,

by far the most memorable is that of Jasôn and the Argonautic

expedition. Jasôn was son of Æsôn, grandson of Krêtheus, and thus

great-grandson of Æolus. Pelias, having consulted the oracle respecting

the security of his dominion at Iôlkos, had received in answer a

warning to beware of the man who should appear before him with only

one sandal. He was celebrating a festival in honor of Poseidôn, when

it so happened that Jasôn appeared before him with one of his feet

unsandaled: he had lost one sandal in wading through the swollen

current of the river Anauros. Pelias immediately understood that this

was the enemy against whom the oracle had forewarned him. As a means

of averting the danger, he imposed upon Jasôn the desperate task of

bringing back to Iôlkos the Golden Fleece,—the fleece of that ram

which had carried Phryxos from Achaia to Kolchis, and which Phryxos

had dedicated in the latter country as an offering to the god Arês.

The result of this injunction was the memorable expedition—of the ship

Argô and her crew called the Argonauts, composed of the bravest and

noblest youths of Greece—which cannot be conveniently included among

the legends of the Æolids, and is reserved for a separate chapter.

The voyage of the Argô was long protracted, and Pelias, persuaded

that neither the ship nor her crew would ever return, put to death

both the father and mother of Jasôn, together with their infant son.

Æsôn, the father, being permitted to choose the manner of his own

death, drank bull’s blood while performing a sacrifice to the gods.

At length, however, Jasôn did return, bringing with him not only the

golden fleece, but also Mêdea, daughter of Æêtês, king of Kolchis,

as his wife,—a woman distinguished for magical skill and cunning, by

whose assistance alone the Argonauts had succeeded in their project.

Though determined to avenge himself upon Pelias, Jasôn knew he could

only succeed by stratagem: he remained with his companions at a short

distance from Iôlkos, while Mêdea, feigning herself a fugitive from

his ill-usage, entered the town alone, and procured access to the

daughters of Pelias. By exhibitions of her magical powers she soon

obtained unqualified ascendency over their minds. For example, she

selected from the flocks of Pelias a ram in the extremity of old age,

cut him up and boiled him in a caldron with herbs, and brought him

out in the shape of a young and vigorous lamb:[254] the daughters of

Pelias were made to believe that their old father could in like manner

be restored to youth. In this persuasion they cut him up with their

own hands and cast his limbs into the caldron, trusting that Mêdea

would produce upon him the same magical effect. Mêdea pretended that an

invocation to the moon was a necessary part of the ceremony: she went

up to the top of the house as if to pronounce it, and there lighting

the fire-signal concerted with the Argonauts, Jasôn and his companions

burst in and possessed themselves of the town. Satisfied with having

thus revenged himself, Jasôn yielded the principality of Iôlkos to

Akastus, son of Pelias, and retired with Mêdea to Corinth. Thus did

the goddess Hêrê gratify her ancient wrath against Pelias: she had

constantly watched over Jasôn, and had carried the “all-notorious” Argô

through its innumerable perils, in order that Jasôn might bring home

Mêdea to accomplish the ruin of his uncle.[255] The misguided daughters

of Pelias departed as voluntary exiles to Arcadia: Akastus his son

celebrated splendid funeral games in honor of his deceased father.[256]

[254] This incident was contained in one of the earliest

dramas of Euripidês, the Πελίαδες, now lost. Moses of Chorênê

(Progymnasm. ap. Maii ad Euseb. p. 43), who gives an extract

from the argument, says that the poet “extremos mentiendi fines

attingit.”

The Ῥιζότομοι of Sophoklês seems also to have turned upon the

same catastrophe (see Fragm. 479, Dindorf.).

[255] The kindness of Hêrê towards Jasôn seems to be older in

the legend than her displeasure against Pelias; at least it is

specially noticed in the Odyssey, as the great cause of the

escape of the ship Argô: Ἀλλ᾽ Ἥρη παρέπεμψεν, ἐπεὶ φίλος ἦεν

Ἰήσων. (xii. 70). In the Hesiodic Theogony Pelias stands to

Jasôn in the same relation as Eurystheus to Hêraklês,—a severe

taskmaster as well as a wicked and insolent man,—ὑβριστὴς Πελίης

καὶ ἀτάσθαλος, ὀβριμόεργος. (Theog. 995). Apollônius Rhodius

keeps the wrath of Hêrê against Pelias in the foreground, i. 14;

iii. 1134; iv. 242; see also Hygin, f. 13.

There is great diversity in the stories given of the proximate

circumstances connected with the death of Pelias: Eurip. Mêd.

491; Apollodôr. i. 9, 27; Diodôr. iv. 50-52; Ovid, Metam. vii.

162, 203, 297, 347; Pausan. viii. 11, 2; Schol. ad Lycoph. 175.

In the legend of Akastus and Pêleus as recounted above, Akastus

was made to perish by the hand of Pêleus. I do not take upon me

to reconcile these contradictions.

Pausanias mentions that he could not find in any of the poets,

so far as he had read, the names of the daughters of Pelias, and

that the painter Mikôn had given to them names (ὀνόματα δ᾽ αὐταῖς

ποιητὴς μὲν ἔθετο οὐδεὶς, ὅσα γ᾽ ἐπελεξάμεθα ἡμεῖς, etc., Pausan.

viii. 11, 1). Yet their names are given in the authors whom

Diodôrus copied; and Alkêstis, at any rate, was most memorable.

Mikôn gave the names Asteropeia and Antinoê, altogether different

from those in Diodôrus. Both Diodôrus and Hyginus exonerate

Alkêstis from all share in the death of her father (Hygin. f. 24).

The old poem called the Νόστοι (see Argum. ad Eurip. Mêd.,

and Schol. Aristophan. Equit. 1321) recounted, that Mêdea had

boiled in a caldron the old Æsôn, father of Jasôn, with herbs

and incantations, and that she had brought him out young and

strong. Ovid copies this (Metam. vii. 162-203). It is singular

that Pherêkydês and Simonidês said that she had performed this

process upon Jasôn himself (Schol. Aristoph. _l. c._). Diogenes

(ap. Stobæ. Florileg. t. xxix. 92) rationalizes the story,

and converts Mêdea from an enchantress into an improving and

regenerating preceptress. The death of Æsôn, as described in the

text, is given from Diodôrus and Apollodôrus. Mêdea seems to have

been worshipped as a goddess in other places besides Corinth

(see Athenagor. Legat. pro Christ. 12; Macrobius, i. 12, p. 247,

Gronov.).

[256] These funeral games in honor of Pelias were among the most

renowned of the mythical incidents: they were celebrated in a

special poem by Stesichorus, and represented on the chest of

Kypselus at Olympia. Kastôr, Meleager, Amphiaraos, Jasôn, Pêleus,

Mopsos, etc. contended in them (Pausan. v. 17. 4; Stesichori

Fragm. 1. p. 54, ed. Klewe; Athên. iv. 172). How familiar

the details of them were to the mind of a literary Greek is

indirectly attested by Plutarch, Sympos. v. 2, vol. iii. p. 762,

Wytt.

Jasôn and Mêdea retired from Iôlkos to Corinth, where they resided ten

years: their children were—Medeius, whom the Centaur Cheirôn educated

in the regions of Mount Pêlion,[257]—and Mermerus and Pherôs, born at

Corinth. After they had resided there ten years in prosperity, Jasôn

set his affections on Glaukê, daughter of Kreôn[258] king of Corinth;

and as her father was willing to give her to him in marriage, he

determined to repudiate Mêdea, who received orders forthwith to leave

Corinth. Stung with this insult and bent upon revenge, Mêdea prepared

a poisoned robe, and sent it as a marriage present to Glaukê: it was

unthinkingly accepted and put on, and the body of the unfortunate bride

was burnt up and consumed. Kreôn, her father, who tried to tear from

her the burning garment, shared her fate and perished. The exulting

Mêdea escaped by means of a chariot with winged serpents furnished to

her by her grandfather Hêlios: she placed herself under the protection

of Ægêus at Athens, by whom she had a son named Mêdus. She left her

young children in the sacred enclosure of the Akræan Hêrê, relying on

the protection of the altar to ensure their safety; but the Corinthians

were so exasperated against her for the murder of Kreôn and Glaukê,

that they dragged the children away from the altar and put them to

death. The miserable Jasôn perished by a fragment of his own ship Argô,

which fell upon him while he was asleep under it,[259] being hauled on

shore, according to the habitual practice of the ancients.

[257] Hesiod, Theogon. 998.

[258] According to the Schol. ad Eurip. Mêd. 20, Jasôn marries

the daughter of Hippotês the son of Kreôn, who is the son

of Lykæthos. Lykæthos, after the departure of Bellerophôn

from Corinth, reigned twenty-seven years; then Kreôn reigned

thirty-five years; then came Hippotês.

[259] Apollodôr. i. 9, 27; Diodôr. iv. 54. The Mêdea of

Euripidês, which has fortunately been preserved to us, is

too well known to need express reference. He makes Mêdea the

destroyer of her own children, and borrows from this circumstance

the most pathetic touches of his exquisite drama. Parmeniskôs

accused him of having been bribed by the Corinthians to give

this turn to the legend; and we may regard the accusation as a

proof that the older and more current tale imputed the murder of

the children to the Corinthians (Schol. Eurip. Mêd. 275, where

Didymos gives the story out of the old poem of Kreophylos). See

also Ælian, V. H. v. 21; Pausan. ii. 3, 6.

The most significant fact in respect to the fable is, that the

Corinthians celebrated periodically a propitiatory sacrifice to

Hêrê Akræa and to Mermerus and Pherês, as an atonement for the

sin of having violated the sanctuary of the altar. The legend

grew out of this religious ceremony, and was so arranged as to

explain and account for it (see Eurip. Mêd. 1376, with the Schol.

Diodôr. iv. 55).

Mermerus and Pherês were the names given to the children of Mêdea

and Jasôn in the old Naupaktian Verses; in which, however, the

legend must have been recounted quite differently, since they

said that Jasôn and Mêdea had gone from Iôlkos, not to Corinth,

but to Corcyra; and that Mermerus had perished in hunting on the

opposite continent of Epirus. Kinæthôn again, another ancient

genealogical poet, called the children of Mêdea and Jasôn Eriôpis

and Mêdos (Pausan. ii. 3, 7). Diodôrus gives them different names

(iv. 34). Hesiod, in the Theogony, speaks only of Medeius as the

son of Jasôn.

Mêdea does not appear either in the Iliad or Odyssey: in the

former, we find Agamêdê, daughter of Augeas, “who knows all the

poisons (or medicines) which the earth nourishes” (Iliad, xi.

740); in the latter, we have Circê, sister of Æêtês, father of

Mêdea, and living in the Ææan island (Odyss. x. 70). Circê is

daughter of the god Hêlios, as Mêdea is his grand-daughter,—she

is herself a goddess. She is in many points the parallel of

Mêdea; she forewarns and preserves Odysseus throughout his

dangers, as Mêdea aids Jasôn: according to the Hesiodic story,

she has two children by Odysseus, Agrius and Latinus (Theogon.

1001).

Odysseus goes to Ephyrê to Ilos the son of Mermerus, to procure

poison for his arrows: Eustathius treats this Mermerus as the

son of Mêdea (see Odyss. i. 270, and Eust.). As Ephyrê is the

legendary name of Corinth, we may presume this to be a thread of

the same mythical tissue.

The first establishment at Ephyrê, or Corinth, had been founded by

Sisyphus, another of the sons of Æolus, brother of Salmôneus and

Krêtheus.[260] The Æolid Sisyphus was distinguished as an unexampled

master of cunning and deceit. He blocked up the road along the isthmus,

and killed the strangers who came along it by rolling down upon them

great stones from the mountains above. He was more than a match even

for the arch thief Autolycus, the son of Hermês, who derived from his

father the gift of changing the color and shape of stolen goods, so

that they could no longer be recognized: Sisyphus, by marking his sheep

under the foot, detected Autolycus when he stole them, and obliged

him to restore the plunder. His penetration discovered the amour of

Zeus with the nymph Ægina, daughter of the river-god Asôpus. Zeus had

carried her off to the island of Œnônê (which subsequently bore the

name of Ægina); upon which Asôpus, eager to recover her, inquired of

Sisyphus whither she was gone: the latter told him what had happened,

on condition that he should provide a spring of water on the summit of

the Acro-Corinthus. Zeus, indignant with Sisyphus for this revelation,

inflicted upon him in Hadês the punishment of perpetually heaving up a

hill a great and heavy stone, which, so soon as it attained the summit,

rolled back again in spite of all his efforts, with irresistible force

into the plain.[261]

[260] See Euripid. Æol.—Fragm. 1, Dindorf; Dikæarch. Vit. Græc.

p. 22.

[261] Respecting Sisyphus, see Apollodôr. i. 9, 3; iii. 12, 6.

Pausan. ii. 5, 1. Schol. ad Iliad. i. 180. Another legend about

the amour of Sisyphus with Tyrô, is in Hygin. fab. 60, and about

the manner in which he overreached even Hadês (Pherekydês ap.

Schol. Iliad. vi. 153). The stone rolled by Sisyphus in the

under-world appears in Odyss. xi. 592. The name of Sisyphus was

given during the historical age to men of craft and stratagem,

such as Derkyllidês (Xenoph. Hellenic. iii. 1, 8). He passed

for the real father of Odysseus, though Heyne (ad Apollodôr.

i. 9, 3) treats this as another Sisyphus, whereby he destroys

the suitableness of the predicate as regards Odysseus. The

duplication and triplication of synonymous personages is an

ordinary resource for the purpose of reducing the legends into a

seeming chronological sequence.

Even in the days of Eumêlus a religious mystery was observed

respecting the tombs of Sisyphus and Nêleus,—the latter had also

died at Corinth,—no one could say where they were buried (Pausan.

ii. 2, 2).

Sisyphus even overreached Persephonê, and made his escape from

the under-world (Theognis, 702).

In the application of the Æolid genealogy to Corinth, Sisyphus, the

son of Æolus, appears as the first name: but the old Corinthian poet

Eumêlus either found or framed an heroic genealogy for his native city

independent both of Æolus and Sisyphus. According to this genealogy,

Ephyrê, daughter of Oceanus and Têthys, was the primitive tenant of

the Corinthian territory, Asôpus of the Sikyônian: both were assigned

to the god Hêlios, in adjusting a dispute between him and Poseidôn,

by Briareus. Hêlios divided the territory between his two sons Æêtês

and Alôeus: to the former he assigned Corinth, to the latter Sikyôn.

Æêtês, obeying the admonition of an oracle, emigrated to Kolchis,

leaving his territory under the rule of Bunos, the son of Hermês,

with the stipulation that it should be restored whenever either he

or any of his descendants returned. After the death of Bunos, both

Corinth and Sikyôn were possessed by Epôpeus, son of Alôeus, a wicked

man. His son Marathôn left him in disgust and retired into Attica,

but returned after his death and succeeded to his territory, which he

in turn divided between his two sons Corinthos and Sikyôn, from whom

the names of the two districts were first derived. Corinthos died

without issue, and the Corinthians then invited Mêdea from Iôlkos as

the representative of Æêtês: she with her husband Jasôn thus obtained

the sovereignty of Corinth.[262] This legend of Eumêlus, one of the

earliest of the genealogical poets, so different from the story adopted

by Neophrôn or Euripidês, was followed certainly by Simonidês and

seemingly by Theopompus.[263] The incidents in it are imagined and

arranged with a view to the supremacy of Mêdea; the emigration of Æêtês

and the conditions under which he transferred his sceptre, being so

laid out as to confer upon Mêdea an hereditary title to the throne.

The Corinthians paid to Mêdea and to her children solemn worship,

either divine or heroic, in conjunction with Hêrê Akræa,[264] and this

was sufficient to give to Mêdea a prominent place in the genealogy

composed by a Corinthian poet, accustomed to blend together gods,

heroes and men in the antiquities of his native city. According to

the legend of Eumêlus, Jasôn became (through Mêdea) king of Corinth;

but she concealed the children of their marriage in the temple of

Hêrê, trusting that the goddess would render them immortal. Jasôn,

discovering her proceedings, left her and retired in disgust to Iôlkos;

Mêdea also, being disappointed in her scheme, quitted the place,

leaving the throne in the hands of Sisyphus, to whom, according to

the story of Theopompus, she had become attached.[265] Other legends

recounted, that Zeus had contracted a passion for Mêdea, but that she

had rejected his suit from fear of the displeasure of Hêrê; who, as

a recompense for such fidelity, rendered her children immortal:[266]

moreover Mêdea had erected, by special command of Hêrê, the celebrated

temple of Aphroditê at Corinth. The tenor of these fables manifests

their connection with the temple of Hêrê: and we may consider the

legend of Mêdea as having been originally quite independent of that of

Sisyphus, but fitted on to it, in seeming chronological sequence, so as

to satisfy the feelings of those Æolids of Corinth who passed for his

descendants.

[262] Pausan. ii. 1, 1; 3, 10. Schol. ad Pindar, Olymp. xiii. 74.

Schol. Lycoph. 174-1024. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 1212.

[263] Simonid. ap. Schol. ad Eurip. Mêd. 10-20; Theopompus,

Fragm. 340, Didot; though Welcker (Der Episch. Cycl. p. 29)

thinks that this does not belong to the historian Theopompus.

Epimenidês also followed the story of Eumêlus in making Æêtês a

Corinthian (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. iii. 242).

[264] Περὶ δὲ τῆς εἰς Κόρινθον μετοικήσεως, Ἵππυς ἐκτίθεται καὶ

Ἑλλάνικος· ὅτι δὲ βεβασίλευκε τῆς Κορίνθου ἡ Μήδεια, Εὔμηλος

ἱστορεῖ καὶ Σιμωνίδης· Ὅτι δὲ καὶ ἀθάνατος ἦν ἡ Μήδεια, Μουσαῖος

ἐν τῷ περὶ Ἰσθμίων ἱστορεῖ, ἅμα καὶ περὶ τῶν τῆς Ἀκραίας Ἥρας

ἑορτῶν ἐκτιθείς. (Schol. Eurip. Mêd. 10). Compare also v. 1376

of the play itself, with the Scholia and Pausan. ii. 3, 6. Both

Alkman and Hesiod represented Mêdea as a goddess (Athenagoras,

Legatia pro Christianis, p. 54, ed. Oxon.).

[265] Pausan. ii. 3, 10; Schol. Pindar. Olymp. xiii. 74.

[266] Schol. Pindar. Olymp. xiii. 32-74; Plutarch, De Herodot.

Malign. p. 871.

Sisyphus had for his sons Glaukos and Ornytiôn. From Glaukos sprang

Bellerophôn, whose romantic adventures commence with the Iliad, and

are further expanded by subsequent poets: according to some accounts

he was really the son of Poseidôn, the prominent deity of the Æolid

family.[267] The youth and beauty of Bellerophôn rendered him the

object of a strong passion on the part of the Anteia, wife of Prœtos

king of Argos. Finding her advances rejected, she contracted a violent

hatred towards him, and endeavored by false accusations to prevail upon

her husband to kill him. Prœtos refused to commit the deed under his

own roof, but despatched him to his son-in-law the king of Lykia in

Asia Minor, putting into his hands a folded tablet full of destructive

symbols. Conformably to these suggestions, the most perilous

undertakings were imposed upon Bellerophôn. He was directed to attack

the monster Chimæra and to conquer the warlike Solymi as well as the

Amazons: as he returned victorious from these enterprises, an ambuscade

was laid for him by the bravest Lykian warriors, all of whom he slew.

At length the Lykian king recognized him “as the genuine son of a

god,” and gave him his daughter in marriage together with half of his

kingdom. The grand-children of Bellerophôn, Glaukos and Sarpêdôn,—the

latter a son of his daughter Laodameia by Zeus,—combat as allies of

Troy against the host of Agamemnon.[268] Respecting the winged Pegasus,

Homer says nothing; but later poets assigned to Bellerophôn this

miraculous steed, whose parentage is given in the Hesiodic Theogony,

as the instrument both of his voyage and of his success.[269] Heroic

worship was paid at Corinth to Bellerophôn, and he seems to have

been a favorite theme of recollection not only among the Corinthians

themselves, but also among the numerous colonists whom they sent out to

other regions.[270]

[267] Pindar, Olymp. xiii. 98. and Schol. ad 1; Schol. ad Iliad,

vi. 155; this seems to be the sense of Iliad, vi. 191.

The lost drama called _Iobatês_ of Sophoklês, and the two by

Euripidês called _Sthenebœa_ and _Bellerophôn_, handled the

adventures of this hero. See the collection of the few fragments

remaining in Dindorf, Fragm. Sophok. 280; Fragm. Eurip. p.

87-108; and Hygin. fab. 67.

Welcker (Griechische Tragöd. ii. p. 777-800) has ingeniously put

together all that can be divined respecting the two plays of

Euripidês.

Völcker seeks to make out that Bellerophôn is identical with

Poseidôn Hippios,—a separate personification of one of the

attributes of the god Poseidôn. For this conjecture he gives some

plausible grounds (Mythologie des Japetisch. Geschlechts, p. 129

_seq._).

[268] Iliad, vi. 155-210.

[269] Hesiod, Theogon. 283.

[270] Pausan. ii. 2, 4. See Pindar, Olymp. xiii. 90, addressed

to Xenophôn the Corinthian, and the Adoniazusæ of the Syracusan

Theocritus, a poem in which common Syracusan life and feeling are

so graphically depicted, Idyll xv. 91.—

Συρακοσίαις ἐπιτάσσεις;

Ὡς δ᾽ εἰδῇς καὶ τοῦτο, Κορίνθιαι εἶμες ἄνωθεν

Ὡς καὶ ὁ Βελλερόφων· Πελοποννασιστὶ λαλεῦμες.

From Ornytiôn, the son of Sisyphus, we are conducted through a series

of three undistinguished family names,—Thoas, Damophôn, and the

brothers Propodas and Hyanthidas,—to the time of the Dôrian occupation

of Corinth[271], which will be hereafter recounted.

[271] Pausan. ii. 4, 3.

We now pass from Sisyphus and the Corinthian fables to another son of

Æolus, Athamas, whose family history is not less replete with mournful

and tragical incidents, abundantly diversified by the poets. Athamas,

we are told, was king of Orchomenos; his wife Nephelê was a goddess,

and he had by her two children, Phryxus and Hellê. After a certain

time he neglected Nephelê, and took to himself as a new wife Inô, the

daughter of Kadmus, by whom he had two sons, Learchus and Melikertês.

Inô, looking upon Phryxus with the hatred of a step-mother, laid a

snare for his life. She persuaded the women to roast the seed-wheat,

which, when sown in this condition, yielded no crop, so that famine

overspread the land. Athamas sent to Delphi to implore counsel and a

remedy: he received for answer, through the machinations of Inô with

the oracle, that the barrenness of the fields could not be alleviated

except by offering Phryxus as a sacrifice to Zeus. The distress of the

people compelled him to execute this injunction, and Phryxus was led as

a victim to the altar. But the power of his mother Nephelê snatched him

from destruction, and procured for him from Hermês a ram with a fleece

of gold, upon which he and his sister Hellê mounted and were carried

across the sea. The ram took the direction of the Euxine sea and

Kolchis: when they were crossing the Hellespont, Hellê fell off into

the narrow strait, which took its name from that incident. Upon this,

the ram, who was endued with speech, consoled the terrified Phryxus,

and ultimately carried him safe to Kolchis: Æêtês, king of Kolchis son

of the god Hêlios and brother of Circê, received Phryxus kindly, and

gave him his daughter Chalciopê in marriage. Phryxus sacrificed the ram

to Zeus Phyxios, and suspended the golden fleece in the sacred grove of

Arês.

Athamas—according to some both Athamas and Inô—were afterwards driven

mad by the anger of the goddess Hêrê; insomuch that the father shot

his own son Learchus, and would also have put to death his other son

Melikertês, if Inô had not snatched him away. She fled with the boy,

across the Megarian territory and Mount Geraneia, to the rock Moluris,

overhanging the Sarônic Gulf: Athamas pursued her, and in order to

escape him she leaped into the sea. She became a sea-goddess under the

title of Leukothea; while the body of Melikertês was cast ashore on the

neighboring territory of Schœnus, and buried by his uncle Sisyphus, who

was directed by the Nereïds to pay to him heroic honors under the name

of Palæmôn. The Isthmian games, one of the great periodical festivals

of Greece, were celebrated in honor of the god Poseidôn, in conjunction

with Palæmôn as a hero. Athamas abandoned his territory, and became the

first settler of a neighboring region called from him Athmantia, or the

Athamantian plain. [272]

[272] Eurip. Mêd. 1250, with the Scholia, according to which

story Inô killed both her children:—

Ἴνω μανεῖσαν ἐκ θεῶν, ὅθ᾽ ἡ Διὸς

Δάμαρ νιν ἐξέπεμψε δώματων ἄλῃ.

Compare Valckenaer, Diatribe in Eurip.; Apollodôr. i. 9, 1-2;

Schol. ad Pindar. Argum. ad Isthm. p. 180. The many varieties of

the fable of Athamas and his family may be seen in Hygin. fab.

1-5; Philostephanus ap. Schol. Iliad, vii. 86: it was a favorite

subject with the tragedians, and was handled by Æschylus,

Sophoklês and Euripidês in more than one drama (see Welcker,

Griechische Tragöd. vol. i. p. 312-332; vol. ii. p. 612). Heyne

says that the proper reading of the name is _Phrixus_, not

_Phryxus_,—incorrectly, I think: Φρύξος connects the name both

with the story of roasting the wheat (φρύγειν), and also with

the country Φρυγία, of which it was pretended that Phryxus was

the Eponymus. Inô, or Leukothea, was worshipped as a heroine at

Megara as well as at Corinth (Pausan. i. 42, 3): the celebrity

of the Isthmian games carried her worship, as well as that of

Palæmôn, throughout most parts of Greece (Cicero, De Nat. Deor.

iii. 16). She is the only personage of this family noticed

either in the Iliad or Odyssey: in the latter poem she is a

sea-goddess, who has once been a mortal, daughter of Kadmus; she

saves Odysseus from imminent danger at sea by presenting to him

her κρήδεμνον (Odyss. v. 433; see the refinements of Aristidês,

Orat. iii. p. 27). The voyage of Phryxus and Hellê to Kolchis was

related in the Hesiodic Eoiai: we find the names of the children

of Phryxus by the daughter of Æêtês quoted from that poem (Schol.

ad Apollôn. Rhod. ii. 1123) both Hesiod and Pherekydês mentioned

the golden fleece of the ram (Eratosthen. Catasterism. 19;

Pherekyd. Fragm. 53, Didot).

Hekatæus preserved the romance of the speaking ram (Schol. Apoll.

Rhod. i. 256) but Hellanikus dropped the story of Hellê having

fallen into the sea: according to him she died at Pactyê in the

Chersonesus (Schol. Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1144).

The poet Asius seems to have given the genealogy of Athamas by

Themistô much in the same manner as we find it in Apollodôrus

(Pausan. ix. 23, 3).

According to the ingenious refinements of Dionysius and

Palæphatus (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1144; Palæphat. de Incred.

c. 31) the ram of Phryxus was after all a man named Krios, a

faithful attendant who aided in his escape; others imagined a

ship with a ram’s head at the bow.

The legend of Athamas connects itself with some sanguinary religious

rites and very peculiar family customs, which prevailed at Alos,

in Achaia Phthiôtis, down to a time[273] later than the historian

Herodotus, and of which some remnant existed at Orchomenos even in the

days of Plutarch. Athamas was worshipped at Alos as a hero, having

both a chapel and a consecrated grove, attached to the temple of Zeus

Laphystios. On the family of which he was the heroic progenitor, a

special curse and disability stood affixed. The eldest of the race was

forbidden to enter the prytaneion or government-house; and if he was

found within the doors of the building, the other citizens laid hold

of him on his going out, surrounded him with garlands, and led him in

solemn procession to be sacrificed as a victim at the altar of Zeus

Laphystios. The prohibition carried with it an exclusion from all the

public meetings and ceremonies, political as well as religious, and

from the sacred fire of the state: many of the individuals marked out

had therefore been bold enough to transgress it. Some had been seized

on quitting the building and actually sacrificed; others had fled the

country for a long time to avoid a similar fate.

[273] Plutarch, Quæst. Græc. c. 38. p. 299. Schol. Apoll. Rhod.

ii. 655.

The guides who conducted Xerxês and his army through southern Thessaly

detailed to him this existing practice, coupled with the local legend,

that Athamas, together with Inô, had sought to compass the death of

Phryxus, who however had escaped to Kolchis; that the Achæans had been

enjoined by an oracle to offer up Athamas himself as an expiatory

sacrifice to release the country from the anger of the gods; but that

Kytissoros, son of Phryxus, coming back from Kolchis, had intercepted

the sacrifice of Athamas,[274] whereby the anger of the gods remained

still unappeased, and an undying curse rested upon the family.[275]

[274] Of the Athamas of Sophoklês, turning upon this intended,

but not consummated sacrifice, little is known, except from a

passage of Aristophanês and the Scholia upon it (Nubes, 258).—

ἐπὶ τί στέφανον; οἴμοι, Σώκρατες,

ὥσπερ με τὸν Ἀθάμανθ᾽ ὅπως μὴ θύσετε.

Athamas was introduced in this drama with a garland on his head,

on the point of being sacrificed as an expiation for the death of

his son Phryxus, when Hêraklês interposes and rescues him.

[275] Herodot. vii. 197. Plato, Minôs, p. 315.

That such human sacrifices continued to a greater or less extent,

even down to a period later than Herodotus, among the family who

worshipped Athamas as their heroic ancestor, appears certain: mention

is also made of similar customs in parts of Arcadia, and of Thessaly,

in honor of Pêleus and Cheirôn.[276] But we may reasonably presume,

that in the period of greater humanity which Herodotus witnessed,

actual sacrifice had become very rare. The curse and the legend still

remained, but were not called into practical working, except during

periods of intense national suffering or apprehension, during which

the religious sensibilities were always greatly aggravated. We cannot

at all doubt, that during the alarm created by the presence of the

Persian king with his immense and ill-disciplined host, the minds of

the Thessalians must have been keenly alive to all that was terrific in

their national stories, and all that was expiatory in their religious

solemnities. Moreover, the mind of Xerxês himself was so awe-struck by

the tale, that he reverenced the dwelling-place consecrated to Athamas.

The guides who recounted to him the romantic legend, gave it as the

historical and generating cause of the existing rule and practice: a

critical inquirer is forced (as has been remarked before) to reverse

the order of precedence, and to treat the practice as having been the

suggesting cause of its own explanatory legend.

[276] Plato, Minôs, c. 5. Καὶ οἱ τοῦ Ἀθάμαντος ἔκγονοι, οἵας

θυσίας θύουσιν, Ἕλληνες ὄντες. As a testimony to the fact still

existing or believed to exist, this dialogue is quite sufficient,

though not the work of Plato.

Μόνιμος δ᾽ ἱστορεῖ, ἐν τῇ τῶν θαυμασίων συναγωγῇ, ἐν Πέλλῃ τῆς

Θετταλίας Ἀχαιὸν ἄνθρωπον Πηλεῖ καὶ Χείρωνι καταθύεσθαι. (Clemens

Alexand. Admon. ad Gent. p. 27, Sylb.) Respecting the sacrifices

at the temple of Zeus Lykæus in Arcadia, see Plato, Republ.

viii. p. 565. Pausanias (viii. p. 38, 5) seems to have shrunk,

when he was upon the spot, even from inquiring what they were—a

striking proof of the fearful idea which he had conceived of

them. Plutarch (De Defectu Oracul. c. 14) speaks of τὰς πάλαι

ποιουμένας ἀνθρωποθυσίας. The Schol. ad Lycophron. 229, gives a

story of children being sacrificed to Melikertês at Tenedos; and

Apollodôrus (ad Porphyr. de Abstinentiâ, ii. 55, see Apollod.

Fragm. 20, ed. Didot) said that the Lacedæmonians had sacrificed

a man to Arês—καὶ Λακεδαιμονίους φησὶν ὁ Ἀπολλόδωρος τῷ Ἄρει

θύειν ἄνθρωπον. About Salamis in Cyprus, see Lactantius, De Falsâ

Religione, i. c. 21. “Apud Cypri Salaminem, humanam hostiam Jovi

Teucrus immolavit, idque sacrificium posteris tradidit: quod est

nuper Hadriano imperante sublatum.”

Respecting human sacrifices in historical Greece, consult a

good section in K. F. Hermann’s Gottesdienstliche Alterthümer

der Griechen (sect. 27). Such sacrifices had been a portion of

primitive Grecian religion, but had gradually become obsolete

everywhere—except in one or two solitary cases, which were spoken

of with horror. Even in these cases, too, the reality of the

fact, in later times, is not beyond suspicion.

The family history of Athamas, and the worship of Zeus Laphystios, are

expressly connected by Herodotus with Alos in Achæa Phthiôtis—one of

the towns enumerated in the Iliad as under the command of Achilles. But

there was also a mountain called Laphystion, and a temple and worship

of Zeus Laphystios between Orchomenos and Korôneia, in the northern

portion of the territory known in the historical ages as Bœotia. Here

also the family story of Athamas is localized, and Athamas is presented

to us as king of the districts of Korôneia, Haliartus and Mount

Laphystion: he is thus interwoven with the Orchomenian genealogy.[277]

Andreus (we are told), son of the river Pêneios, was the first person

who settled in the region: from him it received the name Andrêis.

Athamas, coming subsequently to Andreus, received from him the

territory of Korôneia and Haliartus with Mount Laphystion: he gave

in marriage to Andreus, Euippê, daughter of his son Leucôn, and the

issue of this marriage was Eteoklês, said to be the son of the river

Kêphisos. Korônos and Haliartus, grandsons of the Corinthian Sisyphus,

were adopted by Athamas, as he had lost all his children: but when his

grandson Presbôn, son of Phryxus, returned to him from Kolchis, he

divided his territory in such manner that Korônos and Haliartus became

the founders of the towns which bore their names. Almôn, the son of

Sisyphus, also received from Eteoklês a portion of territory, where he

established the village Almônes.[278]

[277] Pausan. ix. 34, 4.

[278] Pausan. ix. 34, 5.

With Eteoklês began, according to a statement in one of the Hesiodic

poems, the worship of the Charites or Graces, so long and so

solemnly continued at Orchomenos in the periodical festival of the

Charitêsia, to which many neighboring towns and districts seem to

have contributed.[279] He also distributed the inhabitants into two

tribes—Eteokleia and Kêphisias. He died childless, and was succeeded

by Almos, who had only two daughters, Chrysê and Chrysogeneia. The son

of Chrysê by the god Arês was Phlegyas, the father and founder of the

warlike and predatory Phlegyæ, who despoiled every one within their

reach, and assaulted not only the pilgrims on their road to Delphi,

but even the treasures of the temple itself. The offended god punished

them by continued thunder, by earthquakes, and by pestilence, which

extinguished all this impious race, except a scanty remnant who fled

into Phokis.

[279] Ephorus, Fragm. 68, Marx.

Chrysogeneia, the other daughter of Almos, had for issue, by the god

Poseidôn, Minyas: the son of Minyas was Orchomenos. From these two was

derived the name both of Minyæ for the people, and of Orchomenos for

the town.[280] During the reign of Orchomenos, Hyêttus came to him from

Argos, having become an exile in consequence of the death of Molyros:

Orchomenos assigned to him a portion of land, where he founded the

village called Hyêttus.[281] Orchomenos, having no issue, was succeeded

by Klymenos, son of Presbôn, of the house of Athamas: Klymenos was

slain by some Thêbans during the festival of Poseidôn at Onchêstos; and

his eldest son, Erginus, to avenge his death, attacked the Thêbans with

his utmost force;—an attack, in which he was so successful, that the

latter were forced to submit, and to pay him an annual tribute.

[280] Pausan. ix. 36, 1-3. See also a legend, about the three

daughters of Minyas, which was treated by the Tanagræan poetess

Korinna, the contemporary of Pindar (Antonin. Liberalis, Narr.

x.).

[281] This exile of Hyêttus was recounted in the Eoiai. Hesiod,

Fragm. 148, Markt.

The Orchomenian power was now at its height: both Minyas and Orchomenos

had been princes of surpassing wealth, and the former had built

a spacious and durable edifice which he had filled with gold and

silver. But the success of Erginus against Thêbes was soon terminated

and reversed by the hand of the irresistible Hêraklês, who rejected

with disdain the claim of tribute, and even mutilated the envoys

sent to demand it: he not only emancipated Thêbes, but broke down

and impoverished Orchomenos.[282] Erginus in his old age married a

young wife, from which match sprang the illustrious heroes, or gods,

Trophônius and Agamêdês; though many (amongst whom is Pausanius

himself) believed Trophônius to be the son of Apollo.[283] Trophônius,

one of the most memorable persons in Grecian mythology, was worshipped

as a god in various places, but with especial sanctity as Zeus

Trophônius at Lebadeia: in his temple at this town, the prophetic

manifestations outlasted those of Delphi itself.[284] Trophônius and

Agamêdês, enjoying matchless renown as architects, built[285] the

temple of Delphi, the thalamus of Amphitryôn at Thêbes, as well as the

inaccessible vault of Hyrieus at Hyria, in which they are said to have

left one stone removable at pleasure, so as to reserve for themselves

a secret entrance. They entered so frequently, and stole so much gold

and silver, that Hyrieus, astonished at his losses, at length spread a

fine net, in which Agamêdês was inextricably caught: Trophônius cut off

his brother’s head and carried it away, so that the body, which alone

remained, was insufficient to identify the thief. Like Amphiaraos, whom

he resembles in more than one respect, Trophônius was swallowed up by

the earth near Lebadeia.[286]

[282] Pausan. ix. 37, 2. Apollod. ii. 4, 11. Diodôr. iv. 10. The

two latter tell us that Erginus was slain. Klymenê is among the

wives and daughters of the heroes seen by Odysseus in Hadês: she

is termed by the Schol. daughter of Minyas (Odyss. xi. 325).

[283] Pausan. ix. 37, 1-3. Λέγεται δὲ ὁ Τροφώνιος Ἀπόλλωνος

εἶναι, καὶ οὐκ Ἐργίνου· καὶ ἐγώ τε πείθομαι, καὶ ὅστις παρὰ

Τροφώνιον ἦλθε δὴ μαντευσόμενος.

[284] Plutarch, De Defectu Oracul. c. 5, p. 411. Strabo, ix.

p. 414. The mention of the honeyed cakes, both in Aristophanês

(Nub. 508) and Pausanias (ix. 39, 5), indicates that the curious

preliminary ceremonies, for those who consulted the oracle

of Trophônius, remained the same after a lapse of 550 years.

Pausanias consulted it himself. There had been at one time an

oracle of Teiresias at Orchomenos: but it had become silent at an

early period (Plutarch. Defect. Oracul. c. 44, p. 434).

[285] Homer. Hymn. Apoll. 296. Pausan. ix. 11, 1.

[286] Pausan. ix. 37, 3. A similar story, but far more romantic

and amplified, is told by Herodotus (ii. 121), respecting the

treasury vault of Rhampsinitus, king of Egypt. Charax (ap.

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 508) gives the same tale, but places the

scene in the treasury-vault of Augeas, king of Elis, which he

says was built by Trophônius, to whom he assigns a totally

different genealogy. The romantic adventures of the tale rendered

it eminently fit to be interwoven at some point or another of

legendary history, in any country.

From Trophônius and Agamêdês the Orchomenian genealogy passes to

Ascalaphos and Ialmenos, the sons of Arês by Astyochê, who are named

in the Catalogue of the Iliad as leaders of the thirty ships from

Orchomenos against Troy. Azeus, the grandfather of Astyochê in the

Iliad, is introduced as the brother of Erginus[287] by Pausanias, who

does not carry the pedigree lower.

[287] Pausan. ix. 38, 6; 29, 1.

The genealogy here given out of Pausanias is deserving of the more

attention, because it seems to have been copied from the special

history of Orchomenos by the Corinthian Kallippus, who again borrowed

from the native Orchomenian poet, Chersias: the works of the latter

had never come into the hands of Pausanias. It illustrates forcibly

the principle upon which these mythical genealogies were framed, for

almost every personage in the series is an Eponymus. Andreus gave

his name to the country, Athamas to the Athamantian plain; Minyas,

Orchomenos, Korônus, Haliartus, Almos and Hyêttos, are each in like

manner connected with some name of people, tribe, town or village;

while Chrysê and Chrysogeneia have their origin in the reputed ancient

wealth of Orchomenos. Abundant discrepancies are found, however, in

respect to this old genealogy, if we look to other accounts. According

to one statement, Orchomenos was the son of Zeus by Isionê, daughter

of Danaus; Minyas was the son of Orchomenos (or rather of Poseidôn)

by Hermippê, daughter of Bœôtos; the sons of Minyas were Presbôn,

Orchomenos, Athamas and Diochthôndas.[288] Others represented Minyas as

son of Poseidôn by Kallirrhoê, an Oceanic nymph,[289] while Dionysius

called him son of Arês, and Aristodêmus, son of Aleas: lastly, there

were not wanting authors who termed both Minyas and Orchomenos sons

of Eteoklês.[290] Nor do we find in any one of these genealogies the

name of Amphiôn, the son of Iasus, who figures so prominently in the

Odyssey as king of Orchomenos, and whose beautiful daughter Chlôris is

married to Nêleus. Pausanias mentions him, but not as king, which is

the denomination given to him in Homer.[291]

[288] Schol. Apollôn. Rhod. i. 230. Compare Schol. ad Lycophron.

873.

[289] Schol. Pindar, Olymp. xiv. 5.

[290] Schol. Pindar, Isthm. i. 79. Other discrepancies in Schol.

Vett. ad Iliad. ii. Catalog. 18.

[291] Odyss. xi. 283. Pausan. ix. 36, 3.

The discrepancies here cited are hardly necessary in order to prove

that these Orchomenian genealogies possess no historical value. Yet

some probable inferences appear deducible from the general tenor of the

legends, whether the facts and persons of which they are composed be

real or fictitious.

Throughout all the historical age, Orchomenos is a member of the

Bϙtian confederation. But the Bϙtians are said to have been

immigrants into the territory which bore their name from Thessaly; and

prior to the time of their immigration, Orchomenos and the surrounding

territory appear as possessed by the Minyæ, who are recognized in that

locality both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey,[292] and from whom

the constantly recurring Eponymus, King Minyas, is borrowed by the

genealogists. Poetical legend connects the Orchomenian Minyæ on the one

side, with Pylos and Tryphylia in Peloponnêsus; on the other side, with

Phthiôtis and the town of Iôlkos in Thessaly; also with Corinth,[293]

through Sisyphus and his sons. Pherekydês represented Nêleus, king

of Pylos, as having also been king of Orchomenos.[294] In the region

of Triphylia, near to or coincident with Pylos, a Minyeian river is

mentioned by Homer; and we find traces of residents called Minyæ even

in the historical times, though the account given by Herodotus of the

way in which they came thither is strange and unsatisfactory.[295]

[292] Iliad, ii. 5, 11. Odyss. xi. 283. Hesiod, Fragm. Eoiai,

27, Düntz. Ἴξεν δ᾽ Ὀρχόμενον Μινυήϊον. Pindar, Olymp. xiv. 4.

Παλαιγόνων Μινυᾶν ἐπίσκοποι. Herodot. i. 146. Pausanias calls

them Minyæ even in their dealings with Sylla (ix. 30, 1).

Buttmann, in his Dissertation (Über die Minyæ der Ältesten Zeit,

in the Mythologus, Diss. xxi. p. 218), doubts whether the name

Minyæ was ever a real name; but all the passages make against his

opinion.

[293] Schol. Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1186. i. 230. Σκήψιος δὲ Δημήτρός

φησι τοὺς περὶ τὴν Ἰωλκὸν οἰκοῦντας Μινύας καλεῖσθαι; and i. 763.

Τὴν γὰρ Ἰωλκὸν οἱ Μίνυαι ᾤκουν, ὥς φησι Σιμωνίδης ἐν Συμμικτοῖς:

also Eustath. ad Iliad. ii. 512. Steph. Byz. v. Μινύα. Orchomenos

and Pylos run together in the mind of the poet of the Odyssey,

xi. 458.

[294] Pherekyd. Fragm. 56, Didot. We see by the 55th Fragment of

the same author, that he extended the genealogy of Phryxos to

Pheræ in Thessaly.

[295] Herodot. iv. 145. Strabo, viii. 337-347. Hom. Iliad, xi.

721. Pausan. v. 1, 7. ποταμὸν Μινυήϊον, near Elis.

Before the great changes which took place in the inhabitants of

Greece from the immigration of the Thesprôtians into Thessaly, of

the Bœôtians into Bœôtia, and of the Dôrians and Ætôlians into

Peloponnêsus, at a date which we have no means of determining, the

Minyæ and tribes fraternally connected with them seem to have occupied

a large portion of the surface of Greece, from Iôlkos in Thessaly to

Pylos in the Peloponnêsus. The wealth of Orchomenos is renowned even

in the Iliad;[296] and when we study its topography in detail, we are

furnished with a probable explanation both of its prosperity and its

decay. Orchomenos was situated on the northern bank of the lake Kôpaïs,

which receives not only the river Kêphisos from the valleys of Phôkis,

but also other rivers from Parnassus and Helicôn. The waters of the

lake find more than one subterranean egress—partly through natural

rifts and cavities in the limestone mountains, partly through a tunnel

pierced artificially more than a mile in length—into the plain on the

north-eastern side, from whence they flow into the Eubœan sea near

Larymna:[297] and it appears that, so long as these channels were

diligently watched and kept clear, a large portion of the lake was in

the condition of alluvial land, preëminently rich and fertile. But when

the channels came to be either neglected, or designedly choked up by an

enemy, the water accumulated to such a degree, as to occupy the soil

of more than one ancient town, to endanger the position of Kôpæ, and

to occasion the change of the site of Orchomenos itself from the plain

to the declivity of Mount Hyphanteion. An engineer, Kratês, began the

clearance of the obstructed water-courses in the reign of Alexander the

Great, and by his commission—the destroyer of Thêbes being anxious to

reëstablish the extinct prosperity of Orchomenos. He succeeded so far

as partially to drain and diminish the lake, whereby the site of more

than one ancient city was rendered visible: but the revival of Thêbes

by Kassander, after the decease of Alexander, arrested the progress of

the undertaking, and the lake soon regained its former dimensions, to

contract which no farther attempt was made.[298]

[296] Iliad, ix. 381.

[297] See the description of these channels or Katabothra in

Colonel Leake’s Travels in Northern Greece, vol. ii. c. 15, p.

281-293, and still more elaborately in Fiedler, Reise durch alle

Theile des Königreichs Griechenlands, Leipzig, 1840. He traced

fifteen perpendicular shafts sunk for the purpose of admitting

air into the tunnel, the first separated from the last by about

5900 feet: they are now of course overgrown and stopped up (vol.

i. p. 115).

Forchhammer states the length of this tunnel as considerably

greater than what is here stated. He also gives a plan of the

Lake Kôpaïs with the surrounding region, which I have placed at

the end of the second volume of this History. See also _infra_,

vol. ii. ch. iii. p. 391.

[298] We owe this interesting fact to Strabo, who is however both

concise and unsatisfactory, viii. p. 406-407. It was affirmed

that there had been two ancient towns, named Eleusis and Athênæ,

originally founded by Cecrôps, situated on the lake, and thus

overflowed (Steph. Byz. v. Ἀθῆναι Diogen. Laërt. iv. 23. Pausan.

ix. 24, 2). For the plain or marsh near Orchomenos, see Plutarch,

Sylla, c. 20-22.

According to the Thêban legend,[299] Hêraklês, after his defeat of

Erginus had blocked up the exit of the waters, and converted the

Orchomenian plain into a lake. The spreading of these waters is thus

connected with the humiliation of the Minyæ; and there can be little

hesitation in ascribing to these ancient tenants of Orchomenos,

before it became bœotized, the enlargement and preservation of these

protective channels. Nor could such an object have been accomplished,

without combined action and acknowledged ascendency on the part of

that city over its neighbors, extending even to the sea at Larymna,

where the river Kôphisos discharges itself. Of its extended influence,

as well as of its maritime activity, we find a remarkable evidence in

the ancient and venerated Amphiktyony at Kalauria. The little island

so named, near the harbor of Trœzên, in Peloponnêsus, was sacred

to Poseidôn, and an asylum of inviolable sanctity. At the temple

of Poseidôn, in Kalauria, there had existed, from unknown date, a

periodical sacrifice, celebrated by seven cities in common—Hermionê,

Epidaurus, Ægina, Athens, Prasiæ, Nauplia, and the Minyeian Orchomenos.

This ancient religious combination dates from the time when Nauplia

was independent of Argos, and Prasiæ of Sparta: Argos and Sparta,

according to the usual practice in Greece, continued to fulfil the

obligation each on the part of its respective dependent.[300] Six

out of the seven states are at once sea-towns, and near enough to

Kalauria to account for their participation in this Amphiktyony. But

the junction of Orchomenos, from its comparative remoteness, becomes

inexplicable, except on the supposition that its territory reached the

sea, and that it enjoyed a considerable maritime traffic—a fact which

helps to elucidate both its legendary connection with Iôlkos, and its

partnership in what is called the Iônic emigration.[301] The mythical

genealogy, whereby Ptôos, Schœneus and Erythrios are enumerated among

the sons of Athamas, goes farther to confirm the idea that the towns

and localities on the south-east of the lake recognized a fraternal

origin with the Orchomenian Minyæ, not less than Korôneia and Haliartus

on the south-west.[302]

[299] Diodôr. iv. 18. Pausan. ix. 38, 5.

[300] Strabo, viii. p. 374. Ἦν δὲ καὶ Ἀμφικτυονία τις περὶ τὸ

ἱερὸν τοῦτο, ἕπτα πόλεων αἳ μετεῖχον τῆς θυσίας· ἦσαν δὲ Ἑρμιὼν,

Ἐπίδαυρος, Αἴγινα, Ἀθῆναι, Πρασιεῖς, Ναυπλιεῖς, Ὀρχόμενος ὁ

Μινύειος. Ὑπὲρ μὲν οὖν τῶν Ναυπλιέων Ἀργεῖοι, ὑπὲρ Πρασιέων δὲ

Λακεδαιμόνιοι, ξυνετέλουν.

[301] Pausan. ix. 17, 1; 26, 1.

[302] See Müller, Orchomenos und die Minyer, p. 214. Pausan. ix.

23, 3; 24, 3. The genealogy is as old as the poet Asios.

The great power of Orchomenos was broken down, and the city reduced to

a secondary and half-dependent position by the Bœôtians of Thêbes; at

what time, and under what circumstances, history has not preserved. The

story, that the Thêban hero, Hêraklês, rescued his native city from

servitude and tribute to Orchomenos, since it comes from a Kadmeian

and not from an Orchomenian legend, and since the details of it were

favorite subjects of commemoration in the Thêbian temples,[303]

affords a presumption that Thêbes was really once dependent on

Orchomenos. Moreover the savage mutilations inflicted by the hero on

the tribute-seeking envoys, so faithfully portrayed in his surname

Rhinokoloustês, infuse into the mythe a portion of that bitter feeling

which so long prevailed between Thêbes and Orchomenos, and which led

the Thêbans, as soon as the battle of Leuctra had placed supremacy in

their hands, to destroy and depopulate their rival.[304] The ensuing

generation saw the same fate retorted upon Thêbes, combined with

the restoration of Orchomenos. The legendary grandeur of this city

continued, long after it had ceased to be distinguished for wealth

and power, imperishably recorded both in the minds of the nobler

citizens and in the compositions of the poets; the emphatic language of

Pausanias shows how much he found concerning it in the old epic.[305]

[303] Herod. i. 146. Pausan. vii. 2, 2.

[304] Theocrit. xvi. 104.—

Ὦ ᾿Ετεόκλειοι θύγατρες θεαὶ, αἱ Μινύειον

᾿Ορχόμενον φιλέοισαι, ἀπεχθόμενόν ποκα Θήβαις.

The scholiast gives a sense to these words much narrower than

they really bear. See Diodôr. xv. 79; Pausan. ix. 15. In the

oration which Isokratês places in the mouth of a Platæan,

complaining of the oppressions of Thêbes, the ancient servitude

and tribute to Orchomenos is cast in the teeth of the Thêbans

(Isokrat. Orat. Plataic. vol. iii. p. 32, Auger).

[305] Pausan. ix. 34, 5. See also the fourteenth Olympic Ode

of Pindar, addressed to the Orchomenian Asopikus. The learned

and instructive work of K. O. Müller, Orchomenos und die

Minyer, embodies everything which can be known respecting this

once-memorable city; indeed the contents of the work extends much

farther than its title promises.

SECTION II.—DAUGHTERS OF ÆOLUS.

With several of the daughters of Æolus memorable mythical pedigrees and

narratives are connected. Alcyonê married Kêyx, the son of Eôsphoros,

but both she and her husband displayed in a high degree the overweening

insolence common in the Æolic race. The wife called her husband Zeus,

while he addressed her as Hêrê, for which presumptuous act Zeus

punished them by changing both into birds.[306]

[306] Apollodôr. i. 7, 4. A. Kêyx,—king of Trachin,—the friend

of Hêraklês and protector of the Hêrakleids to the extent of

his power (Hesiod, Scut. Hercul. 355-473: Apollodôr. ii. 7, 5;

Hekatæ. Fragm. 353, Didot.).

Canacê had by the god Poseidôn several children, amongst whom were

Epôpeus and Alôeus.[307] Alôeus married Imphimêdea, who became

enamored of the god Poseidôn, and boasted of her intimacy with him.

She had by him two sons, Otos and Ephialtês, the huge and formidable

Alôids,—Titanic beings, nine fathoms in height and nine cubits in

breadth, even in their boyhood, before they had attained their full

strength. These Alôids defied and insulted the gods in Olympus; they

paid their court to Hêrê and Artemis, and they even seized and bound

Arês, confining him in a brazen chamber for thirteen months. No one

knew where he was, and the intolerable chain would have worn him to

death, had not Eribœa, the jealous stepmother of the Alôids, revealed

the place of his detention to Hermês, who carried him surreptitiously

away when at the last extremity; nor could Arês obtain any atonement

for such an indignity. Otos and Ephialtês even prepared to assault the

gods in heaven, piling up Ossa on Olympus and Pêlion on Ossa, in order

to reach them. And this they would have accomplished had they been

allowed to grow to their full maturity; but the arrows of Apollo put a

timely end to their short-lived career.[308]

[307] Canacê, daughter of Æolus, is a subject of deep tragical

interest both in Euripidês and Ovid. The eleventh Heroic Epistle

of the latter, founded mainly on the lost tragedy of the former

called Æolus, purports to be from Canacê to Macareus, and

contains a pathetic description of the ill-fated passion between

a brother and sister: see the fragments of the Æolus in Dindorf’s

collection. In the tale of Kaunos and Byblis, both children of

Milêtos, the results of an incestuous passion are different but

hardly less melancholy (Parthenios, Narr. xi.).

Makar, the son of Æolus, is the primitive settler of the island

of Lesbos (Hom. Hymn. Apoll. 37): moreover in the Odyssey, Æolus

son of Hippotês, the dispenser of the winds, has six sons and

six daughters, and marries the former to the latter (Odyss. x.

7). The two persons called Æolus are brought into connection

genealogically (see Schol. ad Odyss. _l. c._, and Diodôr. iv.

67), but it seems probable that Euripidês was the first to place

the names of Macareus and Canacê in that relation which confers

upon them their poetical celebrity. Sostratus (ap. Stobæum, t.

614, p. 404) can hardly be considered to have borrowed from any

older source than Euripidês. Welcker (Griech. Tragöd. vol. ii. p.

860) puts together all that can be known respecting the structure

of the lost drama of Euripidês.

[308] Iliad, v. 386; Odyss. xi. 306; Apollodôr. i. 7, 4. So

Typhôeus, in the Hesiodic Theogony, the last enemy of the gods,

is killed before he comes to maturity (Theog. 837). For the

different turns given to this ancient Homeric legend, see Heyne,

ad Apollodôr. l. c, and Hyginus, f. 28. The Alôids were noticed

in the Hesiodic poems (ap. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 482). Odysseus

does not see _them_ in Hadês, as Heyne by mistake says; he sees

their mother Iphimêdea. Virgil (Æn. vi. 582) assigns to them a

place among the sufferers of punishment in Tartarus.

Eumêlus, the Corinthian poet, designated Alôeus as son of the god

Hêlios and brother of Æêtês, the father of Mêdea (Eumêl. Fragm.

2, Marktscheffel). The scene of their death was subsequently

laid in Naxos (Pindar, Pyth. iv. 88): their tombs were seen

at Anthêdôn in Bœôtia (Pausan. ix. 22, 4). The very curious

legend alluded to by Pausanias from Hegesinoos, the author of

an Atthis,—to the effect that Otos and Ephialtês were the first

to establish the worship of the Muses in Helicôn, and that they

founded Ascra along with Œoklos, the son of Poseidôn,—is one

which we have no means of tracing farther (Pausan. ix. 29, I).

The story of the Alôids, as Diodôrus gives it (v. 51, 52),

diverges on almost every point: it is evidently borrowed from

some Naxian archæologist, and the only information which we

collect from it is, that Otos and Ephialtês received heroic

honors at Naxos. The views of O. Müller (Orchomenos, p. 387)

appear to me unusually vague and fanciful.

Ephialtês takes part in the combat of the giants against the gods

(Apollodôr. t. 6, 2), where Heyne remarks, as in so many other

cases, “Ephialtês hic non confundendus cum altero Alôei filio;”

an observation just indeed, if we are supposed to be dealing

with personages and adventures historically real, but altogether

misleading in regard to these legendary characters; for here the

general conception of Ephialtês and his attributes is in both

cases the same; but the particular adventures ascribed to him

cannot be made to consist, as facts, one with the other.

The genealogy assigned to Calycê, another daughter of Æolus, conducts

us from Thessaly to Elis and Ætôlia. She married Aëthlius (the son

of Zeus by Prôtogeneia, daughter of Deukaliôn and sister of Hellên),

who conducted a colony out of Thessaly and settled in the territory

of Elis. He had for his son Endymiôn, respecting whom the Hesiodic

Catalogue and the Eoiai related several wonderful things. Zeus granted

him the privilege of determining the hour of his own death, and even

translated him into heaven, which he forfeited by daring to pay court

to Hêrê: his vision in this criminal attempt was cheated by a cloud,

and he was cast out into the under-world.[309] According to other

stories, his great beauty caused the goddess Sêlêne to become enamored

of him, and to visit him by night during his sleep:—the sleep of

Endymiôn became a proverbial expression for enviable, undisturbed, and

deathless repose.[310] Endymiôn had for issue (Pausanias gives us three

different accounts, and Apollodôrus a fourth, of the name of his wife)

Epeios, Ætôlus, Pæôn, and a daughter Eurykydê. He caused his three sons

to run a race on the stadium at Olympia, and Epeios, being victorious,

was rewarded by becoming his successor in the kingdom: it was after him

that the people were denominated Epeians.

[309] Hesiod, Akusilaus and Pherekydês, ap. Schol. Apollôn. Rhod.

iv, 57. Ἴν δ᾽ αὐτῷ θανάτου ταμίης. The Scholium is very full

of matter, and exhibits many of the diversities in the tale of

Endymiôn: see also Apollodôr i. 7, 5; Pausan. v. 1, 2; Conôn.

Narr. 14.

[310] Theocrit. iii. 49; xx. 35; where, however, Endymiôn is

connected with Latmos in Caria (see Schol. _ad loc._).

Both the story here mentioned, and still more, the etymological

signification of the names Aëthlius and Endymiôn, seem plainly to

indicate (as has before been remarked) that this genealogy was not

devised until after the Olympic games had become celebrated and

notorious throughout Greece.

Epeios had no male issue, and was succeeded by his nephew Eleios, son

of Euykydê by the god Poseidôn: the name of the people was then changed

from Epeians to Eleians. Ætôlus, the brother of Epeios, having slain

Apis, son of Phorôneus, was compelled to flee from the country: he

crossed the Corinthian gulf and settled in the territory then called

Kurêtis, but to which he gave the name of Ætôlia.[311]

[311] Pausan. v. 1. 3-6; Apollodôr. i. 7, 6.