Telemachus was little likely to make any more extended voyage. The
intercourse of his family was generally with the Iasian Argos, or
Western Peloponnesus. Hence it is said of Penelope[861], ‘Could all
the Achæans of Iasian Argos see thee.’ And hence, in the Twenty-fourth
Odyssey[862], the enemies of Ulysses anticipate that, unless prevented
by them, he will resort either to Pylus or to Elis, where are the
Epeans, for assistance. Hence, again, it is that, in the Second
Odyssey, we find Ephyre joined with Pylus and Sparta (which last is
mentioned as an extreme point, ἢ ὅγε καὶ Σπάρτηθεν,) as the quarters
to which he might repair for aid. The names of Elis and the Epeans do
not appear: and this of itself amounts nearly to a demonstration that
Ephyre not only lay in, but actually stands in lieu of, Elis in this
place.
We may however note one or two secondary points.
2. Corinth had now lost the name of Ephyre, that is to say, a new name
had overshadowed the old one. But this Ephyre, if not Corinth, could
only be the Elian Ephyre.
3. Post-Homeric tradition places an Ephyre in Elis.
We have already seen that Augeias was lord of Elis, that he ruled over
an Hellenic race, that he is an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν: was this Ephyre the seat
of his empire?
Even from the bare fact of being in Elis, it stands in significant
connection with Augeias: but more especially, it seems impossible not
to connect the peculiar knowledge of drugs, preserved at the Ephyre to
which Ulysses repaired, with the former fame of Agamede, the daughter
of Augeias (Il. xi. 740), from whom it had, in all probability, been
handed down to the next following generation.
It may be asked, what place had Ilus, the son of Mermerus[863], in
an Ephyre, where Augeias had been king or lord? We can give at least
this negative answer: the Catalogue shews that Elis, in the time of
the Trojan war, was no longer patriarchally ruled; for the Epeans had
four coordinate leaders; of whom the grandson of Augeias was but one.
Therefore an Ilus may have been in the time of Ulysses possessed of
the place, which belonged to Augeias in Nestor’s boyhood: and we may
observe, that no Epean or Elian chief, contemporary with the _Troica_,
appears in Homer under the title of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν.
Upon combining all these circumstances, we appear to have the strongest
warrant for believing that Augeias was lord of Ephyre; that he was the
head of one of the ruling families which derived themselves by a known
and recorded lineage from Hellas and a Hellic tribe; and consequently
that the archaic title of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν was applied to him, not casually,
but with a definite meaning, and in conformity to an established rule.
_Summary of the evidence for Augeias._
The following brief synopsis will, after what has been said, serve to
indicate the chief presumptive grounds of the title of Augeias to ἄναξ
ἀνδρῶν.
1. Augeias is connected with the φάρμακα, Il. xi. 739-41.
2. The φάρμακα with Ephyre, Od. i. 259.
3. Ephyre with Sisyphus, Il. vi. 152, 3.
4. Sisyphus is the son of Æolus, Il. vi. 154.
5. Æolus is Eteo-Hellenic, as the common ancestor of several of the
great Greek houses, and the lineal ancestor of at least one ἄναξ
ἀνδρῶν[864].
6. Æolus is also of divine descent, for his descendant Bellerophon is
θεοῦ γόνος, Il. vi. 191.
7. That is to say, he is a son of Jupiter; for θεὸς commonly means
Jupiter, when there is no particular reference to any other deity in
the context, and when a personal act or attribute is described.
The extra-Homeric tradition entirely supports this belief, for it makes
Augeias the son of Salmoneus, and Salmoneus the son of Æolus.
And now, after we have considered so fully the term Ἐφύρη and its
kindred words, we shall do well to notice that at least the dominions
of Agamemnon are not void of some relation to this family of names;
inasmuch as Φᾶρις, in the Catalogue, is one of the towns that provide
his forces, and Φῆραι, in the Ninth Iliad, is one of the towns of which
he promises to make Achilles lord. Of Phellias and Sellasia we have
already treated.
V. _Case of Euphetes._
I proceed to the case of Euphetes.
He is mentioned only once in the Homeric Poems. It is when, in the
Fifteenth Iliad, Dolops strikes at Meges, son of Phyleus, who is saved
by his stout breastplate: by that breastplate,
τόν ποτε Φύλευς
ἤγαγεν ἐξ Ἐφύρης, ποταμοῦ ἀπὸ Σελλήεντος.
ξεῖνος γάρ οἱ ἔδωκεν ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν Εὐφήτης[865].
This case, as it stands, is very simple. Euphetes is manifestly the
king of Ephyre: the name of the place supplies the connection with the
cradle of the Hellenes; the link is doubled by the name of the river
Σελληείς, and his rank presumably stamps him as of a ruling race in the
country; for he is a ξεῖνος to a sovereign, and the xenial relation
appears to have been always one between persons equal, or nearly so.
The passage, however, affords us no aid towards determining where this
Ephyre lay; for it does not tell us where to look for the residence of
Phyleus.
Was it the Ephyre of Elis, or was it another Ephyre, mentioned in a
passage that we have not yet examined? To this passage let us now turn.
In the Greek Catalogue, Tlepolemus, the son of Hercules, commands nine
ships from Rhodes, whither he had migrated, on account of having slain
his grand uncle Licymnius. His birth is described as follows,--
ὃν τέκεν Ἀστυόχεια βίῃ Ἡρακληείῃ·
τὴν ἄγετ’ ἐξ Ἐφύρης, ποταμοῦ ἀπὸ Σελληέντος,
πέρσας ἄστεα πολλὰ Διοτρεφέων αἰζηῶν[866].
Hercules then led off Astyocheia from Ephyre beside Selleeis, after
having devastated many cities. The opinion may perhaps be sustained
from this passage, that the Ephyre mentioned in it is not the Ephyre of
Elis, for the following reasons.
1. Tlepolemus[867] emigrates to Rhodes in consequence of homicide. He
is more likely to have done this from Thessaly than Elis, for we see no
signs of communication between western Peloponnesus and the islands of
Asia Minor near the base of the Ægean.
2. If Astyocheia, the mother of Tlepolemus, was also the Astyoche who
bore to Mars Ascalaphus and Ialmenus (Il. ii. 513), then he was more
likely to be Thessalian than Elian; for Mars, dwelling in Thrace,
bordered upon Thessaly, but is not heard of in Southern Greece; and
these princes ruled over the Minyeian Orchomenus, which is far from the
Peloponnesus, but near Southern Thessaly.
3. Again, Nestor, in the Eleventh Book[868], where he sets forth the
depression into which the Pylians had fallen, through the depredations
of their neighbours the Elians, states that they had been unable
to defend themselves against those ravages, because Hercules had
devastated their country and slain their princes. Now he would hardly
have said this, if the Elian Ephyre and its neighbourhood had likewise
been devastated by Hercules, since his account would then have failed
to explain the relative inferiority of the Pylians. But if it was
not the Elian Ephyre, and since the situation of the Isthmus and its
state make the passage inapplicable to the Corinthian Ephyre, then,
still looking for some country known in connection with the exploits
of Hercules, we must naturally take it to be the Ephyre of Thessaly,
where the name Selleeis, as that of a neighbouring stream, would most
naturally of all be looked for.
It is true that the geographers give us no record of a river Selleeis
near the Thessalian Ephyre. But the fugitive character of the name
Ephyre is manifest from the fact that, though there were several
Ephyres in Homer’s time, none of them was of sufficient importance to
furnish a military contingent worth naming. If by Ephyre was meant
the first site of a new colony, that name might naturally disappear,
not only with a removal to a more secure or convenient spot, but
even perhaps on the growth of a mere group of inclosed buildings
into a walled town. It is therefore no wonder if the site of many of
these towns has been forgotten, or if the neighbouring streams in
consequence cannot be identified.
_The site of his Ephyre._
There is a tradition, external to Homer, but not at variance with him,
that the Astyocheia whom Hercules carried off was the daughter of
Phylas; and if so, Phylas was of course lord of the Ephyre, from which
she was carried off. If we assume the veracity of this tradition, we
can determine the seat of the Ephyre of Astyocheia to have been in
Thessaly. For the five commanders under Achilles were of course all
drawn from that country. But among them is Eudorus, the son of Polymele
and grandson of Phylas[869].
It may here be asked, by the way, why is not this Eudorus an ἄναξ
ἀνδρῶν? even his name is of the form to which the phrase is so well
suited. The answer is that, though he was the son of Polymele, and the
grandson of Phylas on the female side, his reputed father was Mercury,
and he was therefore not descended in the male line from, and could not
be called, the chieftain of a tribe.
If then Phylas was lord of the Thessalian Ephyre, and Euphetes was also
lord of the Thessalian Ephyre, in what relation to one another are we
to presume them to have stood as to time? There is here no appearance
of discrepancy. Phyleus, as the father of Meges, was the ξεῖνος of
Euphetes one generation before the Trojan war. Tlepolemus, contemporary
of Meges, was by our supposition the grandson of Phylas. Phylas, lord
of Ephyre, was therefore probably one generation earlier than Euphetes,
and may have been his father.
Nor is it an objection to this reasoning, that Meges, son of Phyleus,
was lord of Dulichium, and that we cannot suppose Phyleus to have been
the ξεῖνος of one dwelling so far off as the Thessalian Ephyre. For
first, Nestor the Pylian had fought in Thessaly. And next, Meges had
been a fugitive from his father’s dwelling on account of a feud with
him: which makes it even probable that he would remove to a distance,
as we see that Tlepolemus went on a similar account from Thessaly, or
at least from some part of Greece, to Rhodes.
If then Euphetes, who was an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, governed an Ephyre, and
particularly if it was in Thessaly, the special seat of the Helli, we
can have little difficulty in concluding that he bore the title as a
patriarchal one, in right of his descent.
On the other hand, the Ephyre of Tlepolemus is certainly in the
general opinion presumed to be the Ephyre of Elis. If this opinion be
correct, it is still more easy to connect him with the title of ἄναξ
ἀνδρῶν. Augeias lives two generations before the Trojan war, rules in
Ephyre, and is ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν. Euphetes is contemporary with the father of
Meges, who fights in the war; and he is therefore one generation after
Augeias, while he rules in the same place, and bears the same title. If
then the Ephyre of Euphetes was Elian, it seems impossible to escape
the presumption that Euphetes was the son of Augeias.
This view as to the Ephyre of Euphetes on the whole will more
completely satisfy the Homeric text. For we find Meges in the
Thirteenth Book fighting at the head of Epean troops[870]. But the
troops he led to Troy were from Dulichium and the Echinades[871]. So we
can only conclude one of two things. Either Meges commanded the Epeans
of Elis in virtue of the connection of his family with that country;
or he commanded Epeans, whom his father Phyleus had taken with him from
Elis across the Corinthian gulf. Either way a relation between Elis and
the family of Meges is made good, which tends to place Euphetes, as the
friend of that family, in the Ephyre of Elis.
There is yet another supposition open. Homer has told us that Phyleus
was Διὶ φίλος,--a distinction he very rarely confers,--and that he
migrated, as he implies rather than asserts, from Elis, on account of a
quarrel with his father:
ὃς πότε Δουλίχιόν δ’ ἀπενάσσατο πατρὶ χολωθείς.
He does not mention the cause; but this abrupt allusion to the father
of Phyleus implies that he was a person of note. Strabo[872] may
therefore only be filling up a void in Homer, when he tells us, of
course from some tradition, that Augeias was the father of Phyleus.
If this were so, we have to ask, why is not Phyleus an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν? and
who, upon this supposition, could Euphetes be?
As we must infer from the Catalogue that the Elian kingdom of Augeias
was broken up at the epoch of the _Troica_, and as in consequence we do
not find Polyxeinus, his grandson, called by the title in question, so
neither need we expect it of Phyleus.
If Phyleus was the son of Augeias, Euphetes cannot have been sovereign
of the Elian Ephyre, for they would in this case not have been ξεῖνοι,
but brothers.
But he might still have been sovereign either of the Ephyre mentioned
by Homer, μυχῷ Ἄργεος, which appears as Corinth in the Catalogue: or
possibly of the Thesprotian Ephyre with which we become acquainted in
Strabo.
If Euphetes represented, with the title of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, one of the old
Hellic chieftaincies at either of those places, nothing could be more
natural than that the tie of hostship should subsist between him and
Phyleus, the son of another Hellic chieftain of the same class.
In any case, though the Homeric evidence is palpably incomplete, yet
by connecting the title of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν with the highly characteristic
local title of Ephyre, and the name of the river Selleeis, it
unequivocally supports the interpretation of that title as one
indicating an original and purely Hellic chieftaincy.
VI. _Case of Eumelus._
It now only remains to consider the case of Eumelus, the last of the
six persons to whom Homer gives the peculiar title of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν.
He is introduced to us in the Catalogue as the φίλος παῖς[873] (φίλος
meaning probably either the eldest or only son) of Admetus, who is
never mentioned except in the oblique cases, and to whom therefore,
consistently with his usage, Homer never applies the title ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν.
He is in command of his father’s forces; and, as Pheræ is the city
first named in this list, we may infer that this was his principal city.
In the first place I would remark, that we have for this Pheræ a sign
of wealth, which has been already noticed, the excellence, namely, of
its breed of horses. There is also abundant evidence of the wealth and
importance of Pheræ in the historic times[874]. This mark then accords
with the hypothesis, that it was probably one of the primitive lowland
settlements made by the Hellic race in Thessaly. In fact, Pheræ stands
relatively to Admetus, as Ephyre does relatively to Augeias, Euphetes,
and the older Æolid, Sisyphus.
Through the medium of the name Pheræ we connect this family with Ἐφύρη,
as its cognate name, and as the name which we have found, in the cases
of Euphetes and Augeias, to be eminently characteristic of settlements
under an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν.
Next it appears, that the father or ancestor of Admetus took his name
from the place which he inhabited, and was called Pheres, for says the
poet,
Ἵπποι μὲν μέγ’ ἄρισται ἔσαν Φηρητιάδαο,
τὰς Εὔμηλος ἔλαυνε[875].
The union between the names of the place and the person affords another
sign of primitive settlement. Pheres was probably the founder of the
town Φηραί.
Next, a passage in the Odyssey gives us an account of this Pheres[876].
He was the son of Cretheus, by Tyro:
τοὺς δ’ ἑτέρους Κρηθῆϊ τέκεν βασίλεια γυναικῶν,
Αἴσονά τ’ ἠδὲ Φέρητ’ Ἀμυθάονα τ’ ἱππιοχάρμην.
Now Cretheus was a son or descendant of Æolus:
Φῆ δὲ Κρηθῆος γυνὴ ἔμμεναι Αἰολίδαο[877].
And we have already seen the Æolids of Homer directly connected with
the characteristic name of Ephyre in the person of Sisyphus (Il. vi.
152, 211). Outside the Homeric text, all tradition ascribes to the
Æolians, not less than the Achæans, an Eteo-Hellenic origin. Again, we
may observe, that among the Greek genealogies of Homer, the longest are
those of the Æolids. From Æolus to Glaucus II, in the Sixth Iliad, are
six generations: and here in like manner from Cretheus to Eumelus are
four, which number will be increased to five or to six, according as
we take Cretheus to be the son or the grandson of Æolus, or estimate
the age of Eumelus. According to the Homeric force of the patronymic,
he may be either. Eumelus, however, himself was, as we have seen,
presumably not young at the time of the _Troica_; since he was wedded
to Iphthime, the sister of Penelope, who must be taken to stand, with
her husband Ulysses (Il. xxiii. 791), as above the average age of the
army.
To sum up; it thus far appears,
1. That Eumelus was heir to Admetus, a reigning prince of Thessaly or
Hellas.
2. That the capital of this prince bore testimony by its name to its
primitive or Eteo-Hellenic character.
3. That Eumelus was a descendant in the male line from Æolus, of
whose lineage several, according to Homer, seem to have possessed the
character and borne the title of the ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν.
4. In virtue of his descent from Æolus, he is sprung from Jupiter.
To estimate fully the force of the evidence, it may be well to observe,
that a great many Thessalian princes and leaders are noticed in the
Catalogue besides Eumelus; to the last alone, however, the title of
ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν is applied. But no one of the others bears any mark,
personal or local, of the peculiar descent and social position to which
this title appears to belong: although among them are found Podaleirius
and Machaon, the sons of Asclepius; Polypœtes, the son of Pirithous,
and grandson of Jupiter; Eurypylus, the distinguished warrior;
Protesilaus and Philoctetes, each the subject of distinct historical
notices.
Again, I would, from the case of Eumelus, illustrate the phrase ἄναξ
ἀνδρῶν in another point of view.
He was descended by his mother Alcestis from Neptune. She was the
daughter of Pelias, the son whom Tyro bore to the fabled ruler of the
seas. This descent on the mother’s side is mentioned in the Catalogue,
where a total silence is observed as to his paternal lineage from Æolus
and Cretheus.
Εὔμηλος, τὸν ὑπ’ Ἀδμήτῳ τέκε δῖα γυναικῶν,
Ἄλκηστις, Πελίαο θυγατρῶν εἶδος ἀρίστη.
But it is plain that his descent from Jupiter by the father’s side was
more worthy of notice than his descent from Neptune through the bastard
Pelias. Yet Homer has nowhere taken notice of the descent from Jupiter,
in the case of Eumelus, unless it is implied in the meaning of the term
ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, though we know the descent as a fact: surely a strong
proof that it is part of the meaning of the phrase ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, and is
a thing not only inseparable from it, but conveyed by it.
_The ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν descended from Jupiter._
With regard to the divine descent of the Homeric chieftains bearing
this title, our direct evidence from the Poet stands as follows:
1. That the Dardan line springs originally from Jupiter.
2. That Tyro, being called εὐπατέρεια in common with Helen only, is
evidently meant to be described as sprung from that deity.
3. That Bellerophon, also an Æolid, is also θεοῦ γόνος, therefore
himself a descendant of Jupiter.
4. And if so, then Eumelus, who was Æolid too, falls within the same
description.
5. Augeias in like manner attains to the same honour by the Homeric
presumptions which make him an Æolid, as well as by all extra-Homeric
tradition.
6. With regard to Euphetes and Agamemnon, we have no direct evidence.
But we have seen strong reason to suppose, that Euphetes was himself an
Æolid: and no inconsiderable presumption that Tantalus was according to
Homer what the later tradition makes him, a son of Jupiter, and that
Agamemnon was descended from Tantalus.
Perhaps also, without venturing to attach any conclusive weight to
such a sign, we may interpret the annexation of Διοτρεφὴς and Διογενὴς
to Hellic kingship, as a sign that the earliest Hellic kingship,
being also that which conveyed the title of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, was always
associated with divine descent.
Among those who bear the title of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, we find no case of a
descent from Jupiter reputed to be recent. The two lines in which the
title is most clearly transmitted, those of Æolus and of Dardanus, are
among the oldest genealogies in Homer. That of Agamemnon, apparently
the shortest, interposes at the least four generations between Jupiter
and him.
The line of Dardanus is apparently by one generation longer than any
of the others belonging to an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν. But nothing can be more
natural: for any settlement, made by the Helli on the Hellespont during
their eastward movement, would naturally precede by some time their
descent from Olympus and the Thracian hills into Thessaly; so that the
earlier date of the primary ancestor is a witness for, rather than
against the relationship.
It cannot, however, be too carefully borne in mind, that the divine
descent of the ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν from Jupiter is widely different from that
of the more recent heroes, like Sarpedon or Hercules. We may suppose
that in such cases as these the divine parent either screens the
result of unlawful love, or perhaps indicates the sudden rise into
eminence of a family previously obscure: with the ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν the case
is quite distinct. The poetical meaning here is, that backward there
lay nothing of family history beyond the ancestor from whom he claimed
descent, whether it were Dardanus, or Æolus, or Tantalus: as if aiming
at the effect legitimately produced by those words in the Gospel of
St. Luke, with which the upward line of the genealogy given by him
closes; ‘which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God[878].’
And the historic basis of the allegory may probably be this, that the
person indicated was one of some ruling house, who, with his followers
or kindred, separated from the migratory race of Helli as it swept
westward along the hills, and founded a stable settlement, and a
society more or less organized in orders and employments, in which his
name became the symbol at once of sovereign rank, of the national point
of origin, and of affinity in blood with a ruling race.
_Four notes of the ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν._
To conclude then: the notes of the ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν in Homer, probable or
demonstrative, are these:
1. He must be born of Jupiter _ab antiquo_.
2. He must hold a sovereignty, either paramount or secondary, and
either in whole, or, like Æneas, by devolution in part, over some given
place or tribe.
3. His family must have held this sovereignty continuously from the
time of the primary ancestor.
4. He must be the head of a ruling tribe or house of the original
Hellenic stock: and must be connected with marks of the presence of
Hellenic settlement. These marks may, as in the case of Agamemnon, be
supplied by a race or tribe: or they may be territorial, such as those
afforded by the name of the river Selleeis, and more especially by the
name Ephyre, and the family of cognate words.
Now each of the six persons, to whom alone Homer gives the title ἄναξ
ἀνδρῶν, partakes, by evidence either demonstrative or probable, of
every one of these notes.
_Negative proofs._
Among negative evidences that the title ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν conveys a peculiar
sense, we may place the following:
1. The position of Priam in Troas, where he was the greatest man of
North-western Asia, Il. xxiv. 543-6, and of Hector, or else Paris, as
his heir, were such as called for the highest epithets of dignity. He
had even a regular court of γέροντες, of whom it seems plain, that some
at least, such as Antenor, were invested with some kind of sovereignty.
Yet none of the Ilian family are called by the name of ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν.
2. Alcinous in the Odyssey affords another example of a lord over
lords, who does not belong to the historical Greek stem, and who
therefore is not called ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν. The example may appear weak,
because of the divine descent of the Phæacians. But if this phrase
had, like κρείων, been one of merely general ornament, why should it
not have been applied to him as κρείων is, or to his brother Rhexenor,
or his father Nausithous? If the divine descent of the Phæacians from
Neptune renders the phrase inapplicable to them, this is of itself a
proof of its very specific nature.
3. Again; it may be asked why Glaucus was not an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, as he
was descended from an Æolid sovereign. The answer is, he was no longer
the chieftain of any Hellenic clan. His grandfather Bellerophon had
migrated simply as an individual fugitive into a South-Asian country,
of which the people had no immediate ties of race with him; and, while
apart from his original tribe, he could not inherit a title as its head.
4. Sarpedon was under the same disqualification as Glaucus his brother
king. Besides this, he was not descended in the male line from Æolus,
but only through his mother Hippodamia.
5. Again, among the Greeks. Why, it may be asked, was not Peleus, or
why was not Achilles an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν? Here was a throne above thrones:
for Patroclus was not only an ἄναξ, but was called Διογενὴς, which
implies sovereignty; therefore Menœtius his father was the same: but
Menœtius was in attendance at the court of Peleus. Phœnix again was
tutor to that chief, though he ruled over the Dolopians by the gift of
Peleus, as he tells us,