Chapter X

ÆAKUS AND HIS DESCENDANTS.—ÆGINA, SALAMIS, AND PHTHIA.

The memorable heroic genealogy of the Æakids establishes a fabulous connection between Ægina, Salamis, and Phthia, which we can only recognize as a fact, without being able to trace its origin.

Æakus was the son of Zeus, born of Ægina, daughter of Asôpus, whom the god had carried off and brought into the island to which he gave her name: she was afterwards married to Aktôr, and had by him Menœtius, father of Patroclus. As there were two rivers named Asôpus, one between Phlius and Sikyôn, and another between Thêbes and Platæa—so the Æginêtan heroic genealogy was connected both with that of Thêbes and with that of Phlius: and this belief led to practical consequences in the minds of those who accepted the legends as genuine history. For when the Thêbans, in the 68th Olympiad, were hard-pressed in war by Athens, they were directed by the Delphian oracle to ask assistance of their next of kin: recollecting that Thêbê and Ægina had been sisters, common daughters of Asôpus, they were induced to apply to the Æginêtans as their next of kin, and the Æginêtans gave them aid, first by sending to them their common heroes, the Æakids, next by actual armed force.[433] Pindar dwells emphatically on the heroic brotherhood between Thêbes, his native city, and Ægina.[434]

[433] Herodot. v. 81.

[434] Nem. iv. 22. Isthm. vii. 16.

Æakus was alone in Ægina: to relieve him from this solitude, Zeus changed all the ants in the island into men, and thus provided him with a numerous population, who, from their origin, were called Myrmidons.[435] By his wife Endêis, daughter of Cheirôn, Æakus had for his sons Pêleus and Telamôn: by the Nereid Psamathê, he had Phôkus. A monstrous crime had then recently been committed by Pelops, in killing the Arcadian prince, Stymphalus, under a simulation of friendship and hospitality: for this the gods had smitten all Greece with famine and barrenness. The oracles affirmed that nothing could relieve Greece from this intolerable misery except the prayers of Æakus, the most pious of mankind. Accordingly envoys from all quarters flocked to Ægina, to prevail upon Æakus to put up prayers for them: on his supplications the gods relented, and the suffering immediately ceased. The grateful Greeks established in Ægina the temple and worship of Zeus Panhellênius, one of the lasting monuments and institutions of the island, on the spot where Æakus had offered up his prayer. The statues of the envoys who had come to solicit him were yet to be seen in the Æakeion, or sacred edifice of Æakus, in the time of Pausanias: and the Athenian Isokratês, in his eulogy of Evagoras, the despot of Salamis in Cyprus (who traced his descent through Teukrus to Æakus), enlarges upon this signal miracle, recounted and believed by other Greeks as well as by the Æginêtans, as a proof both of the great qualities and of the divine favor and patronage displayed in the career of the Æakids.[436] Æakus was also employed to aid Poseidôn and Apollo in building the walls of Troy.[437]

[435] This tale, respecting the transformation of the ants into
men, is as old as the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. See Düntzer,
Fragm. Epicc. 21. p. 34; evidently an etymological tale from the
name Myrmidones. Pausanias throws aside both the etymology and
the details of the miracle: he says that Zeus raised men from the
earth, at the prayer of Æakus (ii. 29, 2): other authors retained
the etymology of Myrmidons from μύρμηκες, but gave a different
explanation (Kallimachus, Fragm. 114, Düntzer). Μυρμιδόνων ἐσσῆνα
(Strabo, viii. p. 375). Ἐσσὴν, ὁ οἰκιστής (Hygin. fab. 52).

According to the Thessalian legend, Myrmidôn was the son of
Zeus by Eurymedusa, daughter of Kletor; Zeus having assumed the
disguise of an ant (Clemens Alex. Admon. ad Gent. p. 25. Sylb.).

[436] Apollod. iii. 12, 6. Isokrat. Evagor. Encom. vol. ii. p.
278, Auger. Pausan. i. 45, 13; ii. 29, 6. Schol. Aristoph. Equit.
1253.

So in the 106th Psalm, respecting the Israelites and Phinees, v.
29, “They provoked the Lord to anger by their inventions, and the
plague was great among them;” “Then stood up Phinees and prayed,
and so the plague ceased;” “And that was counted unto him for
righteousness, among all posterities for evermore.”

[437] Pindar, Olymp. viii. 41, with the Scholia. Didymus did not
find this story in any other poet older than Pindar.

Pêleus and Telamôn, the sons of Æakus, contracting a jealousy of their bastard brother, Phôkus, in consequence of his eminent skill in gymnastic contests, conspired to put him to death. Telamôn flung his quoit at him while they were playing together, and Pêleus despatched him by a blow with his hatchet in the back. They then concealed the dead body in a wood, but Æakus, having discovered both the act and the agents, banished the brothers from the island.[438] For both of them eminent destinies were in store.

[438] Apollod. iii. 12, 6, who relates the tale somewhat
differently; but the old epic poem Alkmæônis gave the details
(ap. Schol. Eurip. Andromach. 685)—

Ἔνθα μὲν ἀντίθεος Τελαμὼν τροχοειδέϊ δίσκῳ
Πλῆξε κάρη· Πηλεὺς δὲ θοῶς ἀνὰ χεῖρα τανύσσας
Ἀξίνην ἐΰχαλκον ἐπεπλήγει μετὰ νῶτα.

While we notice the indifference to the moral quality of actions implied in the old Hesiodic legend, when it imputes distinctly and nakedly this proceeding to two of the most admired persons of the heroic world—it is not less instructive to witness the change of feeling which had taken place in the age of Pindar. That warm eulogist of the great Æakid race hangs down his head with shame, and declines to recount, though he is obliged darkly to glance at the cause which forced the pious Æakus to banish his sons from Ægina. It appears that Kallimachus, if we may judge by a short fragment, manifested the same repugnance to mention it.[439]

[439] Pindar, Nem. v. 15, with Scholia, and Kallimach. Frag. 136.
Apollônius Rhodius represents the fratricide as inadvertent and
unintentional (i. 92); one instance amongst many of the tendency
to soften down and moralize the ancient tales.

Pindar, however, seems to forget this incident when he speaks
in other places of the general character of Pêleus (Olymp. ii.
75-86. Isthm. vii. 40).

Telamôn retired to Salamis, then ruled by Kychreus, the son of Poseidôn and Salamis, who had recently rescued the island from the plague of a terrible serpent. This animal, expelled from Salamis, retired to Eleusis in Attica, where it was received and harbored by the goddess Dêmêtêr in her sacred domicile.[440] Kychreus dying childless left his dominion to Telamôn, who, marrying Peribœa, daughter of Alkathoos, and grand-daughter of Pelops, had for his son the celebrated Ajax. Telamôn took part both in the chase of the Kalydônian boar and in the Argonautic expedition: he was also the intimate friend and companion of Hêraklês, whom he accompanied in his enterprise against the Amazons, and in the attack made with only six ships upon Laomedôn, king of Troy. This last enterprise having proved completely successful, Telamôn was rewarded by Hêraklês with the possession of the daughter of Laomedôn, Hêsionê—who bore to him Teukros, the most distinguished archer amidst the host of Agamemnôn, and the founder of Salamis in Cyprus.[441]

[440] Apollod. iii. 12, 7. Euphoriôn, Fragm. 5, Düntzer, p.
43, Epicc. Græc. There may have been a tutelary serpent in the
temple at Eleusis, as there was in that of Athênê Polias at
Athens (Herodot viii. 41. Photius, v. Οἰκοῦρον ὄφιν. Aristophan.
Lysistr. 759, with the Schol.).

[441] Apollod. iii. 12, 7. Hesiod. ap. Strab. ix. p. 393.

The libation and prayer of Hêraklês, prior to the birth of Ajax,
and his fixing the name of the yet unborn child, from an eagle
(αἰετὸς) which appeared in response to his words, was detailed in
the Hesiodic Eoia, and is celebrated by Pindar (Isthm. v. 30-54).
See also the Scholia.

Pêleus went to Phthia, where he married the daughter of Eurytiôn, son of Aktôr, and received from him the third part of his dominions. Taking part in the Kalydônian boar-hunt, he unintentionally killed his father-in-law Eurytiôn, and was obliged to flee to Iôlkos, where he received purification from Akastus, son of Pelias: the danger to which he became exposed by the calumnious accusations of the enamoured wife of Akastus has already been touched upon in a previous section. Pêleus also was among the Argonauts; the most memorable event in his life however was his marriage with the sea-goddess Thetis. Zeus and Poseidôn had both conceived a violent passion for Thetis. But the former, having been forewarned by Promêtheus that Thetis was destined to give birth to a son more powerful than his father, compelled her, much against her own will, to marry Pêleus; who, instructed by the intimations of the wise Cheirôn, was enabled to seize her on the coast called Sêpias in the southern region of Thessaly. She changed her form several times, but Pêleus held her fast until she resumed her original appearance, and she was then no longer able to resist. All the gods were present, and brought splendid gifts to these memorable nuptials: Apollo sang with his harp, Poseidôn gave to Pêleus the immortal horses Xanthos and Balios, and Cheirôn presented a formidable spear, cut from an ash-tree on Mount Pêlion. We shall have reason hereafter to recognize the value of both these gifts in the exploits of Achilles.[442]

[442] Apollodôr. iii. 13, 5. Homer, Iliad, xviii. 434; xxiv. 62.
Pindar, Nem. iv. 50-68; Isthm. vii. 27-50. Herodot. vii. 192.
Catullus, Carm. 64. Epithal. Pel. et Thetidos, with the prefatory
remarks of Dœring.

The nuptials of Pêleus and Thetis were much celebrated in the
Hesiodic Catalogue, or perhaps in the Eoiai (Düntzer, Epic. Græc.
Frag. 36. p. 39), and Ægimius—see Schol. ad Apollôn. Rhod. iv.
869—where there is a curious attempt of Staphylus to rationalize
the marriage of Pêleus and Thetis.

There was a town, seemingly near Pharsalus in Thessaly, called
Thetideium. Thetis is said to have been carried by Pêleus to both
these places: probably it grew up round a temple and sanctuary of
this goddess (Pherekyd. Frag. 16, Didot; Hellank. ap. Steph. Byz.
Θεστιδεῖον).

The prominent part assigned to Thetis in the Iliad is well known, and the post-Homeric poets of the Legend of Troy introduced her as actively concurring first to promote the glory, finally to bewail the death of her distinguished son.[443] Pêleus, having survived both his son Achilles and his grandson Neoptolemus, is ultimately directed to place himself on the very spot where he had originally seized Thetis, and thither the goddess comes herself to fetch him away, in order that he may exchange the desertion and decrepitude of age for a life of immortality along with the Nêreids.[444] The spot was indicated to Xerxês when he marched into Greece by the Iônians who accompanied him, and his magi offered solemn sacrifices to her as well as to the other Nêreids, as the presiding goddesses and mistresses of the coast.[445]

[443] See the arguments of the lost poems, the Cypria and the
Æthiopis, as given by Proclus, in Düntzer, Fragm. Epic. Gr. p.
11-16; also Schol. ad Iliad. xvi. 140; and the extract from the
lost Ψυχοστασία of Æschylus, ap. Plato. de Republic. ii. c. 21
(p. 382, St.).

[444] Eurip. Androm. 1242-1260; Pindar, Olymp. ii. 86.

[445] Herodot. vii. 198.

Neoptolemus or Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, too young to engage in the commencement of the siege of Troy, comes on the stage after the death of his father as the indispensable and prominent agent in the final capture of the city. He returns victor from Troy, not to Phthia, but to Epirus, bringing with him the captive Andromachê, widow of Hectôr, by whom Molossus is born to him. He himself perishes in the full vigor of life at Delphi by the machinations of Orestês, son of Agamemnôn. But his son Molossus—like Fleance, the son of Banquo, in Macbeth—becomes the father of the powerful race of Molossian kings, who played so conspicuous a part during the declining vigor of the Grecian cities, and to whom the title and parentage of Æakids was a source of peculiar pride, identifying them by community of heroic origin with genuine and undisputed Hellênes.[446]

[446] Plutarch, Pyrrh. 1; Justin, xi. 3; Eurip. Androm. 1253;
Arrian, Exp. Alexand. i. 11.

The glories of Ajax, the second grandson of Æakus, before Troy, are surpassed only by those of Achilles. He perishes by his own hand, the victim of an insupportable feeling of humiliation, because a less worthy claimant is allowed to carry off from him the arms of the departed Achilles. His son Philæus receives the citizenship of Athens, and the gens or dême called Philaidæ traced up to him its name and its origin: moreover the distinguished Athenians, Miltiadês and Thucydidês, were regarded as members of this heroic progeny.[447]

[447] Pherekydês and Hellanikus ap. Marcellin. Vit. Thucydid.
init.; Pausan. ii. 29, 4; Plutarch, Solôn, 10. According to
Apollodôrus, however, Pherekydês said that Telamôn was only the
friend of Pêleus, not his brother,—not the son of Æakus (iii. 12,
7): this seems an inconsistency. There was however a warm dispute
between the Athenians and the Megarians respecting the title to
the hero Ajax, who was claimed by both (see Pausan. i. 42, 4;
Plutarch, _l. c._): the Megarians accused Peisistratus of having
interpolated a line into the Catalogue in the Iliad (Strabo, ix.
p. 394).

Teukrus escaped from the perils of the siege of Troy as well as from those of the voyage homeward, and reached Salamis in safety. But his father Telamôn, indignant at his having returned without Ajax, refused to receive him, and compelled him to expatriate. He conducted his followers to Cyprus, where he founded the city of Salamis: his descendant Evagoras was recognized as a Teukrid and as an Æakid even in the time of Isokratês.[448]

[448] Herodot. vii. 90; Isokrat. Enc. Evag. _ut sup._; Sophokl.
Ajax, 984-995; Vellei. Patercul. i. 1; Æschyl. Pers. 891, and
Schol. The return from Troy of Teukrus, his banishment by
Telamôn, and his settlement in Cyprus, formed the subject of the
Τεῦκρος of Sophoklês, and of a tragedy under a similar title by
Pacuvius (Cicero de Orat. i. 58; ii. 46); Sophokl. Ajax, 892;
Pacuvii Fragm. Teucr. 15.—

“Te repudio, nec recipio, natum abdico,
Facesse.”

The legend of Teukros was connected in Attic archæology with the
peculiar functions and formalities of the judicature, ἐν Φρεαττοῖ
(Pausan. i. 28, 12; ii. 29, 7).

Such was the splendid heroic genealogy of the Æakids,—a family renowned for military excellence. The Æakeion at Ægina, in which prayer and sacrifice were offered to Æakus, remained in undiminished dignity down to the time of Pausanias.[449] This genealogy connects together various eminent gentes in Achaia Phthiôtis, in Ægina, in Salamis, in Cyprus, and amongst the Epirotic Molossians. Whether we are entitled to infer from it that the island of Ægina was originally peopled by Myrmidones from Achaia Phthiôtis, as O. Müller imagines,[450] I will not pretend to affirm. These mythical pedigrees seem to unite together special clans or gentes, rather than the bulk of any community—just as we know that the Athenians generally had no part in the Æakid genealogy, though certain particular Athenian families laid claim to it. The intimate friendship between Achilles and the Opuntian hero Patroclus—and the community of name and frequent conjunction between the Locrian Ajax, son of Oïleus, and Ajax, son of Telamôn—connect the Æakids with Opus and the Opuntian Locrians, in a manner which we have no farther means of explaining. Pindar too represents Menœtius, father of Patroclus, as son of Aktôr and Ægina, and therefore maternal brother of Æakus.[451]

[449] Hesiod, Fragm. Düntz. Eoiai, 55, y. 43.—

Ἀλκὴν μὲν γὰρ ἔδωκεν Ὀλύμπιος Αἰακίδαισι,
Νοῦν δ᾽ Ἀμυθαονίδαις, πλοῦτον δ᾽ ἔπορ᾽ Ἀτρείδῃσι.

Polyb. v. 2.—

Αἰακίδας, πολέμῳ κεχαρηότας ἠΰτε δαιτί.

[450] See his Æginetica, p. 14, his earliest work.

[451] Pindar, Olymp. ix. 74. The hero Ajax, son of Oïleus, was
especially worshipped at Opus; solemn festivals and games were
celebrated in his honor.