Chapter XVIII: 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 Bœôtian confederation. But the Bœôtians 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.