Εμφανίζονται 100 (επί συνόλου 206) τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Μυθολογία στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΑΡΓΟΣ - ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ Δήμος ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ" .
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Biton and Cleobis (Kleobis) were the sons of Cydippe, a priestess of Hera at Argos.
Herodotus, who has recorded their beautiful story, makes Solon relate it to Croesus,
as a proof that it is better for mortals to die than to live. On one occasion,
says Herodotus (i. 31), during the festival of Hera, when the priestess had to
ride to the temple of the goddess in a chariot, and when the oxen which were to
draw it did not arrive from the country in time, Cleobis and Biton dragged the
chariot with their mother, a distance of 45 stadia, to the temple. The priestess,
moved by the filial love of her sons, prayed to the goddess to grant them what
was best for mortals. After the solemnities of the festival were over, the two
brothers went to sleep in the temple and never rose again. The goddess thus shewed,
says Herodotus, that she could bestow upon them no greater boon than death. The
Argives made statues of the two brothers and sent them to Delphi.
Pausanias (ii. 20.2) saw a relief in stone at Argos, representing Cleobis and
Biton drawing the chariot with their mother (Comp. Cic. Tuscul. i. 47 ; Val. Max.
v. 4, extern. 4; Stobaeus, Sermones, 169; Servius and Philargyr. ad Virg. Georg.
iii. 532).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dionysius (i. 18) says that the first Pelasgian colony was led by Macar to Lesbos, after the Pelasgi had been driven out of Thessaly.
Diodorus Siculus (v. 81) gives a different account of this colony. He says that Xanthus, the son of Triopus, chief of the Pelasgi from Argos, settled first in Lycia, and afterwards crossed over with his followers into Lesbos, which he found unoccupied, and divided among them. This was seven generations before the flood of Deucalion. When this occurred Lesbos was desolated, and Macareus, grandson of Zeus (according to Hesiod), occupied it a second time, and the island received its name from his son-in-law.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A colony from Argos, said to have been led by Acarnan, settled in the country.
Eratidae, (Eratidai), an ancient illustrious family in the island of Rhodes. The Eratidae of Ialysus in Rhodes are described by Pindar (Ol. vii. 20, &c.; comp. Bockh, Explicat. p. 165) as descended from Tlepolemus and the Heracieidae, of whom a colony seems to have gone from Argos to Rhodes. Damagetus and his son Diagoras belonged to the family of the Eratidae.
After the Trojan War Aethaemenes, a Heracleid from Argos, led other settlers to Rhodus. (Strab. xiv. p 653; Diod. xv. 59; Apollod. iii. 2. § 1; comp. Thuc. vii. 57 ; Aristid. Orat. xliv. p. 839.) After this time the Rhodians quietly developed the resources of their island, and rose to great prosperity and affluence.
Danae is said to have come to Italy with two sons, Argus and Argeus, whom she had by Phineus, and took up her abode on the spot where Rome was afterwards built (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 345).
The island was originally inhabited by Carians, and was afterwards colonised by Thessalian Aeolians or Dorians under Heraclid leaders. It, also received an additional colony of Argives, who are said to have been shipwrecked on, the island after the Trojan war. (Diod. v. 54; Hom. Il. ii. 675.)
In the passage of Aeschylus before referred to (Suppl. 250) Argos is called Pelasgian; the king of Argos is also called anaz Pelasgon (v. 327), and throughout the play the words Argive and Pelasgian are used indiscriminately. So, too, in the Prometheus Vinctus (v. 860), Argolis is called the Pelasgian land. In a fragment of Sophocles (Inachus) the king is addressed as. lord of Argos and of the Tyrrheni Pelasgi.
Reigning over the Egyptians Epaphus married Memphis, daughter of Nile,
founded and named the city of Memphis after her, and begat a daughter Libya, after
whom the region of Libya was called. Libya had by Poseidon twin sons, Agenor and
Belus. Agenor departed to Phoenicia and reigned there, and there he became the
ancestor of the great stock; hence we shall defer our account of him. But Belus
remained in Egypt, reigned over the country, and married Anchinoe, daughter of
Nile, by whom he had twin sons, Egyptus and Danaus, but according to Euripides,
he had also Cepheus and Phineus. Danaus was settled by Belus in Libya, and Egyptus
in Arabia; but Egyptus subjugated the country of the Melampods and named it Egypt
< after himself>. Both had children by many wives; Egyptus had fifty sons, and
Danaus fifty daughters. As they afterwards quarrelled concerning the kingdom,
Danaus feared the sons of Egyptus, and by the advice of Athena he built a ship,
being the first to do so, and having put his daughters on board he fled. And touching
at Rhodes he set up the image of Lindian Athena. Thence he came to Argos and the
reigning king Gelanor surrendered the kingdom to him;< and having made himself
master of the country he named the inhabitants Danai after himself>. But the country
being waterless, because Poseidon had dried up even the springs out of anger at
Inachus for testifying that the land belonged to Hera, Danaus sent his daughters
to draw water. One of them, Amymone, in her search for water threw a dart at a
deer and hit a sleeping satyr, and he, starting up, desired to force her; but
Poseidon appearing on the scene, the satyr fled, and Amymone lay with Poseidon,
and he revealed to her the springs at Lerna.
But the sons of Egyptus came to Argos, and exhorted Danaus to lay
aside his enmity, and begged to marry his daughters. Now Danaus distrusted their
professions and bore them a grudge on account of his exile; nevertheless he consented
to the marriage and allotted the damsels among them. First, they picked out Hypermnestra
as the eldest to be the wife of Lynceus, and Gorgophone to be the wife of Proteus;
for Lynceus and Proteus had been borne to Egyptus by a woman of royal blood, Argyphia;
but of the rest Busiris, Enceladus, Lycus, and Daiphron obtained by lot the daughters
that had been borne to Danaus by Europe, to wit, Automate, Amymone, Agave, and
Scaea. These daughters were borne to Danaus by a queen; but Gorgophone and Hypermnestra
were borne to him by Elephantis. And Istrus got Hippodamia; Chalcodon got Rhodia;
Agenor got Cleopatra; Chaetus got Asteria; Diocorystes got Hippodamia; Alces got
Glauce; Alcmenor got Hippomedusa; Hippothous got Gorge; Euchenor got Iphimedusa;
Hippolytus got Rhode. These ten sons were begotten on an Arabian woman; but the
maidens were begotten on Hamadryad nymphs, some being daughters of Atlantia, and
others of Phoebe. Agaptolemus got Pirene; Cercetes got Dorium; Eurydamas got Phartis;
Aegius got Mnestra; Argius got Evippe; Archelaus got Anaxibia; Menemachus got
Nelo. These seven sons were begotten on a Phoenician woman, and the maidens on
an Ethiopian woman. The sons of Egyptus by Tyria got as their wives, without drawing
lots, the daughters of Danaus by Memphis in virtue of the similarity of their
names; thus Clitus got Clite; Sthenelus got Sthenele; Chrysippus got Chrysippe.
The twelve sons of Egyptus by the Naiad nymph Caliadne cast lots for the daughters
of Danaus by the Naiad nymph Polyxo: the sons were Eurylochus, Phantes, Peristhenes,
Hermus, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixus, Imbrus, Bromius, Polyctor, Chthonius;
and the damsels were Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe,
Anthelia, Cleodore, Evippe, Erato, Stygne, Bryce. The sons of Egyptus by Gorgo,
cast lots for the daughters of Danaus by Pieria, and Periphas got Actaea, Oeneus
got Podarce, Egyptus got Dioxippe, Menalces got Adite, Lampus got Ocypete, Idmon
got Pylarge. The youngest sons of Egyptus were these: Idas got Hippodice; Daiphron
got Adiante ( the mother who bore these damsels was Herse); Pandion got Callidice;
Arbelus got Oeme; Hyperbius got Celaeno; Hippocorystes got Hyperippe; the mother
of these men was Hephaestine, and the mother of these damsels was Crino.
When they had got their brides by lot, Danaus made a feast and
gave his daughters daggers; and they slew their bridegrooms as they slept, all
but Hypermnestra; for she saved Lynceus because he had respected her virginity:
wherefore Danaus shut her up and kept her under ward. But the rest of the daugters
of Danaus buried the heads of their bridegrooms in Lerna and paid funeral honors
to their bodies in front of the city; and Athena and Hermes purified them at
the command of Zeus. Danaus afterwards united Hypermnestra to Lynceus; and bestowed
his other daughters on the victors in an athletic contest.
Amymone had a son Nauplius by Poseidon. This Nauplius lived to a great
age, and sailing the sea he used by beacon lights to lure to death such as he
fell in with. It came to pass, therefore, that he himself died by that very death.
But before his death he married a wife; according to the tragic poets, she was
Clymene, daughter of Catreus; but according to the author of The Returns,(1)
she was Philyra; and according to Cercops she was Hesione. By her he had Palamedes,
Oeax, and Nausimedon.
Commentary:
1. Nostoi, an epic poem describing the return of the Homeric
heroes from Troy.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Danaides, the fifty daughters of Danaus, whose names are given by Apollodorus (ii. 1.5) and Hyginus (Fab. 170), though they are not the same in both lists. They were betrothed to the fifty sons of Aegyptus, but were compelled by their father to promise him to kill their husbands, in the first night, with the swords which he gave them. They fulfilled their promise, and cut off the heads of their husbands with the exception of Hypermnestra alone, who was married to Lynceus, and who spared his life (Pind. Nem. x. 7). According to some accounts, Amymone and Berbyce also did not kill their husbands (Schol. ad find. Pyth. ix. 200; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 805). Hypermnestra was punished by her father with imprisonment, but was afterwards restored to her husband Lynceus. The Danaides buried the corpses of their victims, and were purified from their crime by Hermes and Athena at the command of Zeus. Danaus afterwards found it difficult to obtain husbands for his daughters, and he invited men to public contests, in which his daughters were given as prizes to the victors (Pind. Ryth. ix. 117). Pindar mentions only forty-eight Danaides as having obtained husbands in this manner, for Hypermnestra and Amymone are not included, since the former was already married to Lynceus and the latter to Poseidon. Pausanias (vii. 1.3. Comp. iii. 12.2; Herod. ii. 98) mentions, that Automate and Scaea were married to Architeles and Archander, the sons of Achaeus. According to the Scholiast on Euripides (Hecub. 886), the Danaides were killed by Lynceus together with their father. Notwithstanding their purification mentioned in the earlier writers, later poets relate that the Danaides were punished for their crime in Hades by being compelled everlastingly to pour water into a vessel full of holes (Ov. Met. iv. 462, Heroid. xiv.; Horat. Carm. iii. 11. 25; Tibull. i. 3. 79; Hygin. Fab. 168; Serv. ad Aen. x. 497). Strabo (viii. p. 371 ) and others relate, that Danaus or the Danaides provided Argos with water, and for this reason four of the latter were worshipped at Argos as divinities; and this may possibly be the foundation of the story about the punishment of the Danaides. Ovid calls them by the name of the Belides, from their grandfather, Belus; and Herodotus (ii. 171), following the titles of the Egyptians, says, that they brought the mysteries of Demeter Thesmophoros from Egypt to Peloponnesus, and that the Pelasgian women there learned the mysteries from them.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pdysadeia (Phusadeia), a daughter of Danaus, from whom the well of Physadeia near Argos, was believed to have derived its name. (Callim. Hymn. in Pall. 47)
Io. The beautiful daughter of Inachus, and the first priestess of Here at Argos. As Zeus loved her, she was changed by the jealousy of Here into a white heifer, and Argus of the hundred eyes was appointed to watch her. When Hermes, at the command of Zeus, had killed Argus, Here maddened the heifer by sending a gad-fly which perpetually pursued her. Io thus wandered through the continents of Europe and Asia, by land and by sea. Each of the different straits she swam across was named after her Bosporus, or Ox-ford. At last in Egypt she recovered her original shape, and bore Epaphus to Zeus. Libya, the daughter of Epaphus, became by Poseidon the mother of Belus, who in turn was father of Aegyptus, Danaus, Cepheus, and Phineus. The Greek legend of Io's going to Egypt is probably to be explained by her having been identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis, who is always represented with cow's horns. Io ("the wanderer") is generally explained as a moon-goddess wandering in the starry heavens, symbolized by Argus of the hundred eyes; her transformation into a horned heifer representing the crescent moon.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Io. The traditions about this heroine are so manifold, that it is impossible
to give any goneral view of them without some classification we shall therefore
give first the principal local traditions, next the wanderings of Io, as they
are described by later writers, and lastly mention the various attempts to explain
the stories about her.
Local traditions The place to which the legends of lo belong,
and where she was closely connected with the worship of Zeus and Hera, is Argos.
The chronological tables of the priestesses of Hera at Argos placed Io at the
head of the list of priestesses, under the name of Callirhoe, or Callithyia (Preller,
de Hellan. Lesb. p. 40). She is commonly described as a daughter of Inachus,
the founder of the worship of Hera at Argos, and by others as a daughter of Iasus
or Peiren. Zeus loved Io, but on account of Hera's jealousy, he metamorphosed
her into a white cow. Hera thereupon asked and obtained the cow from Zeus, and
placed her under the care of Argus Panoptes, who tied her to an olive tree in
the grove of Hera at Mycenae.
But Hermes was commissioned by Zens to deliver Io, and carry her off. Hermes being
guided by a bird (hierax, pikon), who was Zeus himself (Suid. s. v. Io), slew
Argus with a stone. Hera then sent a gad-fly which tormented Io, and persecuted
her through the whole earth, until at length she found rest on the banks of the
Nile (Apollod. ii. 1.2; Hygin.
Fab. 145; comp. Virg. Georg. iii. 148, & c.). This is the common story, which
appears to be very ancient, since Homer constantly applies the epithet of Argeiphontes
(the siaver of Argus) to Hermes. But there are some slight modifications of the
story in the different writers. Some, for example, place the scene of the murder
of Argus at Nemea (Lucian,
Dial. Deor. 3; Etymol. Mag. s. v. Aphesios). Ovid (Met. i. 722) relates that Hermes
first sent Argus to sleep by the sweetness of his music on the flute, and that
he then cut off the head of Argus, whose eyes Hera transferred to the tail of
the peacock, her favourite bird (Comp. Moschus, Idyll. ii. 59). A peculiar mournfill
festival was celebrated in honour of Io at Argos, and although we have no distinct
statement that she was worshipped in the historical ages of Greece, still it is
not improbable that she was (Suid. l. c.; Palaephat. p. 43; Strab. xiv.). There
are indeed other places, besides Argos, where we meet with the legends of Io,
but they must be regarded as importations from Argos, either through colonies
sent by the latter city, or they were transplanted with the worship of Hera, the
Argive goddess. We may mention Euboea,
which probably derived its name from the cow Io, and where the spot was shown
on which Io was believed to have been killed, as well as the cave in which she
had given birth to Epaphus (Strab vii.; Steph. Byz. l. s. Argoura; Etymol. Mag.
s. v. Euboia). Another place is Byzantium,
in the foundation of which Argive colonists had taken part, and where the Bosporus
derived its name, from the cow Io having swam across it. From the Thracian Bosporus
the story then spread to the Cimmerian
Bosporus and Panticapaeum.
Tarsus and Antioch
likewise had monuments to prove that Io had been in their neighbourhood, and that
they were colonies of Argos. Io was further said to have been at Joppa and in
Aethiopia, together with
Perseus and Medusa (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 835, &c.); but it was more especially the
Greeks residing in Egypt, who maintained that Io had been
in Egypt, where she was said to have given birth to Epaphus, and to have introduced
the worship of Isis, while Epaphus became the founder of a family from which sprang
Danaus, who subsequently returned to Argos. This part of the story seems to have
arisen from certain resemblances of religious notions, which subsequently even
gave rise to the identification of Io and Isis. Herodotus (i. l, & c., ii. 41)
tells us that Isis was represented like the Greek Io, in the form of a woman,
with cows' horns.
The wanderings of Io. The idea of Io having wandered about after
her metamorphosis appears to have been as ancient as the mythus respecting her,
but those wanderings were extended and poetically embellished in proportion as
geographical knowledge increased. The most important passage is in the Prometheus
of Aeschylus (705, & c.), although it is almost impossible to reconcile the poet's
description with ancient geography, so far as we know it. From Argos Io first
went to Molossis and the
neighbourhood of Dodona,
and from thence to the sea, which derived from her the name of the Ionian.
After many wanderings through the unknown regions of the north, she arrived in
the place where Prometheus was fastened to a rock. As the Titan prescribes to
her the course she has yet to take, it is of importance to ascertain the spot
at which he begins to describe her course; but the expressions of Aeschylus are
so vague, that it is a hopeless attempt to determine that spot. According to the
extant play, it is somewhere in European Scythia,
perhaps to the north of the river Istrus;
but in the last play of the Trilogy, as well as in other accounts, the Caucasus
is mentioned as the place where the Titan endured his tortures, and it remains
again uncertain in what part of the Caucasus we have to conceive the suffering
Titan. It seems to be the most probable supposition, that Aeschylus himself did
not form a clear and distinct notion of the wanderings he describes, for how little
he cared about geographical accuracy is evident from the fact, that in the Supplices
(548, & c.) he describes the wanderings of Io in a very diffent manner from that
adopted in the Prometheus. If, however, we place Prometheus somewhere in the north
of Europe, the course he prescribes may be conceived in the following manner.
Io has first to wander towards the east, through unknown countries, to the Scythian
nomades (north of Olbia),
whom, however, she is to avoid, by travelling through their country along the
sea-coast; she is then to have on her left the Chalybes, against whom she must
likewise be on her guard. These Chalybes are probably the Cimmerians,
who formerly inhabited the Crimea
and the adjacent part of Scythia,
and afterwards the country about Sinope. From thence she is to arrive on the river
Hybristes (the Don or Cuban), which she is to follow up to its sources, in the
highest parts of Mount Caucasus, in order there to cross it. Thence she is to
proceed southward, where she is to meet the Amazons (who at that time are conceived
to live in Colchis, afterwards
in Themiscyra, on the river
Thermodon), who are to conduct her to the place where the Salmydessian
rock endangers all navigation. This latter point is so clear an allusion to the
coast north of the mouth of the Bosporus,
that we must suppose that Aeschylus meant to describe Io as crossing the Thracian
Bosporus from Asia into Europe.
From thence he leads her to the Cimmerian
Bosporus, which is to receive its name from her, and across the palus Maeotis.
In this manner she would in part touch upon the same countries which she had traversed
before. After this she is to leave Europe and go to Asia, according to which the
poet must here make the Maeotis
the boundary between Europe and Asia, whereas elsewhere he makes the Phasis
the boundary. The description of the wanderings of Io is taken up again at verse
788. She is told that after crossing the water separating the two continents,
she is to arrive in the hot countries situated under the rising sun. At this point
in the description there is a gap, and the last passage probably described her
further progress through Asia. Io then has again to cross a sea,after which she
is to come to the Gorgonaean plains of Cisthenes (which, according to the scholiast,
is a town of Aethiopia or
Libya), and to meet the Graeae
and Gorgones. The sea here mentioned is probably the so-called Indian Bosporus
(Steph. Byz. s. v. Bosporos; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 143), where the extremities
of Asia and Libya, India and Aethiopia, were conceived to be close to each other,
and where some writers place the Gorgones (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. x. 72). The mention,
in the verses following, of the griffins and Arimaspae, who are generally assigned
to northern regions, creates some difficulty, though the poet may have mentioned
them without meaning to place them in the south, but only for the purpose of connecting
the misfortunes of Io with the best-known monsters. From the Indian Bosporus,
Io is to arrive in the country of the black people, dwelling around the well of
the sun, on the river Aethiops, that is, the upper part of the Nile or the Niger.
She is to follow the course of that river, until she comes to the cataracts of
the Nile, which river she is again to follow down to the Delta, where delivery
awaits her (Comp. Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 382, & c.; Apollod. ii. 1.3; Hygin. Fab.
145).
The mythus of Io is one of the most ancient, and at the same time
one of the most difficult to explain. The ancients believed Io to be the moon,
and there is a distinct tradition that the Argives called the moon Io (Eustath.
ad Dionys. Perieg. 92; Suid. and IIesych. s. v. Io). This opinion has also been
adopted by some modern critics, who at the same time see in this mythus a confirmation
of the belief in an ancient connection between the religions of Greece and Egypt
(Buttmann, Mytholog. vol. ii. p. 179, & c.; Welcker, Die Aeschyl. Trilog. p. 127,
& c.; Schwenk, Etymol. Mythol. Andeutungen, p. 62, & c.; Mytholog. der Griech.
p. 52, & c. ; Klausen, in the Rhein. Museum, vol. iii. p. 293, & c.; Voelcker,
Mythol Geogr. der Griech. u. Rom. vol. i). That Io is identical with the moon
cannot be doubted (comp. Eurip. Phoen, 1123; Macrob. Sat. i. 19), and the various
things related of her refer to the phases and phenomena of the moon, and are intimately
connected with the worship of Zeus and Hera at Argos. Her connection with Egypt
seems to be an invention of later times, and was probably suggested by the resemblance
which was found to exist between the Argive Io and the Egyptian Isis.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The Persian learned men say that the Phoenicians ... they came to
Argos, which was at that time preeminent in every way among the people of what
is now called Hellas. The Phoenicians came to Argos, and set out their cargo.
On the fifth or sixth day after their arrival, when their wares were almost all
sold, many women came to the shore and among them especially the daughter of the
king, whose name was Io (according to Persians and Greeks alike), the daughter
of Inachus. As these stood about the stern of the ship bargaining for the wares
they liked, the Phoenicians incited one another to set upon them. Most of the
women escaped: Io and others were seized and thrown into the ship, which then
sailed away for Egypt. In this way, the Persians say (and not as the Greeks),
was how Io came to Egypt, and this, according to them, was the first wrong that
was done. Next, according to their story, some Greeks (they cannot say who) landed
at Tyre in Phoenicia and carried off the king's daughter Europa. These Greeks
must, I suppose, have been Cretans. So far, then, the account between them was
balanced Such is the Persian account...
... But the Phoenicians do not tell the same story about Io as the Persians. They
say that they did not carry her off to Egypt by force. She had intercourse in
Argos with the captain of the ship. Then, finding herself pregnant, she was ashamed
to have her parents know it, and so, lest they discover her condition, she sailed
away with the Phoenicians of her own accord.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Κόρη του Ινάχου που την αγάπησε ο Δίας και γι' αυτό η Ηρα τη μεταμόρφωσε σε αγελάδα. Υπήρχε άγαλμά της στην Ακρόπολη των Αθηνών (Παυσ. 1,25,1) (βλ. Perseus Encyclopedia).
Phoronis, a surname of Io, being according to some a descendant, and according to others a sister of Phoroneus. (Ov. Met. i. 668 ; Hygin. Fab. 145.)
Inachia (Inachis, Inacheie, Inachione), frequently occur as surnames of Io, the daughter of Inachus. (Virg. Georg. iii. 153; Ov. Fast. iii. 658, Met. ix. 686; Aeschyl. Prom. 591; Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 254.) Epaphus, a grandson of Inachus, bears the same surname (Ov. Met. i. 753); and so also Perseus, merely because he was born at Argos, the city of Inachus. (Ov. Met. iv. 719.)
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Argus, surnamed Panoptes. His parentage is stated differently, and his father is called Agenor, Arestor, Inachus, or Argus, whereas some accounts described him as an Autochthon (Apollod. ii. 1, 2; Ov. Met. i. 264). He derived his surname, Panoptes, the all-seeing, from his possessing a hundred eyes, some of which were always awake. He was of superhuman strength, and after he had slain a fierce bull which ravaged Arcadia, a Satyr who robbed and violated persons, the serpent Echidna, which rendered the roads unsafe, and the murderers of Apis, who was according to some accounts his father, Hera appointed him guardian of the cow into which Io had been metamorphosed (Comp. Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1151, 1213). Zeus commissioned Hermes to carry off the cow, and Hermes accomplished the task, according to some accounts, by stoning Argus to death, or according to others, by sending him to sleep by the sweetness of his play on the flute and then cutting off his head. Hera transplanted his eyes to the tail of the peacock, her favourite bird (Aeschyl. Prom.; Apollod. Ov. ll. cc).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ismene. A daughter of Asopus and Metope, and wife of Argus, by whom she became the mother of Iasus and Io. (Apoiiod. ii. 1 Β 3.)
Falx dim. Falcula (harpe, kopis, drepanon, poet. drepane, dim. drepanion), a sickle;
a scythe; a pruning-knife, or pruning-hook; a bill; a falchion; a halbert.
As culter
denoted a knife with one straight edge, falx signified any similar instrument,
the single edge of which was curved. (Drepanon eukampes, Hom. Od. xviii. 368;
curvae falces, Verg. Georg. i. 508; curvamine falcis aenae, Ovid, Met. vii. 227;
adunca falce, xiv. 628.) By additional epithets the various uses of the falx were
indicated, and its corresponding varieties in form and size. Thus the sickle,
because it was used by reapers, was called falx messoria; the scythe, which was
employed in mowing hay, was called falx fenaria; the pruning-knife and the bill,
on account of their use in dressing vines, as well as in hedging and in cutting
off the shoots and branches of trees, were distinguished by the appellation of
falx putatoria, vinitoria, arboraria, or silvatica (Cato, de Re Rust. 10, 11;
Pallad. i. 43; Colum. iv. 25), or by the diminutive falcula (Colum. xii. 18)....
...The edge of the falx was often toothed or serrated (harpen karcharodonta, Hesiod,
Theog. 175, 179; denticulata, Colum. de Re Rust. ii. 21). The indispensable process
of sharpening these instruments (harpen charassemenai, Hesiod, Op. 573; harpen
eukampe neothegea, Apoll. Rhod. iii. 1387) was effected by whetstones which the
Romans obtained from Crete and other distant places, with the addition of oil
or water which the mower (fenisex) carried in a horn upon his thigh (Plin. H.
N. xviii.261).
Numerous as were the uses to which the falx was applied in agriculture
and horticulture, its employment in battle was almost equally varied, though not
so frequent. The Geloni were noted for its use (Claudian, de Laud. Stil. i. 110).
It was the weapon with which Jupiter wounded Typhon (Apollod. i. 6); with which
Hercules slew the Lernaean Hydra (Eurip. Ion, 192); and with which Mercury
cut off the head of Argus (falcato ense, Ovid, Met. i. 717; harpen Cyllenida,
Lucan ix.661-667). Perseus, having received the same weapon from Mercury, or,
according to other authorities, from Vulcan, used it to decapitate Medusa and
to slay the sea-monster (Apollod. ii. 4; Eratosth. Cataster. 22; Ovid, Met. iv.
666, 720, 727, v. 69; Anth. Pal. xi. 52). From the passages now referred to, we
may conclude that the falchion was a weapon of the most remote antiquity; that
it was girt like a dagger upon the waist; that it was held in the hand by a short
hilt; and that, as it was in fact a dagger or sharp-pointed blade, with a proper
falx projecting from one side, it was thrust into the flesh up to this lateral
curvature (curvo tenus abdidit hamo). In the following woodcut, four examples
are selected from works of ancient art to illustrate its form. One of the four
cameos here copied represents Perseus with the falchion in his right hand, and
the head of Medusa in his left. The two smaller figures are heads of Saturn with
the falx in its original form; and the fourth cameo, representing the same divinity
at full length, was probably engraved in Italy at a later period than the others,
but early enough to prove that the scythe was in use among the Romans, while it
illustrates the adaptation of the symbols of Saturn (Kronos: senex falcifer, Ovid,
Fast. v. 627; Ibis, 216) for the purpose of personifying Time (Chronos).
If we imagine the weapon which has now been described to be attached
to the end of a pole, it would assume the form and be applicable to all the purposes
of the modern halbert. Such must have been the asseres falcati used by the Romans
at the siege of Ambracia (Liv. xxxviii. 5; cf. Caes. B. G. vii. 22, 86; Q. Curt.
iv. 19). Sometimes the iron head was so large as to be fastened, instead of the
ram's head, to a wooden beam, and worked by men under a testudo (Veget. iv. 14).
Lastly, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Medes, and the Syrians in Asia (Xen.
Cyrop. vi. 1, § 30, 2,7; Anab. i. 8,10;--Diod. ii. 5, xvii. 53; Polyb. v. 53;
Q. Curt. iv. 9, 12, 13; Gell. v. 5; 2 Mace. xiii. 2; Veget. iii. 24; Liv. xxxvii.
41), and the Gauls and Britons in Europe, made themselves formidable on the field
of battle by the use of chariots with scythes, fixed at right angles (eis plagion)
to the axle and turned downwards; or inserted parallel to the axle into the felly
of the wheel, so as to revolve, when the chariot was put in motion, with more
than thrice the velocity of the chariot itself; and sometimes also projecting
from the extremities of the axle.
Κόρη του βασιλιά Κρότωπα. Γέννησε από τον Απόλλωνα μωρό το οποίο άφησε έκθετο από φόβο για τον πατέρα της. Οταν το μωρό σκοτώθηκε από τα σκυλιά των κοπαδιών του Κρότωπα ο Απόλλων έστειλε στο Αργος την Ποινή να παίρνει τα παιδιά από τις γυναίκες. Ο Κόροιβος που σκότωσε την Ποινή αναγκάστηκε να αυτοεξοριστεί και να ιδρύσει τον Τριποδίσκο κοντά στα Μέγαρα.
Hymen or Hymeneus (Hgmen or Hgmenaios), the god of marriage, was conceived as
a handsome youth, and invoked in the hymeneal or bridal song. The names originally
designated the bridal song itself, which was subsequently personified. The first
trace of this personification occurs in Euripides (Troad. 31 1), or perhaps in
Sappho ( Fragm. 73, p. 80, ed. Neue). The poetical origin of the god Hymen or
Hymenaeus is also implied in the fact of his being described as the son of Apollo
and a Muse, either Calliope, Urania, or Terpsichore. (Catull. lxi. 2; Nonn. Dionys.
xxxiii. 67; Schol. Vatic. ad Eurip. Rhes. 895, ed. Dindorf; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth.
iv. 313; Alciphron, Epist. i. 13; Tzetz. Chil. xiii. 599.) Hence he is mentioned
along with the sons of the Muses, Linus and Ialemus, and with Orpheus. Others
describe him only as the favourite of Apollo or Thamyris, and call him a son of
Magnes and Calliope, or of Dionysus and Aphrodite. (Suid. s. v. Thamurris; Anton.
Lib. 23; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 127, ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 30.)
The ancient traditions, instead of regarding the god as a personification
of the hymeneal song, speak of him as originally a mortal, respecting whom various
legends were related. According to an Argive tradition, Hymenaeus was
a youth of Argos, who, while sailing along the coast of Attica, delivered
a number of Attic maidens from the violence of some Pelasgian pirates, and was
afterwards praised by them in their bridal songs, which were called, after him,
hymeneal songs (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1157).
The Attic legends described him as a youth of such delicate beauty,
that he might be taken for a girl. He fell in love with a maiden, who refused
to listen to him; but in the disguise of a girl he followed her to Eleusis to
the festival of Demeter. He, together with the other girls, was carried off by
robbers into a distant and desolate country. On their landing, the robbers laid
down to sleep, and were killed by Hymenaeus, who now returned to Athens, requesting
the citizens to give him his beloved in marriage, if he restored to them the maidens
who had been carried off by the robbers. His request was granted, and his marriage
was extremely happy. For this reason he was invoked in the hymeneal songs (Serv.
ad Aen. i. 655, ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 30).
According to others he was a youth, and was killed by the breaking
down of his house on his wedding-day whence he was afterwards invoked in bridal
songs, in order to be propitiated (Serv. l. c.); and some related that at the
wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne he sang the bridal hymn, but lost his voice (Serv.
l. c.; comp. Scriptor Rerum Mythic. pp. 26, 148, 229; Ov. Met. ii. 683, who makes
him a son of Argus and Perimele; Terent. Adelph. v. 7, 8.)
According to the Orphic legends, the deceased Hymenaeus was called
to life again by Asclepius (Apollod. iii. 10.3). He is represented in works of
art as a youth, but taller and with a more serious expression than Eros, and carrying
in his hand a bridal torch. (Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. ii. p. 224.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Tantalus (Tantalos) . . . All traditions agree in stating that he was a wealthy king, but while some call him king of Lydia. of Sipylus in Phrygia or Paphlagonia, others describe him as king of Argos or Corinth.
Broteas, the father of Tantalus, who had been married to Clytaemnestra before Agamemnon. The common account, however, is, that Thyestes was the father of this Tantalus. (Paus. ii. 22.4)
Chloris. A daughter of the Theban Amphion and Niobe. According to an Argive tradition, her original name was Meliboea, and she and her brother Amyclas were the only children of Niobe that were not killed by Apollo and Artemis. But the terror of Chloris at the death of her brothers and sisters was so great, that she turned perfectly white, and was therefore called Chloris. She and her brother built the temple of Leto at Argos, which contained a statue of Chloris also (Paus. ii. 21.10). According to an Olympian legend, she once gained the prize in the footrace during the festival of Hera at Olympia (Paus. v. 16.3). Apollodorus (iii. 5.6) and Hyginus (Fab. 10, 69) confound her with Chloris, the wife of Neleus.
Chloris. The wife of Zephyrus, and the goddess of flowers, so that she is identical with the Roman Flora. (Ov. Fast. v. 195.) There are two more mythical personages of the name of Chloris. (Hygin. Fab. 14; Anton. Lib. 9.)
ΗΡΑΙΟΝ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΑΡΓΟΣ - ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ
ΛΕΡΝΑ (Προϊστορικός οικισμός) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
The second labor of Hercules was to kill the Lernean Hydra. From the
murky waters of the swamps near a place called Lerna, the hydra would rise up
and terrorize the countryside. A monstrous serpent with nine heads, the hydra
attacked with poisonous venom. Nor was this beast easy prey, for one of the nine
heads was immortal and therefore indestructible.
Hercules set off to hunt the nine-headed menace, but he did not go
alone. His trusty nephew, Iolaus, was by his side. Iolaus, who shared many adventures
with Hercules, accompanied him on many of the twelve labors. Legend has it that
Iolaus won a victory in chariot racing at the Olympics and he is often depicted
as Hercules' charioteer. So, the pair drove to Lerna and by the springs of Amymone,
they discovered the lair of the loathsome hydra.
First, Hercules lured the coily creature from the safety of its den
by shooting flaming arrows at it. Once the hydra emerged, Hercules seized it.
The monster was not so easily overcome, though, for it wound one of its coils
around Hercules' foot and made it impossible for the hero to escape. With his
club, Hercules attacked the many heads of the hydra, but as soon as he smashed
one head, two more would burst forth in its place! To make matters worse, the
hydra had a friend of its own: a huge crab began biting the trapped foot of Hercules.
Quickly disposing of this nuisance, most likely with a swift bash of his club,
Hercules called on Iolaus to help him out of this tricky situation.
Each time Hercules bashed one of the hydra's heads, Iolaus held a
torch to the headless tendons of the neck. The flames prevented the growth of
replacement heads, and finally, Hercules had the better of the beast. Once he
had removed and destroyed the eight mortal heads, Hercules chopped off the ninth,
immortal head. This he buried at the side of the road leading from Lerna to Elaeus,
and for good measure, he covered it with a heavy rock. As for the rest of the
hapless hydra, Hercules slit open the corpse and dipped his arrows in the venomous
blood.
Eurystheus was not impressed with Hercules' feat, however. He said
that since Iolaus had helped his uncle, this labor should not count as one of
the ten. This technicality didn't seem to matter much to anyone else: the ancient
authors still give Hercules all of the credit. Even so, Pausanias did not think
that this labor was as fantastic as the myths made it out to be: to him, the fearsome
hydra was just, well, a big water snake.
This text is cited July 2004 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Heracles. 2. Fights against the Lernean hydra. This monster, like the lion, was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and was brought up by Hera. It ravaged the country of Lernae near Argos, and dwelt in a swamp near the well of Amymone: it was formidable by its nine heads, the middle of which was immortal. Heracles, with burning arrows, hunted up the monster, and with his club or a sickle he cut off its heads; but in the place of the head he cut off, two new ones grew forth each time, and a gigantic crab came to the assistance of the hydra, and wounded Heracles. However, with the assistance of his faithful servant Iolaus, he burned away the heads of the hydra, and buried the ninth or immortal one under a huge rock. Having thus conquered the monster, he poisoned his arrows with its bile, whence the wounds inflicted by them became incurable. Eurystheus declared the victory unlawful, as Heracles had won it with the aid of Iolaus. (Hes. Theog. 313, &c.; Apollod. ii. 5.2; Diod. iv. 11; Eurip. Herc. Fur. 419, 1188, Ion, 192; Ov. Met. ix. 70; Virg. Aen. viii. 300; Paus. ii. 36.6, 37.4, v. 5.5; Hygin. Fab. 30.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ (Μυκηναϊκό ανάκτορο) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Given by Aerope to Thyestes, who produces it and is made king of Mycenae
Electryon married Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus, and begat a daughter Alcmena, and sons, to wit, Stratobates, Gorgophonus, Phylonomus, Celaeneus, Amphimachus, Lysinomus, Chirimachus, Anactor, and Archelaus; and after these he had also a bastard son, Licymnius, by a Phrygian woman Midea.
When Electryon reigned over Mycenae, the sons of Pterelaus came with some Taphians and claimed the kingdom of Mestor, their maternal grandfather, and as Electryon paid no heed to the claim,they drove away his kine; and when the sons of Electryon stood on their defence, they challenged and slew each other.
But of the sons of Electryon there survived Licymnius, who was still young; and of the sons of Pterelaus there survived Everes, who guarded the ships.
Wishing to avenge his sons' death, Electryon purposed to make war on the Teleboans, but first he committed the kingdom to Amphitryon along with his daughter Alcmena, binding him by oath to keep her a virgin until his return.
ΟΙΝΟΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΥΡΚΕΙΑ
As a third labour he (Eurystheus) ordered him (Heracles) to bring the Cerynitian
hind alive to Mycenae. Now the hind was at Oenoe; it had golden horns and was
sacred to Artemis; so wishing neither to kill nor wound it, Hercules hunted it
a whole year. But when, weary with the chase, the beast took refuge on the mountain
called Artemisius, and thence passed to the river Ladon, Hercules shot it just
as it was about to cross the stream, and catching it put it on his shoulders and
hastened through Arcadia. But Artemis with Apollo met him, and would have wrested
the hind from him, and rebuked him for attempting to kill her sacred animal. Howbeit,
by pleading necessity and laying the blame on Eurystheus, he appeased the anger
of the goddess and carried the beast alive to Mycenae. (Apoll. 2.5.3)
Commentary:
1. Later Greek tradition, as we see from Apollodorus, did not place the native
land of the hind so far away. Oenoe was a place in Argolis. Mount Artemisius is
the range which divides Argolis from the plain of Mantinea. The Ladon is the most
beautiful river of Arcadia, if not of Greece. The river Cerynites, from which
the hind took its name, is a river which rises in Arcadia and flows through Achaia
into the sea. The modern name of the river is Bouphousia.
2. (see also http://www.gtp.gr/AncientCeryneia
)
Γιος του Φορωνέα και της Τελεδίκης, 3ος βασιλιάς του Αργους (19ος, αιώνας π.Χ.). Τον διαδέχθηκε στο θρόνο ο Αργος, γιος της αδελφής του Νιόβης, επειδή, όπως λέγανε, με πολλούς Αργείους πήγε στην Μελαμποδία (Αίγυπτο) όπου ίδρυσε ισχυρό κράτος τη Μέμφιδα και λατρεύτηκε σαν θεός Σεράπις. Ο Μέγας Αλέξανδρος επανεισήγαγε στην Αίγυπτο τη λατρεία του Σεράπη, ως Ελληνοαιγυπτιακή θεότητα.
Κατά μία άλλη παράδοση βασίλευσε στο Αργος τυραννικά και φονεύθηκε από το Θελξίονα και τον Τελχίνο. Η μετέπειτα Πελοπόννησος ονομάστηκε Απία από αυτόν.
Apis. A son of Phoroneus by the nymph Laodice, and brother of Niobe. He was king
of Argos, established a tyrannical goverment, and called Peloponnesus after his
own name Apia; but he was killed in a conspiracy headed by Thelxion and Telchis
(Apollod. i. 7. 6, ii. 1.1). In the former of these passages Apollodorus states,
that Apis, the son of Phoroneus, was killed by Aetolus; but this is a mistake
arising from the contusion of our Apis, with Apis the son of Jason, who was killed
by Aetolus during the funeral games celebrated in honour of Azanes (Paus. v. l.6).
Apis, the son of Phoroneus, is said, after his death, to have been
worshipped as a god, under the name of Serapis (Sarapis); and this statement shews
that Egyptian mythuses are mixed up with the story of Apis. This confusion is
still more manifest in the tradition, that Apis gave his kingdom of Argos to his
brother, and went to Egypt, where he reigned for several fears afterwards (Euseb.
Chron. n. 271; Augustin, de Civ. Dei, xviii. 5). Apis is spoken of as one of the
earliest lawgivers among the Greeks (Theodoret. Graec. Affect. Cur. vol. iv. p.
927, ed. Schulz.).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Γιος του Αργου και της Ευάδνης ή Πειθούς, 5ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Πέθανε άτεκνος και τον διαδέχθηκε ο αδελφός του Κρίασος
Γιος του Αργους και της Ευάδνης ή Πειθούς, 6ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Διαδέχθηκε τον άτεκνο αδελφό του Εκβασο στο θρόνο και αναφέρεται ότι πήρε μέρος στην εκστρατεία του Διόνυσου στις Ινδίες.
Παντρεύτηκε την Μελανθώ και παιδιά τους αναφέρονται:
1. Ο Φόρβας, διάδοχος του Θρόνου.
2. Ο Ερευθαλίων.
3. Η Κλεοβοία.
Γιος του Κρίασου και της Μαλανθούς, 7ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Παιδιά τους αναφέρονται:
1. Ο Τρίοπας, διάδοχος του Θρόνου.
2. Ο Αρέστωρ.
Ο Παυσανίας παραδίδει τον Φόρβαντα ως γιο του Αργους (2,16,1).
Γιος του Φόρβαντα, 8ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Λεγόταν και Τριόφθαλμος και Πανόπτης, παραδίδεται ότι αποίκησε την Κνίδο της Μ. Ασίας. Παντρεύτηκε την Σωϊδα. Παιδιά τους αναφέρονται:
1. Ο Αγήνωρ, ο οποίος έλαβε το τμήμα του βασιλείου με έδρα το Αργος.
2. Ο Ιασος, ο οποίος έλαβε το δυτικό τμήμα μαζί με την Ηλιδα.
3. Ο Πελασγός, ο οποίος πήρε το υπόλοιπο με έδρα την Λάρισα στην Θεσσαλία.
4. Η Μεσσήνη, επώνυμη της Μεσσηνίας, που την απήγαγε και παντρεύτηκε ο Πολυκάονας ο γιος του Λέλεγα.
Γιος του Τριόπα και της Σωϊδας, 9ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Τον διαδέχθηκε ο αδελφός του Ιασος και αυτόν ο γιος του Αγήνωρα ο Κρότων.
Γιος του Τριόπα και της Σωϊδας, 10ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Διαδέχθηκε τον αδελφό του Αγήνορα αυτόν ο γιος του Αγήνωρα ο Κρότωπος. Το Αργος τον καιρό του αναφέρεται με το όνομα Αργος Ιάσιον. Πιθανολογείται ότι πέθανε άτεκνος.
Iasus. A son of Argus and Evadne, a daughter of Strymon, or, according to a scholiast (ad Eurip. Phoen. 1151), a son of Peitho, the father of Agenor, and father of Argus Panoptes. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 2.)
A son of Argus Panoptes and Ismene, the daughter of Asopus, and the father of Io. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 3.)
Iasus. A son of Phoroneus, and brother of Pelasgus and Agenor, or Arestor. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 385.)
Agenor. A son of Ιasus, and father of Argοs Panoptes, king of Argos. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 2.) Hellanicus (Fragm. p. 47, ed. Sturz.) states that Agenor was a son of Phoroneus, and brother of Jasus and Pelasgus, and that after their father's death, the two elder brothers divided his dominions between themselves in such a manner, that Pelasgus received the country about the river Erasinus, and built Larissa, and Jasus the country about Elis. After the death of these two, Agenor, the youngest, invaded their dominions, and thus became king of Argos.
Γιος του Αγήνορα, ενδέκατος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Διαδέχθηκε τον θείο του Ιασο και απέκτησε παιδιά το Σθενέλα και την Ψαμμάθην.
Γιος του Κρότωπα 12ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Μόνες πληροφορίες παραδίδονται ότι απέκτησε γιο τον Γελάνορα που τον διαδέχθηκε στον Θρόνο.
1572 - 1500
Γιος του Σθενέλα 13ος βασιλιάς του Αργους (15ος αιώνας π.Χ.) και τελευταίος από την Αργειακή γενιά του Ινάχου. Η Επικράτειά του εκτεινόταν από το Ταίναρο μέχρι την Ηπειρο και τη χώρα των Παιόνων στα βόρεια της Μακεδονίας (διάλογος Γελάνορα & Δαναού στις Ικέτιδες του Αισχύλου, στίχ. 245-254). Στη διάρκεια της βασιλείας του ήρθε στο Αργος, κυνηγημένος από τον αδελφό του Αίγυπτο, ο Δαναός με τις 50 κόρες του, απόγονος και αυτός του Ιναχου από την Ιώ, από την Μελαμποδία (Αίγυπτον). Ο Δαναός αξίωσε σαν απόγονος του Ινάχου το θρόνο, οι Αργείοι έκριναν δίκαιες τις αξιώσεις και των δύο, όταν λύκος έπεσε σε αγέλη βοδιών και τα κατασπάραξε, οπότε κρίθηκε δίκαιο και το δέχθηκε και ο Γελάνωρ να δοθεί ο θρόνος στο Δαναό, επειδή οι Αργείοι, παρομοίαζαν το Δαναό με λύκο και το Γελάνορα με ταύρο. Ο Δαναός πήρε το βασίλειο και ίδρυσε ιερό του Λυκείου Απόλλωνα από ευγνωμοσύνη προς το θεό (Παυσ. 2,19,3).
Gelanor. A descendant of Inachus, king of Argos. When Danaus, likewise a descendant of Inachus, came to Argos, and laid claim to the sovereign power, the citizens were doubtful in whose favour they should decide. While they were hesitating, a wolf fell upon the cattle which were feeding before the city, and killed the bull who was defending them. The citizens regarded this as a sign from heaven, and, interpreting the wolf as meaning Danaus, they compelled Gelanor to retire in his favour. In the Supplices of Aeschylus, Pelasgus is king of Argos. He gives Danaus a friendly welcome, and defends him against the sons of Aegyptus. But he is vanquished by them, retires from the sovereignty spontaneously in favour of the stranger, and leaves the country.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Γιος του Αιγύπτου και της Αργυιφίας, παντρεύτηκε την κόρη του Δαναού και της Αλαφαντίδας,
Υπερμνήστρα, η οποία δεν τον θανάτωσε όπως έκαναν οι αδελφές της με τους άλλους
49 γιους του Αιγύπτου, μετά από εντολή του Δαναού. Ο Λυγκεύς κατέφυγε σε ορεινό
χώρο (σημερινή περιοχή Λυρκείας)
όπου έκτισε πόλη Λυγκείαν,
μέχρι που ηρέμησε ο Δαναός και συμφιλιώθηκε με τον μελλοντικό γαμπρό του, ο οποίος
ήρθε στο Αργος, παντρεύτηκε την Υπερμνήστρα και κληρονόμησε τον Δαναό και έγινε
ο 15ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Παιδί τους ήταν ο Αβας ο οποίος τον διαδέχθηκε.
(Περισσότερα βλ. Αρχαία Λυρκεία)
Γιος του Λυγκέα και της Υπερμνήστρας, 16ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Παντρεύτηκε την Αγλαϊα, κόρη του Μαντινέα. Ιδρυσε αποικία στην Φωκίδα, με το όνομα Αβαί (οι κάτοικοι της λέγανε, τον καιρό του Παυσανία, ότι κατάγονταν από τη γενιά του και ότι η πόλη του πήρε το όνομά του) και υπέταξε την Εύβοιαν η οποία αναφέρεται ως χώρα των Αβάντων. Ιδιαίτερο πρόσωπο της μυθολογίας με υπερφυσικές δυνάμεις, η ασπίδα του οποίου κατατρόπωνε τους εχθρούς και λατρευόταν στο Αργος.
Παιδιά τους ήσαν οι δίδυμοι, οι οποίοι τσακώνονταν και από όταν ήταν έμβρυα στην κοιλιά της μάνας τους:
1. Ο Ακρίσιος, που έγινε βασιλιάς του Αργους
2. Ο Προίτος, διώχτηκε από τον Ακρίσιο, πήγε στην Λυκία στα ανάκτορα του Ιόβατου ή Αμφιάνακτα, παντρεύτηκε την κόρη του Αντεια ή Σθενοβοία εκστράτευσε κατά του Αργους, κατέλαβε την Τίρυνθα, όπου εγκατέστησε βασίλειο και έγινε ο 1ος βασιλιάς της και την τείχισε με τους Κύκλωπες που είχε φέρει μαζί του.
Abas. The twelfth King of Argos. He was the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, and grandson of Danaus. He married Ocaleia, who bore him twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus. (Apollod. ii. 2. Β§ 1; Hygin. Fab. 170.) When he informed his father of the death of Danaus, he was rewarded with the shield of his grandfather, which was sacred to Hera. He is described as a successful conqueror and as the founder of the town of Abae in Phocis (Paus. x. 35. Β§ 1), and of the Pelasgic Argos in Thessaly. (Strab. ix.) The fame of his warlike spirit was so great, that even after his death. when people revolted, whom he had subdued, they were put to flight by the simple act of showing them his shield. (Virg. Aen. iii. 286; Serv. ad loc.) It was from this Abas that the kings of Argos were called by the patronymic Abantiads
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ocaleia (Okaleia), a daughter of Mantineus, and wife of Abas, by whom she became the mother of Acrisius and Proetus (Apollod. ii. 2.1). The Scholiast of Euripides (Orcst. 953) calls her Aglaia
Acrisius (Akrisios). The son of Abas, king of Argos, by Ocalia, daughter of Mantineus. He was born at the same birth as Proetus, with whom it is said that he quarrelled even in his mother's womb. After many dissensions, Proetus was driven from Argos. Acrisius had Danae by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon; and an oracle having declared that he should lose his life by the hand of his grandson, he endeavoured to frustrate the prediction by the imprisonment of his daughter, in order to prevent her becoming a mother. His efforts failed of success, and he was eventually killed by Perseus, son of Danae and Zeus. Acrisius, it seems, had been attracted to Larissa by the reports which had reached him of the prowess of Perseus. At Larissa, Perseus, wishing to show his skill in throwing a quoit, killed an old man who proved to be his grandfather, whom he knew not, and thus the oracle was fulfilled.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Acrisius (Akrisios), a son of Abas, king of Argos and of Ocaleia. He was grandson of Lynceus and great-grandson of Danaus. His twin-brother was Proetus, with whom he is said to have quarrelled even in the womb of his mother. When Abas died and Acrisius had grown up, he expelled Proetus from his inheritance; but, supported by his father-in-law Iobates, the Lycian, Proetus returned, and Acrisius was compelled to share his kingdom with his brother by giving up to him Tiryns, while he retained Argos for himself. An oracle had declared that Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, would give birth to a son, who would kill his grandfither. For this reason he kept Danae shut up in a subterraneous apartment, or in a brazen tower. But here she became mother of Perseus, notwithstanding the precautions of her father, according to some accounts by her uncle Proetus, and according to others by Zeus, who visited her in the form of a shower of gold. Acrisius ordered mother and child to be exposed on the wide sea in a chest; but the chest floated towards the island of Seriphus, where both were rescued by Dictys, the brother of king Polydectes (Apollod. ii. 2.1, 4.1; Paus. ii. 16.2, 25.6, iii. 13.6; Hygin. Fab. 63). As to the manner in which the oracle was subsequently fulfilled in the case of Acrisius, see Perseus wonderful myth in Serifos island. According to the Scholiast on Euripides (Orest. 1087), Acrisius was the founder of the Delphic amphictyony. Strabo (ix.) believes that this amphictyony existed before the time of Acrisius, and that he was only the first who regulated the affairs of the amphictyons, fixed the towns which were to take part in the council, gave to each its vote, and settled the jurisdiction of the amphictyons (Comp. Libanius, Orat. vol. iii. 472, ed. Reiske).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ακρίσιος : 17ος βασιλιάς του Αργους
18ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, άλλαξε το βασίλειο με τον Μεγαπένθη και πήρε την Τίρυνθα, επειδή ντρεπόταν να βασιλεύσει στον τόπο που σκότωσε ακούσια τον παππού του. (Πληροφορίες για τον Περσέα βλ. Σέριφος, Νησί )
Γιος του Προίτου και της Αντείας ή Σθενοβοίας, 19ος βασιλιάς του Αργους
20ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, συμβασίλευσε με τον Βίαντα και τον Μελάμποδα.
Γιος του Αμυθάονα και της Ειδομένης, κόρης του Φέρητος, αδελφός του Μελάμποδος, 22ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, συμβασίλευσε με τον Αναξαγόρα και τον Μελάμποδα..
Bias, son of Amythaon, and brother of the seer Melampus. He married Pero, daughter of Neleus, whom her father had refused to give to any one unless he brought him the oxen of Iphiclus. These Melampus obtained by his courage and skill, and so won the princess for his brother (Schol. ad Theocrit. Idyll. iii. 43; Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. i. 118; Paus. iv. 36; comp. Hom. Odyss. xi. 286, xv. 231). Through his brother also Bias is said to have gained a third of the kingdom of Argos, Melampus having insisted upon it in his behalf, as part of the condition on which alone he would cure the daughters of Proetus and the other Argive women of their madness. According to Pausanias, the Biantidae continued to rule in Argos for four generations. Apollonius Rhodius mentions three sons of Bias among the Argonauts, Talaus, Argius, and Leodocus (Herod. ix. 34; Pind. Nem. ix. 30; Schol. ad. loc.; Diod. iv. 68; Paus. ii. 6, 18; Apoll. Rhod. i. 118). According to the received reading in Diod. iv. 68, "Bias" was also the name of a son of Melampus by Iphianeira, daughter of Megapenthes; but it has been proposed to read " Abas," in accordance with Paus. i. 43; Apoll. Rhod. i. 142; Apollod. i. 9.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pero. A daughter of Neleus and Chloris, was married to Bias, and celebrated for her beauty. (Hom. Od. xi. 286; Apollod. i. 9.9; Paus. x. 31.2.)
Five kings of Argos, descendants of Bias, were Neleids on mother's side (Paus. 2.18.4)
Γιος του Αναξαγόρα, 23ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, συμβασίλευσε με τον Ταλαό και τον Μάντιο.
Alector. A son of Anaxagoras and father of Iphis, king of Argos. He was consulted by Polyneices as to the manner in which Amphiaraus might be compelled to take part in the expedition against Thebes (Apollod. iii. 6.2; Paus. ii. 18.4.) Two others of the same name are mentioned in Homer. (Od. iv. 10; Eustath. ad Hom.)
Γιος του Αλέκτορα, 26ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, συμβασίλευσε με τον Πρώνακτα και τον Αντιφάτη.
Iphis. A son of Alector, and a descendant of Megapenthes, tlle son of Proetus.
He was king of Argos, and from him were deseended Eteoclus and Evadne, the wife
of Capaneus (Paus. ii. 18.4, x. 10.2; Apollod. iii. 7.1; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vi.
46). He advised Polyneices to induce Amphiaraus to take part in the expedition
against Thebes, by giving the famous necklace to Eriphyle (Apollod. iii. 6.2).
As lie lost his two children, he left his kingdom to Sthenelus, the son of Capaneus
(Paus. ii. 18.4; Eurip. Suppl. 1034)
Γιος του Ταλαού και της Λυσιμάχης, 27ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, συμβασίλευσε με τον Ιφίο και τον Αντιφάτη (βλ. Perseus Encyclopedia).
Pronax. A son of Talaus and Lysimache, and a brother of Adrastus and Eriphyle. He was the father of Lyeurgus and Amphithea (Apollod. i. 7. § 13). According to some traditions the Nemean games were instituted in honour of Pronax. (Aelian, V. H. iv. 5; comp. Paus. iii. 18.7)
Cyanippus (Kuanippos), a son of Aegialeus and prince of Argos, who belonged to the house of the Biantidae (Paus. ii. 18.4, 30.9). Apollodorus (i. 9.13) calls him a brother of Aegialeus and a son of Adrastus.
Son of Aegialeus, last king of Argos, of the house of Bias.
Γιος του Σθένελου, βασιλιάς του Αργους.
. . . Cylarabes, son of Sthenelus, became sole king. However, he too left no offspring, and Argos was seized by Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who was a neighbor. (Paus.2.18.5)
Βασιλιάς του Αργους στην περίοδο της τρίτης καθόδου των Ηρακλειδών στην Πελοπόννησο, νικήθηκε από τον Τήμενο ο οποίος έγινε ο επόμενος βασιλιάς του Αργους.
Tisamenus (Tisamenos). A son of Orestes and Hermione. He was king of Argos,
but was deprived of his kingdom when the Heraclidae in vaded the Peloponnesus.
He was slain in a battle against them, and his tomb was afterwards shown at Helice,
from which place his remains were subsequently removed to Sparta by command of
an oracle.
Πατέρας του Αριστόδημου, του Τήμενου και του Κρεσφόντη (Παυσ. 2.18.7, 8.5.6). Οι γιοί του οδήγησαν τους Δωριείς στην Πελοπόννησο (Παυσ. 5,3,5).
Aristomachus, a son of Cleodemus or Cleodaeus, and greatgrandson of Heracles, was the father of Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus. He marched into Peloponnesus at the time when Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, ruled over the Peninsula; but his expedition failed as he had misunderstood the oracle, and he fell in battle (Apollod. ii. 8.2; Paus. ii. 7.6; Herod. vi. 52). Another Aristomachus occurs in Paus. vi. 21.7.
Ο Δηιφόντης ήταν γιος του Ηρακλείδη Αντίμαχου, σύζυγος της Υρνηθούς, κόρης του Τήμενου ο οποίος τον αγαπούσε πολύ και τον όρισε διάδοχό του λίγο πριν πεθάνει από τα χέρια των γιών του, τους οποίους εξόρισε. Οι γιοι του Τήμενου με ξένη βοήθεια κατέλαβαν το Αργος και ο Δηιφόντης, μαζί με την γυναίκα του και τον μικρότερο γιο του Τήμενου, πού δεν συμμετείχε στην δολοφονία του πατέρα του, κατέφυγαν στην Επίδαυρο, όπου ο Πιτυρεύς του πρόσφερε το βασίλειό του. Παιδιά του ήσαν ο Αντιμένης, ο Αργείος, ο Ξάνθιππος και η Ορσοβία.
Deiphontes, a son of Antimachus, and husband of Hyrnetho, the daughter of Temenus the Heracleide, by whom he became the father of Antimenes, Xanthippus, Argeius, and Orsobia. When Temenus, in the division of Peloponnesus, had obtained Argos as his share, he bestowed all his affections upon Hyrnetho and her husband, for which lie was murdered by his sons, who thought themselves neglected. But after the death of Temenus, the army declared Deiphontes and Hyrnetho his rightful successors (Apollod. ii. 8.5). According to Pausanias (ii. 19.1), the sons of Temenus formed indeed a conspiracy against their father and Deiphoontes; but after Temenus death it was not Deiphontes that succeded him, but Ceisus. Deiphontes on tile other hand, is said to have lived at Epidaurus, whither lie went with the army which was attached to him, and from whence he expelled the Ionian king, Pityreus (Paus. ii. 26.2). His brothers-in-law, however, who grudged him the possession of their sister Hyrnetho, went to Epidaurus, and tried to persuade her to leave her husband; and when this attempt failed, they carried her off by force. Deiphontes pursued them, and after having killed one of them, Cerynes, he wrestled with the other, who held his sister in his arms. In this struggle, Hyrnetho was killed by her own brother, who then escaped. Deiphontes carried her body back to Epidaurus, and there erected a sanctuary to her (Paus. ii. 28.3).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Medon. King of Argos, was son of Ceisus, and grandson of Temenus the Heracleid. (Paus. ii. 19; Clint. F. H. vol. i. p. 249, note v.)
Lacedas (Lakedas), or, as Herodotus (vi. 127) calls him, Leocedes, a king of Argos, and father of Melas, is reckoned to have been a descendant of Medon in the fifth generation. (Paus. ii. 19.2.) Another person of the same name is Lacedas, the son of Pheidon. Some writers not only identify the two, but try to prove that the Lacydas mentioned by Plutarch (De Cap. ex inim. util. 89.) is likewise the same person. (Comp. Wyttenbach, ad Plut. l. c. ; Schubart and Walz ad Paus. l. c.)
. . . But from the earliest times the Argives have loved freedom and self-government, and they limited to the utmost the authority of their kings, so that to Medon, the son of Ceisus, and to his descendants was left a kingdom that was such only in name. Meltas, the son of Lacedas, the tenth descendant of Medon, was condemned by the people and deposed altogether from the kingship. (Paus.2.19.2)
ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ (Μυκηναϊκό ανάκτορο) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Υπάρχουν διάφορες παραδόσεις σχετικές με τον Πλεισθένη. Μερικές τον αναφέρουν ως γιο του Ατρέα, σύζυγο της Αερόπης και πατέρα του Αγαμέμνονα και του Μενέλαου. Αλλες ως αδελφό του Ατρέα.
Ο Ηλεκτρύων ήταν βασιλιάς των Μυκηνών και της Μιδέας, γιος του Περσέα και πατέρας της Αλκμήνης. Η Αναξώ, κόρη του Αλκαίου, αδελφού του Ηλεκτρύωνα, ήταν σύζυγός του.
Electryon (Elektruon), a son of Perseus and Andromeda, was king of Mycenae or Mideia in Argolis. (Paus. ii. 25.8) He was married to Anaxo, the daughter of Alcaeus, by whom he had several children. (Apollod. ii. 4.5) The tradition about him is given under Amphitryon . Another Electryon is mentioned by Diodorus (iv. 67).
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ετσι αποκαλούσαν τον Αμφιάραο και τον Αδραστο (Παυσ. 7,17,7)
Heraclidae (Herakleidai). A name given in ancient legend to a powerful Achaean race or family, the fabled descendants of Heracles. According to the account of the ancient writers, the children of Heracles, after the death of that hero, being persecuted by Eurystheus, took refuge in Attica, and there defeated and slew the tyrant at the Scironian Rock, near the Saronic Gulf. When their enemy had fallen, they resumed possession of their birthright in the Peloponnesus; but they had not long enjoyed the fruits of their victory before a pestilence, in which they recognized the finger of heaven, drove them again into exile. Attica again afforded them a retreat. When their hopes had revived, an ambiguous oracle encouraged them to believe that, after they had reaped their third harvest, they should find a prosperous passage through the Isthmus into the land of their fathers. But, at the entrance of the Peloponnesus, they were met by the united forces of the Achaeans, Ionians, and Arcadians. Their leader Hyllus, the eldest son of Heracles, proposed to decide the quarrel by single combat; and Echemus, king of Tegea, was selected by the Peloponnesian confederates as their champion. Hyllus fell; and the Heraclidae were bound by the terms of the agreement to abandon their enterprise for a hundred, or, according to some accounts, for fifty, years. Yet both Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, and his grandson Aristomachus, renewed the attempt with no better fortune. After Aristomachus had fallen in battle, the ambiguous oracle was explained to his sons Aristodemus, Temenus, and Cresphontes; and they were assured that the time, the third generation, had now come, when they should accomplish their return; not, however, as they had expected, over the guarded Isthmus, but across the mouth of the western gulf from Naupactus, where the opposite shores are parted by a channel only a few furlongs broad. Thus encouraged, with the aid of the Dorians, Aetolians, and Locrians, they crossed the strait, vanquished Tisamenus, son of Orestes, and divided the fairest portion of the Peloponnesus among them.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Heracleidae (Herakleidai), a patronymic from Heracles, and consequently given
to all the sons and descendants of the Greek Heracles; but the name is also applied
in a narrower sense to those descendants of the hero who, in conjunction with
the Dorians, invaded and took possession of Peloponnesus.
The many sons of Heracles are enumerated by Apollodorus (ii. 7.8),
though his list is very far from being complete; and a large number of tribes
or noble families of Greece traced their origin to Heracles. In some of them the
belief in their descent from Heracles seems to have arisen only from the fact,
that the hero was worshipped by a particular tribe. The principal sons and descendants
of Heracles are treated of in separate articles, and we shall here confine ourselves
to those Heracleidae whose conquest of Peloponnesus forms the transition from
mythology to history. It was the will of Zeus that lleracles should rule over
the country of the Perseids, at Mycenae
and Tiryns. Through Hera's
cunning, however, Eurystheus had been put into the place of Heracles, and the
latter had become the servant of the former. After the death of the two, the claims
of Heracles devolved upon the sons and descendants of Heracles. The leader of
these Heracleidae was Hyllus, the eldest of the four sons of Heracles by Deianeira.
The descendants of Heracles, who, according to the tradition of the Dorians (Herod.
v. 72), were in reality Achaeans, ruled over Dorians, as Heracles had received
for himself and his descendants one third of the dominions of the Doric king,
Aegimius, for the assistance he had given him against the Lapithae.
The countries to which the Heracleidae had especial claims were Argos,
Lacedaemon, and the Messenian
Pylos, which Heracles himself
had subdued: Elis, the kingdom
of Augeas, might likewise be said to have belonged to him (Apollod. ii. 7.2; Paus.
ii. 18.6, v. 3.1). The Heracleidae, in conjunction with the Dorians, invaded Peloponnesus,
to take possession of those countries and rights which their ancestor had duly
acquired. This expedition is called the return of the Heracleidae, kathodos ton
Herakleidon (Comp. Thuc. i. 12; Isocrat. Archid. 6). They did not, however, succeed
in their first attempt; but the legend mentions five different expeditions, of
which we have the following accounts.
According to some, it happened that, after the demise of Heracles,
his son, Hyllus, with his brothers and a band of Arcadians,
was staving with Ceyx at Trachis.
As Eurystheus demanded their surrender, and Ceyx was unable to protect them, they
fled to various parts of Greece, until they were received as suppliants at Athens,
at the altar of Eleos, Mercy, (Apollod. ii. 8.1; Diod. iv. 57; Paus. i. 32.5;
Longin. 27).
According to the Heracleidae of Euripides, the sons of Heracles were
at first staying at Argos, and thence went to Trachis,
Thessaly, and at length to
Athens. (Comp. Anton. Lib.
33.) Demophon, the son of Theseus, received them, and they settled in the Attic
tetrapolis. Eurystheus, to whom the Athenians refused to surrender the fugitives,
now made war on the Athenians with a large army, but was defeated by the Athenians
under Iolaus, Theseus, and Hyllus, and was slain with his sons. Hyllus took his
head to his grandmother, Alcmene; and the Athenians of later times showed the
tomb of Eurystheus in front of the temple of the Pallenian Athena. The battle
itself was very celebrated in the Attic
stories as the battle of the Seironian reck, on the court of the Saronic
gulf (comp Dem. de Coron. § 147), though Pindar places it in the neighbourhood
of Thebes (Pyth. ix. 137;
comp. Anton. Lib. l. c; Herod. ix. 27; Eurip. Heracl). After the battle, the Heracleidae
entered Peloponnesus, and
maintained themselves there for one year. But a plague, which spread over the
whole peninsula, compelled them (with the exception of Tlepolemus, who went to
Rhodes) to return to Attica,
where, for a time, they again settled in the Attic tetrapolis. From thence, however,
they proceeded to Aegimius, king of the Dorians, about the river Peneius,
to seek protection (Apollod. ii. 8.2; Strab. ix. p. 427). Diodorus
(iv. 57) does not mention this second stay in Attica,
and he represents only the descendants of Hyllus as living among the Dorians in
the country assigned to Heracles by Aegimius: others again do not notice this
first expedition into Peloponnesus
(Pherecyd. ap. Anton. Lib. l. c.), and state that Hyllus, after the defeat of
Eurystheus, went with the other Heracleidae to Thebes,
and settled there at the Electrian gate. The tradition then goes on to say that
Aegimius adopted Hyllus, who, after the lapse of three years, in conjunction with
a band of Dorians, undertook an expedition against Atreus, who, having married
a daughter of Eurystheus, had become king of Mycenae
and Tiryns. They marched across
the Corinthian isthmus, and
first met Echemus of Tegea,
who fought for the interest of the Pelopidae, the principal opponents of the Heracleidae.
Hyllus fell in single combat with Echemus, and according to an agreement which
the two had entered into, the Heracleidae were not to make any further attempt
upon the peninsula within the next fifty years. They accordingly went to Tricorythus,
where they were allowed by the Athenians to take up their abode. During
the period which now followed (ten years after the death of Hyllus), the Trojan
war took place; and thirty years after the Trojan
war Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, again invaded Peloponnesus;
and about twenty years later Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, undertook the
fourth expedition. But both heroes fell.
Not quite thirty years after Aristomachus (that is, about 80 years
after the destruction of Troy),
the Heracleidae prepared for a great and final attack. Temenus, Cresphontes, and
Aristodemus, the sons of Aristomachus, after having received the advice of an
oracle, built a fleet on the Corinthian
gulf; but this fleet was destroyed, because Hippotes, one of the Heracleidae,
had killed Carnus, an Acarnanian
soothsayer; and Aristodemus was killed by a flash of lightning (Apollod. ii. 8.2;
Paus. iii. 1.5). An oracle now ordered them to take a three-eyed man for their
commander. He was found in the person of Oxylus, the son of Andraemon. The expedition
now successfully sailed from Naupactus
towards Rhion in Peloponnesus
(Paus. viii. 5.4). Oxylus, keeping the invaders away from his own kingdom of Elis,
led them through Arcadia.
Cresphontes is said to have married the daughter of the Arcadian
king, Cypselus, and Polycaon Euaechme, the daughter of Hyllus. Thebans,
Trachinians, and Tyrrhenians,
are further said to have supported the Heracleidae and Dorians (Pats. iv. 3. §
4, viii. 5. § 4; Schol. ad Soph. Aj. 17; Eurip. Phoen. 1386; Pind. Pyth. v. 101,
Isthm. vii. 18). Being thus strongly supported in various ways, the Heracleidae
and Dorians conquered Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, who ruled over Argos. Mycenae,
and Sparta (Apollod. l. c.;
Paus. v. 3; Polyaen. i. 9). The conquerors now succeeded without difficulty, for
many of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus
spontaneously opened their gates to them, and other places were delivered up to
them by treachery (Paus. ii. 4.3, iii. 13.2, iv. 3.3, v. 4.1; Strab. viii).
They then distributed the newly acquired possessions among themselves
by lot: Temenus obtained Argos; Procles and Eurystheus, the twin sons of Aristodemus,
Lacedaemon; and Cresphontes,
Messenia.
Such are the traditions about the Heracleidae and their conquest of
Peloponnesus. The comparatively
late period to which these legends refer is alone sufficient to suggest that we
have not before us a purely mythical story, but that it contains a genuine historical
substance, notwithstanding the various contradictions contained in the accounts.
But a critical examination of the different traditions belongs to a history of
Greece, and we refer the reader to Muller's Dorians, book i. chap. 3; Thirlwall,
Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 282, &c., 8vo edit.; Bernardi ten Haar, Commnentatio
praemio ornata, qua respubl. ad quaestionem : Enarrentur Heraclidarum incursiones
in Peloponnesum eurumque causae atque effects exponantur, Groningen, 1830.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Abantiades signifies in general a descendant of Abas, but is used especially to designate Perseus, the great-grandson of Abas (Ov. Met. iv. 673, v. 138, 236), and Acrisius, a son of Abas. (Ov. Met. iv. 607.) A female descendant of Abas, as Danae and Atalante, was called Abantias.
Temenidae, descendands of Temenus, being expelled from Argos, are said to have founded the kingdom of Macedonia, whence the kings of Macedonia called themselves Temenidae (Herod. viii. 138; Thuc. ii. 99).
Ηρακλείδης, γιος του Αριστόμαχου, αδελφός του Κρεσφόντη και του Αριστόδημου, αρχηγός της τρίτης καθόδου των Ηρακλειδών στην Πελοπόννησο, νίκησε τον Τισαμενό και κυριάρχησε ως βασιλιάς του Αργους, ιδρύοντας τη μεγάλη δυναστεία των Τημενιδών.
This Alexander was seventh (1) in descent from Perdiccas (2),
who got for himself the tyranny of Macedonia in the way that I will show. Three
brothers of the lineage of Temenus came as banished men from Argos (3)
to Illyria, Gauanes and Aeropus and Perdiccas; and from Illyria they crossed over
into the highlands of Macedonia till they came to the town Lebaea (in Upper Macedonia,
and the residence of the early Macedonian kings, mentioned only by Herodotus).
There they served for wages as thetes in the king's household, one tending horses
and another oxen. Perdiccas, who was the youngest, tended the lesser flocks. Now
the king's wife cooked their food for them, for in old times the ruling houses
among men, and not the common people alone, were lacking in wealth. Whenever she
baked bread, the loaf of the thete Perdiccas grew double in size. Seeing that
this kept happening, she told her husband, and it seemed to him when be heard
it that this was a portent signifying some great matter. So he sent for his thetes
and bade them depart from his territory. They said it was only just that they
should have their wages before they departed. When they spoke of wages, the king
was moved to foolishness and said, "That is the wage you merit, and it is
that I give you," pointing to the sunlight that shone down the smoke vent
into the house. Gauanes and Aeropus, who were the elder, stood astonished when
they heard that, but the boy said, "We accept what you give, O king,"
and with that he took a knife which he had with him and drew a line with it on
the floor of the house round the sunlight. When he had done this, he three times
gathered up the sunlight into the fold of his garment and went his way with his
companions.
So they departed, but one of those who sat nearby declared to the king what this
was that the boy had done and how it was of set purpose that the youngest of them
had accepted the gift offered. When the king heard this, he was angered, and sent
riders after them to slay them. There is, however, in that land a river, to which
the descendants from Argos of these men offer sacrifice as their deliverer. This
river, when the sons of Temenus had crossed it, rose in such flood that the riders
could not cross. So the brothers came to another part of Macedonia and settled
near the place called the garden of Midas (4) son of Gordias, where roses grow
of themselves, each bearing sixty blossoms and of surpassing fragrance. In this
garden, according to the Macedonian story, Silenus was taken captive. Above it
rises the mountain called Bermius, which none can ascend for the wintry cold.
From there they issued forth when they had won that country and presently subdued
also the rest of Macedonia. (?)
From that Perdiccas Alexander was descended, being the son of Amyntas, who was
the son of Alcetes; Alcetes' father was Aeropus, and his was Philippus; Philippus'
father was Argaeus, and his again was Perdiccas, who won that lordship.
Commentary:
1. (by W. W. How, J. Wells)
Alexander himself is included. It is usual in ordinals to count in both the beginning
and the end, but the method seems strange when it causes a man to be counted among
his own ancestors or descendants. Thucydides agrees as to the number of the Macedonian
kings and in tracing their descent from Temenus of Argos; but in the fourth century
another account was current, probably derived from Theopompus... By this Caranus
('head leader'), son or brother of the Argive king Pheidon, is made the founder
of the Macedonian dynasty, and is succeeded by Koinos and Turimmas (Satyr. fr.
21, F. H. G. iii. 164), who precede the first Perdiccas. The object of this lengthening
of the line was to make the Macedonian dynasty at least as old as the Median.
2. (by Reginald Walter Macan)
Did Alexander himself emphasize the founder's name by giving it to his own son
and successor (c. 454 B.C.)? Is the legend, in its Herodotean form, older than
the accession of Perdikkas II (c. 454 B.C.)? In any case Hdt. was hardly the first
author to reduce it to writing, or even to prose: that had surely been done already
at the Makedomian Court. Thucydides in 2. 99. 3 asserts the Argive and Temenid
descent, in 2. 100. 2 gives the same number of kings (without the names), adding
Perdikkas and Archelaos his own contemporaries; and in 5. 80 supphes a practical
illustration of the force of the Argive claim (alliance in 417 B.C.). Another
and perhaps later saga made Karanos (Karanos), son or brother of Pheidon of Argos,
found the dynasty, to be succeeded by Koinos, Turimmas, Perdikkas. This version
was first given vogue by Theopompos; A third variant was supplied by Euripides'
Archelaos. This story was more romantic. Archelaos, a son of Temenos, exiled by
his brethren, took refuge in Makedonia, and having won a victory for the king,
demanded his promised reward: the king, however, sought his benefactor's life:
the plot was betrayed: Archelaos took his would-be slayer in the pit prepared
for him. As this story was obviously adopted by Euripides in compliment to the
reigning Archelaos, so the version in Hdt. is probably a compliment to Perdikkas,
devised on his accession.
3. (by W. W. How, J. Wells)
Argos in the Peloponnese appears as the ancestral home of the family
in all versions of the legend (Isocr. Phil. 32). But the Argos with which the
Argeadae were really connected is Argos Oresticum (Strabo 326; Steph. Byz.), near
the source of the Haliacmon. They first held the fruitful valleys there (valley
of Kastoria), and the hill country as far as the source of the Erigon; this is
the Upper Macedonia where the three brothers served and to which Caranus went
by order of an oracle. The Argeadae (cf. Paus. vii. 8. 9) later made Aegae their
capital, and established an hegemony over the kindred tribes (cf. Thuc. ii. 99)
in Upper Macedon, the Lyncestae, Orestae, Elimiotae, as well as over the coastlands
as far as the Axius.
The likeness of name (Argos and Argeadae) led the Macedonian kings,
at least from the time of Alexander I to claim descent from the Heracleid kings
of Peloponnesian Argos, just as the princes of the Lyncestae did from the Corinthian
Bacchiads, those of the Molossi from Achilles (Strabo 327), and the Illyrian Enchelees
from Cadmus. Yet their names are not even Greek, and their origin is at least
doubtful. In the legend the name Argos is misinterpreted, and Temenus is falsely
inserted. Probably es Illurious is put in because these Argives are believed to
have come to Macedon by land from the West. Otherwise the story is a folk-tale,
current among the Argeadae, about their earlier homes and the claim of their princes
to their possession.
4. (by W. W. How, J. Wells)
Midas here is the mythical founder of the royal house, son of Gordias and Cybele.
He invented the flute (Plin. N. H. vii. 204), founded the worship of his mother,
and was judge of the contest between Apollo and Marsyas; (Hygin. fab. 191; Orphica
(Abel), fr. 310)
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited May 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Απόγονος του Τήμενου, δημιουργός του βασιλείου της Μακεδονίας και πρώτος της βασιληάς. (Περισ. Πληροφορίες στις αρχαίες Αιγές )
Excerpt from "The Hellenism of the Ancient Macedonians", Apostolos Dascalakis, Professor, University of Athens. Pages of Macedonia University
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