After Periander had put to death his wife Melissa, it chanced that on
his first affliction a second followed of a different kind. His wife
had borne him two sons, and one of them had now reached the age of
seventeen, the other of eighteen years, when their mother's father,
Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus,[16] asked them to his court. They went,
and Procles treated them with much kindness, as was natural,
considering they were his own daughter's children. At length, when the
time for parting came, Procles as he was sending them on their way
said, "Know you now, my children, who it was that caused your mother's
death?" The elder son took no account of this speech, but the younger,
whose name was Lycophron, was sorely troubled at it--so much so that
when he got back to Corinth, looking upon his father as his mother's
murderer, he would neither speak to him nor answer when spoken to nor
utter a word in reply to all his father's questionings. So Periander,
at last growing furious at such behavior, banished his son from his
house.
The younger son gone, he turned to the elder and asked him what it was
that their grandfather had said to them. Then the son related in how
kind and friendly a fashion the grandfather had received them; but,
not having taken any notice of the speech which Procles had uttered at
parting, he quite forgot to mention it. Periander insisted that it was
not possible this should be all--their grandfather must have given
them some hint or other--and he went on pressing his son till at last
he remembered the parting speech and told it. Periander, after he had
turned the whole matter over in his thoughts and felt unwilling to
give way at all, sent a messenger to the persons who had opened their
houses to his outcast son and forbade them to harbor him. Then the
boy, when he had been driven from one friend, sought refuge with
another, but was forced from shelter to shelter by the threats of his
father, who menaced all those that took him in, and commanded them to
shut their doors against him. Still, as fast as he was forced to leave
one house he went to another, and was received by the inmates; for his
acquaintances, altho in no small alarm, yet gave him shelter, as he
was Periander's son.
At last Periander made proclamation that whoever harbored his son, or
even spoke to him, should forfeit a certain sum of money to Apollo. On
hearing this no one any longer liked to take him in, or even to hold
converse with him, and he himself did not think it right to seek to do
what was forbidden; so, abiding by his resolve, he made his lodging in
the public porticoes. When four days had passed in this way,
Periander, seeing how wretched his son was, that he neither washed nor
took any food, felt moved with compassion toward him; wherefore,
foregoing his anger, he approached the lad, and said, "Which is
better, oh, my son, to fare as now thou farest or to receive my crown
and all the good things that I possess, on the one condition of
submitting thyself to thy father? See, now, tho my own child, and lord
of this wealthy Corinth, thou hast brought thyself to a beggar's life,
because thou must resist and treat with anger him whom it least
behooves thee to oppose. If there has been a calamity, and thou
bearest me ill will on that account, bethink thee that I too feel it,
and am the greater sufferer, inasmuch as it was by me that the deed
was done. For thyself, now that thou knowest how much better a thing
it is to be envied than pitied, and how dangerous it is to indulge
anger against parents and superiors, come back with me to thy home."
With such words as these did Periander chide his son; but the latter
made no reply except to remind his father that he was indebted to the
god in the penalty for coming and holding converse with him. Then
Periander knew there was no cure for the youth's malady, nor means of
overcoming it; so he prepared a ship and sent him away out of his
sight to Corcyra,[17] which island at that time belonged to him. As
for Procles, Periander, regarding him as the true author of all his
present troubles, went to war with him as soon as his son was gone,
and not only made himself master of his kingdom, Epidaurus, but also
took Procles himself, and carried him into captivity.
As time went on, and Periander came to be old, he found himself no
longer equal to the oversight and management of affairs. Seeing
therefore in his elder son no manner of ability, but knowing him to be
dull and blockish, he sent to Corcyra and recalled Lycophron to take
the kingdom. Lycophron, however, did not even deign to ask the bearer
of this message a question. But Periander's heart was set upon the
youth, so he sent again to him, this time by his own daughter, the
sister of Lycophron, who would, he thought, have more power to
persuade him than any other person. Then the daughter, when she had
reached Corcyra, spoke thus with her brother: "Dost thou wish the
kingdom, brother, to pass into strange hands, and our father's wealth
to be made a prey rather than thyself return to enjoy it? Come back
home with me, and cease to punish thyself. It is scant gain, this
obstinacy. Why seek to cure evil by evil? Mercy, remember, is by many
set above justice. Many, also while pushing their mother's claims have
forfeited their father's fortune. Power is a slippery thing--it has
many suitors; and he is old and stricken in years--let not thy own
inheritance go to another."
Thus did the sister, who had been tutored by Periander what to say,
urge all the arguments most likely to have weight with her brother.
He, however, made answer that so long as he knew his father to be
still alive, he would never go back to Corinth. When the sister
brought Periander this reply, he sent to his son a third time by a
herald, and said he would come himself to Corcyra, and let his son
take his place at Corinth, as heir to his kingdom. To these terms
Lycophron agreed; and Periander was making ready to pass into Corcyra
and his son to return to Corinth, when the Corcyreans, being informed
of what was taking place, to keep Periander away, put the young man to
death. For this reason it was that Periander took vengeance on the
Corcyreans.