Listed 100 (total found 237) sub titles with search on: Mythology for wider area of: "ARGOLIS Prefecture PELOPONNISOS" .
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
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.
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.
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.)
INOI (Ancient city) LYRKIA
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
)
IREON (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOS - MYKINES
LERNA (Prehistoric settlement) ARGOLIS
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.
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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.)
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MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
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.
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
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.
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.
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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.)
ASKLEPIEION OF EPIDAURUS (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOLIS
The Serpent Holder. Ophiouchos (Arat. 75), Ophiuchus (German., Vitruv.), Anguitenens (Cic., Manil. v. 384), Anguifer (Columel. xi. 2, § 49), Serpentarius (Schol. German.), was commonly regarded by mythical writers and poets as Aesculapius (Eratosth. c. 6; Ov. Fast. vi. 735), and by some as Hercules, not to mention other more obscure legends. (Hygin. P. A. ii. 14, iii. 13.)
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Name given to Amphiaraus and Adrastus (Paus. 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.
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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).
Temenus. A son of Aristomachus, one of the Heracleidae. He was the father of Ceisus,
Cerynes, Phalces, Agraeus, and Hyrnetho (Paus. ii. 28; Apollod. ii. 8.2). He was
one of the leaders of the Heracleidae into Peloponnesus,
and, after the conquest of the peninsula, he received Argos
as his share (Apollod. ii. 8.4; Plat. Min. p. 683, b. ; Strab. viii). His tomb
was shown at Temenion near
Lerna (Paus. ii.38.1). His
descendants, the Temenidae, 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).
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.
Perdiccas, og the race of Temenus, the founder of the Macedonian monarchy and first king. (More information at ancient Aegae )
Excerpt from "The Hellenism of the Ancient Macedonians", Apostolos Dascalakis, Professor, University of Athens. Pages of Macedonia University
Callias (Kallias), a son of the Heracleid king Temenus, who, in conjunction with his brothers, caused his father to be killed by some hired persons, because he preferred Deiphontes, the husband of his daughter Hyrnetho, to his sons. (Apollod. ii. 8.5)
The Seven against Thebes. Oedipus, king of Thebes,
had pronounced a curse upon his sons Eteocles and Polynices that they should die
at one another's hand. In order to make the fulfilment of the curse impossible
by separating himself from his brother, Polynices left Thebes
while his father was still alive, and at Argos married Argea, the daughter of
Adrastus. On the death of his father he was recalled, and given by Eteocles, who
was the elder of the two (Eurip. Phoen.71), the choice between the kingdom and
the treasures of Oedipus; but, on account of a quarrel that arose over the division,
he departed a second time, and induced his father-in-law to undertake a war against
his native city. According to another legend, the brothers deprived their father
of the kingdom, and agreed to rule alternately, and to quit the city for a year
at a time. Polynices, as the younger, first went into voluntary banishment; but
when, after the expiration of a year, Eteocles denied him his right, and drove
him out by violence, he fled to Argos, where Adrastus made him his son-in-law,
and undertook to restore him with an armed force. Adrastus was the leader of the
army; besides Polynices and Tydeus of Calydon,
the other son-in-law of the king, there also took part in the expedition the king's
brothers Hippomedon and Parthenopaeus, Capaneus, a descendant of Proetus, and
Amphiaraus, the latter against his will, and foreseeing his own death. The Atridae
were invited to join in the expedition, but were withheld by evil omens from Zeus.
When the Seven reached Nemea
on their march, a fresh warning befell them. Hypsipyle, the nurse of Opheltes,
the son of King Lycurgus, laid her charge down on the grass in order to lead the
thirsty warriors to a spring; during her absence the child was killed by a snake.
They gave him solemn burial, and instituted the Nemean Games in his honour; but
Amphiaraus interpreted the occurrence as an omen of his own fate, and accordingly
gave the boy the name of Archemorus (i. e. ?leader to death?). When they arrived
at the river Asopus in Boeotia,
they sent Tydeus to Thebes
in the hope of coming to terms. He was refused a hearing, and the Thebans laid
an ambush for him on his return. The Seven now advanced to the walls
of the city, and posted themselves with their troops one at each of its seven
gates. Against them were posted seven chosen Thebans, among them Melanippus and
Periclymenus. Menoeceus devoted himself to death to insure the victory for the
Thebans. In the battle at the sanctuary of the Ismenian Apollo they were driven
right back to their gates; the giant Capaneus had already climbed the wall by
a scaling-ladder, and was presumptuously boasting that even the lightning of Zeus
should not drive him back, when the flaming bolt of the god smote him down, and
dashed him to atoms. The beautiful Parthenopaeus also fell, with his skull shattered
by a rock that was hurledat him. Adrastus desisted from the assault, and the armies,
which had suffered severely, agreed that the originators of the quarrel, Eteocles
and Polynices, should fight out their difference in single combat. Both brothers
fell, and a fresh battle arose over their bodies. In this all of the assailants
met their death, except Adrastus, who was saved by the speed of his black-maned
charger. According to the older legends, his eloquence persuaded the Thebans to
give the fallen due burial. When the bodies of the hostile brothers were placed
on the pyre, the flames, which were meant to destroy them together, parted into
two portions.
According to the version of the story invented by the Attic tragedians,
the Thebans refused to bury their foes, but at the prayer of Adrastus were compelled
to do so by Theseus; according to another version, he conquered the Thebans and
buried the dead bodies at Eleusis
in Attica. For the burial
of Polynices, see Antigone; and also Epigoni. The story forms the subject of one
of the extant plays of Aeschylus.
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
Oedipus succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother,
and begat sons by her, Polynices and Eteocles, and daughters, Ismene and Antigone...(Apoll.
3.5.8)
When the secret afterwards came to light...Oedipus was driven from
Thebes, after he had put out his eyes and cursed his sons, who saw him cast out
of the city without lifting a hand to help him. And having come with Antigone
to Colonus in Attica, where is the precinct of the Eumenides, he sat down there
as a suppliant, was kindly received by Theseus, and died not long afterwards.
(Apoll. 3.5.9)
Now Eteocles and Polynices made a compact with each other concerning
the kingdom and resolved that each should rule alternately for a year at a time.
Some say that Polynices was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed
over the kingdom to Eteocles; but some say that Eteocles was the first to rule,
and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, Polynices
came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe. The king of Argos was
Adrastus, son of Talaus; and Polynices went up to his palace by night and engaged
in a fight with Tydeus, son of Oeneus, who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden
outcry Adrastus appeared and parted them, and remembering the words of a certain
seer who told him to yoke his daughters in marriage to a boar and a lion, he accepted
them both as bridegrooms, because they had on their shields, the one the forepart
of a boar, and the other the forepart of a lion. And Tydeus married Deipyle, and
Polynices married Argia6 ; and Adrastus promised that he would restore them both
to their native lands. And first he was eager to march against Thebes, and he
mustered the chiefs.(Apoll. 3.6.1)
But Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all
who joined in the expedition except Adrastus were destined to perish, shrank from
it himself and discouraged the rest. However, Polynices went to Iphis, son of
Alector, and begged to know how Amphiaraus could be compelled to go to the war.
He answered that it could be done if Eriphyle got the necklace. Now Amphiaraus
had forbidden Eriphyle to accept gifts from Polynices; but Polynices gave her
the necklace and begged her to persuade Amphiaraus to go to the war; for the decision
lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and Adrastus,
he had made it up with him and sworn to let Eriphyle decide any future dispute
he might have with Adrastus. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and
the measure was advocated by Adrastus and opposed by Amphiaraus, Eriphyle accepted
the necklace and persuaded him to march with Adrastus. Thus forced to go to the
war, Amphiaraus laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up,
they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.(Apoll. 3.6.2)
Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus hastened to
wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: Adrastus, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus,
son of Oicles; Capaneus, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but
some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices, son of Oedipus, came
from Thebes; Tydeus, son of Oeneus, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus, son of Melanion,
was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not reckon Tydeus and Polynices among them,
but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.(Apoll.
3.6.3)
Having come to Nemea, of which Lycurgus was king, they sought for
water; and Hypsipyle showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant
boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of Eurydice and Lycurgus. For the Lemnian
women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and
sold Hypsipyle into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of Lycurgus as
a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was
killed by a serpent. When Adrastus and his party appeared on the scene, they slew
the serpent and buried the boy; but Amphiaraus told them that the sign foreboded
the future, and they called the boy Archemorus. They celebrated the Nemean games
in his honor; and Adrastus won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, Tydeus the
boxing match, Amphiaraus the leaping and quoit-throwing match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing
match, Polynices the wrestling match, and Parthenopaeus the archery match. (Apoll.
3.6.4)
When they came to Cithaeron, they sent Tydeus to tell Eteocles in
advance that he must cede the kingdom to Polynices, as they had agreed among themselves.
As Eteocles paid no heed to the message, Tydeus, by way of putting the Thebans
to the proof, challenged them to single combat and was victorious in every encounter;
and though the Thebans set fifty armed men to lie in wait for him as he went away,
he slew them all but Maeon, and then came to the camp. (Apoll. 3.6.5)
Having armed themselves, the Argives approached the walls; and as
there were seven gates, Adrastus was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, Capaneus
at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices
at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus at the Crenidian.
Eteocles on his side armed the Thebans, and having appointed leaders to match
those of the enemy in number, he put the battle in array, and resorted to divination
to learn how they might overcome the foe. (Apoll. 3.6.6)
Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, Tiresias, son of Everes
and a nymph Chariclo, of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan, and he had lost the
sight of his eyes. Different stories are told about his blindness and his power
of soothsaying. For some say that he was blinded by the gods because he revealed
their secrets to men. But Pherecydes says that he was blinded by Athena(1);
for Chariclo was dear to Athena ... and Tiresias saw the goddess stark naked,
and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when
Chariclo asked her to restore his sight, she could not do so, but by cleansing
his ears she caused him to understand every note of birds; and she gave him a
staff of cornel-wood, wherewith he walked like those who see. But Hesiod says
that he beheld snakes copulating on Cyllene, and that having wounded them he was
turned from a man into a woman, but that on observing the same snakes copulating
again, he became a man.(2) Hence, when Hera and Zeus disputed
whether the pleasures of love are felt more by women or by men, they referred
to him for a decision. He said that if the pleasures of love be reckoned at ten,
men enjoy one and women nine. Wherefore Hera blinded him, but Zeus bestowed on
him the art of soothsaying.
The saying of Tiresias to Zeus and Hera.
Of ten parts a man enjoys one only;
But a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart.
He also lived to a great age.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited April 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Lycurgus (Lukourgos). A son of Pronax and brother of Amphithea, the wife of Adrastus.
He took part in the war of the Seven against Thebes, and engaged in a contest
with Amphiaraus, which was represented on the throne of Apollo at Amyclae (Paus.
iii. 18. 7; Apollod. i. 9. 3). He is also mentioned among those whom Asclepius
called to life again after their death. (Apollod. iii. 10. 3; Schol. ad Pind.
Pyth. iii. 96, ad Eurip. Alcest. 1.)
Epigoni (Epigonoi, ?descendants?). The sons of the Grecian heroes who were killed
in the First Theban War. The War of the Epigoni is famous in ancient history.
It was undertaken ten years after the first. The sons of those who had perished
in the first war resolved to avenge the death of their fathers. The god, when
consulted, promised them victory if led by Alcmaeon , the son of Amphiaraus. Alcmaeon
accordingly took the command. Another account, however, given by Pausanias (ix.
9, 2), makes Thersander, son of Polynices, to have been at the head of the expedition.
The other leaders were Amphilochus, brother of Alcmaeon; Aegialeus, son of Adrastus;
Diomedes, of Tydeus; Promachus, of Parthenopaeus; Sthenelus, of Capaneus; and
Eurypylus, of Mecisteus. The Argives were assisted by the Messenians, Arcadians,
Corinthians, and Megarians. The Thebans obtained aid from the neighbouring States.
The invaders ravaged the villages about Thebes. A battle ensued, in which Laodamas,
the son of Eteocles, slew Aegialeus, and fell himself by the spear of Alcmaeon.
The Thebans then fled; and, by the advice of Tiresias, they secretly left their
city, which was entered and plundered by the Argives, and Thersander was placed
on the throne.
With the exception of the events of the Trojan War and the return
of the Greeks, nothing was so closely connected with the Iliad and Odyssey as
the War of the Argives against Thebes, since many of the principal heroes of Greece,
particularly Diomedes and Sthenelus, were themselves among the conquerors of Thebes,
and their fathers before them, a bolder and wilder race, had fought on the same
spot, in a contest which, although unattended with victory, was still far from
inglorious. Hence, also, reputed Homeric poems on the subject of this war were
extant, which perhaps really bore a great affinity to the Homeric time and school.
The second part of the Thebais, which related to the exploits of the Epigoni,
was, according to Pausanias (ix. 9, 2), ascribed by some to Homer himself. The
Epigoni was still commonly ascribed to Homer in the time of Herodotus (iv. 32).
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
Ten years afterwards (the war of Seven Against Thebes) the sons of
the fallen, called the Epigoni, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the
death of their fathers;(1) and when they consulted the oracle,
the god predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon. So Alcmaeon joined
the expedition, though he was loath to lead the army till he had punished his
mother; for Eriphyle had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices,
and had persuaded her sons also(2) to go to the war. Having chosen
Alcmaeon as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the
expedition were these: Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus; Aegialeus,
son of Adrastus; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus; Sthenelus,
son of Capaneus; Thersander, son of Polynices; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.(Apoll.
3.7.2)
They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans
advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of Eteocles, they fought bravely,(3)
and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by Alcmaeon,(4)
and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But
as Tiresias told them to send a herald to treat with the Argives, and themselves
to take to flight, they did send a herald to the enemy, and, mounting their children
and women on the wagons, themselves fled from the city. When they had come by
night to the spring called Tilphussa, Tiresias drank of it and expired.(5)
After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took
up their abode there. (Apoll. 3.7.3)
But the Argives, on learning afterwards the flight of the Thebans,
entered the city and collected the booty, and pulled down the walls. But they
sent a portion of the booty to Apollo at Delphi and with it Manto, daughter of
Tiresias; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to
him the fairest of the spoils.(Apoll. 3.7.4)
Commentary:
1. The war of the Epigoni against Thebes is narrated very
similarly by Diod. 4.66. Compare Paus. 9.5.10ff., Paus. 9.8.6, Paus. 9.9.4ff.;
Hyginus, Fab. 70. There was an epic poem on the subject, called Epigoni, which
some people ascribed to Homer, but others attributed it to Antimachus. Aeschylus
and Sophocles both wrote tragedies on the same subject and with the same title,
Epigoni.
2. The sons of Eriphyle were Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, as we
learn immediately. The giddy and treacherous mother persuaded them, as she had
formerly persuaded her husband Amphiaraus, to go to the war, the bauble of a necklace
and the gewgaw of a robe being more precious in her sight than the lives of her
kinsfolk. See above, Apollod. 3.6.2; and as to the necklace and robe, see Apollod.
3.4.2; Apollod. 3.6.1-2; Diod. 4.66.3.
3. The battle was fought at a place called Glisas, where the
graves of the Argive lords were shown down to the time of Pausanias. See Paus.
9.5.13; Paus. 9.8.6; Paus. 9.9.4; Paus. 9.19.2; Scholiast on Pind. P. 8.48(68),
who refers to Hellanicus as his authority.
4. According to a different account, King Laodamas did not fall
in the battle, but after his defeat led a portion of the Thebans away to the Illyrian
tribe of the Encheleans, the same people among whom his ancestors Cadmus and Harmonia
had found their last home. See Hdt. 5.61; Paus. 9.5.13; Paus. 9.8.6. As to Cadmus
and Harmonia in Illyria, see above, Apollod. 3.5.4.
5. See Paus. 9.33.1, who says that the grave of Tiresias was
at the spring. But there was also a cenotaph of the seer on the road from Thebes
to Chalcis (Paus. 9.18.4). Diod. 4.67.1 agrees with Pausanias and Apollodorus
in placing the death of Tiresias at Mount Tilphusium, which was beside the spring
Tilphussa, in the territory of Haliartus.<
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.
Eteoclus (Eteoklos) a son of Iphis, was, according to some traditions, one of the seven
heroes who went with Adrastus against Thebes. He had to make the attack upon the
Neitian gate, where he was opposed by Megarcus (Aeschyl. Sept. c. Theb. 444, &c.;
Apollod. iii. 6.3). He is said to have won a prize in the foot-race at the Nemean
games, and to have been killed by Leades (Apollod. iii. 6.4, 8). His statue stood
at Delphi, among those of the other Argive heroes (Paus. x. 10.2; Eustath. ad
Hom.)
ALEA (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
son of Aphidas: Apollod. 3.8.2, Paus. 8.4.4, 5
king of Arcadia: Paus. 8.4.8
his children: Paus. 5.5.5, Paus. 8.4.8
father of Auge, Cepheus, and Lycurgus: Apollod. 3.8.2
father of Cepheus: Apollod. 1.9.17
father of Auge: Apollod. 2.7.3, Apollod. 2.7.8
exposes her child (Telephus): Apollod. 2.7.4
gives her to Nauplius to sell: Apollod. 2.7.4
bids Nauplius drown Auge: Paus. 8.48.7
founds Alea: Paus. 8.23.1
iounds Tegea: Paus. 8.45.1
makes sanctuary of Athena Alea at Tegea: Paus. 8.4.8, Paus. 8.45.4
founds Stymphalus: Paus. 8.23.1
house at Tegea: Paus. 8.53.10
ERMIONI (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Hermion, a son of Europs, and grandson of Phoroneus, was, according to a tradition of Hermione, the founder of that town on the south-east coast of Peloponnesus. (Paus. ii. 34. 5)
LYRKIA (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Lynceus (Lunkeus). A son of Aegyptus and Argyphia, and husband of the Danaid Hypermnestra,
by whom he became the father of Abas. He was king of Argos,
whence that city is called Lulkeion Argos (Apollon. Rhod. i. 125). His story is,
that when the Danaides, by the desire of their father, killed their husbands in
one night, Hypermnestra alone spared the life of her husband Lynceus. Danaus thereupon
kept his disobedient daughter in strict confinement, but was afterwards prevailed
upon to give her to Lynceus, who succeeded him on the throne of Argos (Apollod.
ii. 1.5, 2.1; Paus. ii. 16.1; Ov. Heroid. 14). The cause of Hypermnestra sparing
Lynceus is not the same in all accounts (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. x. 10, ad Eurip.
Hecub. 869, ad Pind. Pyth. ix. 200). It is also said that she assisted her husband
in his eseape from the vengeance of Danaus, that he fled to Lyrceia (Lynceia),
and from thence gave a sign with a torch that he had safely arrived there; Hypermnestra
returned the sign from the citadel of Argos, and in commemoration of this event
the Argives celebrated every year a festival with torches (Paus. ii. 25.4; comp.
ii. 19.6, 21.1, 20.5). When Lynceus received the news of the death of Danaus from
his son Abas, Lynceus gave to Abas the shield of Danaus, which had been dedicated
in the temple of Hera, and instituted games in honour of Hera, in which the victor
received a shield as his prize (Hygin. Fab. 273). According to some, Lynceus slew
Danaus and all the sisters of Hypermnestra, in revenge for his brothers (Schol.
ad Eurip. Hecub. 869; Serv. ad Aen. x. 497). Lynceus and his wife were revered
at Argos as heroes, and had a common sanctuary, and their tomb was shown there
not far from the altar of Zeus Phyxius (Hygin. Fab. 168; Paus. ii. 21.2). Their
statues stood in the temple at Delphi,
as a present from the Argives. (Paus. x. 10.2.)
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
Hypermnestra to Lynceus (The Epistles of Ovid)
Hypermnestra sends to the only survivor of so many brothers: the rest have all perished by the crime of their wives. I am closely confined, and loaded with a weight of chains. My piety is the sole cause of my punishment. I am deemed guilty, because my hand trembled to urge the sword to my husband's throat. Had I dared to commit the bloody deed, I should have been extolled. It is better to be thus deemed guilty, than please a father by an act of barbarity. I can never repent that my hands are unstained withmurder.
Should my father torture me with the flames that I have not dared to violate, or throw in my face the torches used at the nuptial rites; should be pierce me with the very sword which he gave me for an inhuman purpose, and destroy the wife by the death from which she saved her husband; yet would all his cruelty be insufficient to make my dying lips own repentance: Hypermnestra is not one who will repent of her piety. Let Danaus and my bloody sisters testify penitence for their wickedness; this usually follows deeds of guilt. My heart sickens at the remembrance of that bloody night; and a sudden trembling enervates the joints of my right hand. That hand which was thought strong enough to engage in the murder of a husband, even dreads to write of a murder that it did not commit; yet will I attempt to describe the horrid scene. Twilight had overspread the earth; it was about the close of day, and night hastened on: we, the descendants of Inachus, are led to the palace of the great Pelasgus; and a father-in-law receives, into his house, daughters armed for the destruction of their husbands. Lamps adorned with gold shine through all the apartments, and impious incense is offered to the unwilling gods. The people invoke Hymen; but Hymen neglects their call: even the wife of Jove forsook her beloved city. The bridegrooms made their appearance, high in wine, and enlivened by the acclamations of their attendants; their anointed heads were adorned with garlands of flowers: they entered their bed-chambers (chambers doomed to be their graves), and reposed their limbs on beds fitter for their funeral piles. Thus they lay overcome with food, wine, and sleep; and a dead silence reigned in unsuspecting Argos. I seemed to hear around me the groans of dying men; I indeed heard them, and it was really as I feared. At this the blood forsook my limbs, the vital heat departed, and a coldness spread itself over all my joints. As the bending reeds are shaken by the mild zephyrs, or the rough northern blasts agitate the poplar leaves; a like, or more violent shaking seised me. You lay quiet, lulled to rest by the sleepy draught I had given. The commands of a violent father had banished fear. I started up, and seised with a trembling hand the deadly sword. Why should I deceive? Thrice I took hold of the pointed steel, and thrice my feeble hand dropped the hated load. I aimed at your throat; blame me not if I acknowlege the truth: I aimed at your throat the blade I had received of my father. But fear and piety opposed the bloody deed; and my blameless right hand refused the hated task. I tore my purple garments, I tore my hair, and with a faint voice uttered this mournful complaint: "A cruel father you have, Hypermnestra; think of executing his commands, and make Lynceus also a companion to his brothers. I am a woman and a virgin, mild both by nature and years; these gentle hands are unfit to wield the fatal steel: but take courage, and, while he lies defenceless, imitate the bravery of your resolute sisters; it is very probable that, ere now, all their husbands are slain. Alas! if this hand could perpetrate a cruel murder, it must first be dyed in the blood of its owner. How can they deserve death by possessing their uncle's realms, which yet must have been given to foreign sons-in-law? Even if our husbands have deserved death, what have we done? Why am I urged to a crime, which, if committed, robs me of my claim to piety? What have I to do with a drawn sword? Why are warlike weapons put into the hands of a girl? A spindle and distaff better suit these fingers." These things I revolved with myself; and, as I complained, the mournful words were accompanied with tears, which, gently falling from my eyes, bedewed your naked limbs.
While you sought to embrace me, and half-awake stretched your clasping arms, your hand was almost wounded by the drawn sword. And now, I began to dread my father, the guards, and the approaching light; when these my words roused you from sleep: Rise speedily, grandson of Belus, now the only survivor of so many brothers; unless you are quick in escaping, this is fated to be your eternal night. You start up in a fright; the fetters of sleep are all loosened, and you behold in my hand the pointed weapon. As you ask the cause; Fly, interrupted I, while night permits. You escape, favored by the darkness of the night; while I remain. And now, morning coming on, Danaus numbers over his slaughtered sons; one only was wanting to complete the bloody crime. He storms at his disappointment in the death of a single kinsman, and complains that too little blood had been shed. I am torn from my father as I embrace his knees, and dragged by the hair to prison. Is this the due reward of my piety? So it is that Juno's resentment has ever pursued our race, since Jove transformed Io into a cow, and the cow into a goddess. But was it not sufficient punishment for the unhappy maid to lose her natural form, and, stripped of her beauty, be no longer able to please the almighty Jove? She stood amazed at her new shape, upon the banks of her flowing parent; and beheld, in this paternal mirror, the unusual horns. Striving to complain, her mouth was filled with lowings; and she was equally terrified at her form and voice. Unhappy maid, why this mad rage? Why do you wonder at your own shadow? Why do you number your feet formed to new joints? This beauteous rival, once dreaded by the sister of almighty Jove, now allays her raging hunger with leaves and grass: she drinks of the running stream, and is astonished to behold her own shape; she even trembles at the arms she wears, and thinks them aimed against herself. You, lately so rich as to be deemed worthy even of almighty Jove, now lie naked and defenceless in the unsheltered fields. You wildly run through the sea, over lands, and through kindred rivers. Even seas, lands and rivers, permit your wanderings. What is the cause of your flight? Why, Io, do you thus traverse the spacious main? It is impossible to fly from your own shadow. Whither, daughter of Inachus, do you run? It is the same individual who flies and who pursues; you lead, and at the same time follow the leader. The Nile, which pours into the ocean through seven floodgates, restored to her former shape this beloved of Jove. But why should I mention remote times, and accounts for which I am beholden to old age? Even the present years afford ground of complaint. My father and uncle are at war: we are driven from our kingdom and home, and wander exiles on earth's remotest verge. My savage uncle singly possesses the throne and sceptre; we, a destitute crowd, follow, disconsolate, a helpless old man. You only (how small a part!) remain of a whole nation of brothers. I mourn both for those who perished, and those who gave the fatal stroke. I have not only lost a multitude of brothers, but also a like number of sisters; and both losses equally demand my tears. Lo, even I am reserved to a cruel punishment, because I saved your life! What fate is left for the guilty, when I, who merit only praise, am thus accused? And must I, once the hundredth of a kindred tribe, suffer death for saving one of so many brothers? But, my dear Lynceus, if you have any regard to the piety of your sister, or any remembrance of her love, and the life she gave you, help me in this extremity; or, if death should set me free before you can arrive, bear privately my breathless frame to the funeral pile, and sprinkle my ashes with unfeigned tears. When you have faithfully performed the last obsequies, engrave upon my tomb this short inscription:
Hypermnestra, an unhappy exile, was, as a reward for her piety, unjustly doomed to that death from which she had saved her brother.
I wish to write more; but my hand fails, disabled by a weight of chains; and ill-boding fears deprive me of the power of reflection.
Commentary:
Danaus, the son of Belus, had by several wives fifty daughters; Aegyptus
his brother, who had the like number of sons, wished to have them for his daughters-in-law,
and applied to Danaus for this purpose. But he having been told by an oracle that
he should fall by the hands of a son-in-law, and willing, if possible, to avoid
the danger, took shipping, and possessed himself of Argos. Aegyptus, enraged to
find himself thus slighted, levied a great army; and, putting his sons at the
head of it, sent it into Greece, with an express command not to return till they
had either slain Danaus, or obliged him to consent to receive them as his sons-in-law.
He, finding himself pressed by a close siege, was under the necessity of promising
them his daughters: but they having all received swords from their father, by
his command killed their husbands on the first night, while warm with wine and
joy they lay fast asleep; Hypermnestra only excepted, who spared her husband Lynceus,
and, acquainting him with the treachery of Danaus, advised him to fly with all
speed to his father Aegyptus. Danaus, finding that his commands had been strictly
followed by all his daughters, except Hypermnestra, was so enraged at her disobedience,
that he loaded her with chains, and threw her into prison. Upon this she wrote
the following epistle to her husband, in which she begs him to come to her assistance,
or, if she should be put to death before he can bring her relief, to bestow upon
her the rites of burial. Lynceus, after revenging the murder of his brothers by
her father's death, restored her to liberty. Aeschylus treated this story in a
connected trilogy. The first play, Suppliant Women, survives but the other two
are lost. Pindar begins Nemean 10 with an allusion to the story. Hypermnestra,
in her application to Lynceus, artfully begins with such a representation of her
case as may most effectually awaken his resentment, and beget in him a desire
of revenge. She reminds him that he was the only surviving brother of fifty, all
the rest having been cut off by the barbarous contrivance of her father; and that
all her sufferings were occasioned by her tenderness for him. Yet far from repenting
of it, the reflection always gave her pleasure; nor would all the tortures and
miseries in the world be able to make her own the contrary. How could Lynceus
deny his aid to one that had treated him so generously, or avoid attempting to
rescue her from that bondage into which she was thrown for preserving his life?
EPIDAVROS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Periphetes. A son of Hephaestus and Anticleia, was surnamed Corynetes, [p. 202] that is, Club-bearer, and was a robber at Epidaurus, who slew the travellers he met with an iron club. Theseus at last slew him and took his club for his own use. (Apollod. iii. 16.1; Plut. Thes 38; Paus ii. 1.4; Ov. Met. vii. 437.)
Phoroneus. A son of Inachus and the Oceanid Melia or Archia,
was a brother of Aegialeus and the ruler of Argos. He was married to the nymph
Laodice, by whom he became the father of Niobe, Apis, and Car. According to other
writers, his sons were Pelasgus, Iasus, and Agenor, who, after their father's
death, divided the kingdom of Argos among themselves. Phoroneus is said to have
been the first who offered sacrifices to Here at Argos, and to have united the
people, who, until then, had lived in scattered habitations, into a city which
was called after him astu Phoronikon. The patronymic Phoronides is sometimes used
of the Argives in general, and especially to designate Amphiaraus and Adrastus.
Ovid calls Io, who was a descendant of Phoroneus, Phoronis.
Pelasgus. In Argos, Pelasgus was believed to have been a son of Triopas and Sois, and a brother of Iasus, Agenor, and Xanthus, or a son of Phoroneus, and to have founded the city of Argos in Peloponnesus, to have taught the people agriculture, and to have received Demeter, on her wanderings, at Argos, where his tomb was shown in later times. (Paus. i. 14.2, ii. 22.2; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 920; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 385)
ASSINI (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
The people of Asine originally adjoined the Lycoritae on Parnassus.
Their name, which they maintained after their arrival in Peloponnese, was Dryopes,
from their founder. Two generations after Dryops, in the reign of Phylas, the
Dryopes were conquered in battle by Heracles and brought as an offering to Apollo
at Delphi. When brought to Peloponnese according to the god's instructions to
Heracles, they first occupied Asine by Hermion. They were driven thence by the
Argives and lived in Messenia. This was the gift of the Lacedaemonians, and when
in the course of time the Messenians were restored, they were not driven from
their city by the Messenians.
But the people of Asine give this account of themselves. They admit
that they were conquered by Heracles and their city in Parnassus captured, but
they deny that they were made prisoners and brought to Apollo. But when the walls
were carried by Heracles, they deserted the town and fled to the heights of Parnassus,
and afterwards crossed the sea to Peloponnese and appealed to Eurystheus. Being
at feud with Heracles, he gave them Asine in the Argolid.
The men of Asine are the only members of the race of the Dryopes to
pride themselves on the name to this day. The case is very different with the
Euboeans of Styra. They too are Dryopes in origin, who took no part in the battle
with Heracles, as they dwelt at some distance from the city. Yet the people of
Styra disdain the name of Dryopes, just as the Delphians have refused to be called
Phocians. But the men of Asine take the greatest pleasure in being called Dryopes,
and clearly have made the most holy of their sanctuaries in memory of those which
they once had, established on Parnassus. For they have both a temple of Apollo
and again a temple and ancient statue of Dryops, whose mysteries they celebrate
every year, saying that he is the son of Apollo.
The town itself lies on the coast just as the old Asine in Argive
territory. It is a journey of forty stades from Colonides to Asine, and of an
equal number from Asine to the promontory called Acritas. Acritas projects into
the sea and has a deserted island, Theganussa, lying off it. After Acritas is
the harbor Phoenicus and the Oenussae islands lying opposite. (Paus. 4.34.9-12)
It is said that Asine too was a habitation of the Dryopians--whether, being inhabitants of the regions of the Spercheius, they were settled here by the Arcadian Dryops, as Aristotle has said, or whether they were driven by Heracles out of the part of Doris that is near Parnassus. (Strab. 8.6.13)
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Son of Zeus by Danae, the daughter of Acresius, and founder of Mycenae. (All information about Perseus see at Serifos, Island )
Having now gone through the family of Deucalion, we have next to speak of that
of Inachus.
Ocean and Tethys had a son Inachus, after whom a river in Argos is called Inachus.
He and Melia, daughter of Ocean, had sons, Phoroneus, and Aegialeus. Aegialeus
having died childless, the whole country was called Aegialia; and Phoroneus,
reigning over the whole land afterwards named Peloponnese, begat Apis and Niobe
by a nymph Teledice. Apis converted his power into a tyranny and named the Peloponnese
after himself Apia; but being a stern tyrant he was conspired against and slain
by Thelxion and Telchis. He left no child, and being deemed a god was called
Sarapis. But Niobe had by Zeus (and she was the first mortal woman with whom
Zeus cohabited) a son Argus, and also, so says Acusilaus, a son Pelasgus, after
whom the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called Pelasgians. However, Hesiod
says that Pelasgus was a son of the soil.
About him I shall speak again. But Argus received the kingdom and called the
Peloponnese after himself Argos; and having married Evadne, daughter of Strymon
and Neaera, he begat Ecbasus, Piras, Epidaurus, and Criasus, who also succeeded
to the kingdom.
Inachus (Inachos), a river god and king of Argos, is described as a son of Oceanus and Tethys. By a Melian nymph, a daughter of Oceanus, or, according to others, by his sister Argeia, he became the father of Phoroneus and Aegialeus, to whom others add Io, Argos Panoptes, and Phegeus or Pegeus (Apollod. ii. 1.1, 3; Hygin. Fab. 143, 145; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 177; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 920, 1239; Ov. Met. i. 583, 640, Amor. iii. 6, 25; Serv. ad Virg. Geory. iii. 153). Inachus is the most ancient god or hero of Argos. The river Inachus is said to have received its name from the fact of Inachus throwing himself into it, at the time when Zeus, enraged at the reproaches which Inachus made on account of the treatment of Io, sent a fury to pursue him (Plut. de Fluv. 18). The river had before borne the name of Carmanor or Haliacmon; and as Inachus was the first ruler and priest at Argos, the country is frequently called the land of Inachus (Eurip. Or. 932; Dionys. i. 25; Hygin. Fab. 143). In the dispute between Poseidon and Hera about the possession of Argos, Inachus decided in favour of Hera, and hence it was said that Poseidon deprived him and the two other judges, Asterion and Cephissus, of their water, so that they became dry except in rainy seasons (Paus. ii. 15.4 ; comp. Apollod. ii. 1.4). The ancients themselves made several attempts to explain the stories about Inachus: sometimes they looked upon him as a native of Argos, who after the flood of Deucalion led the Argives from the mountains into the plains, and confined the waters within their proper channels; and sometimes they regarded him as an immigrant who had come across the sea as the leader of an Egyptian or Libyan colony, and had united the Pelasgians, whom he found scattered on the banks of the Inachus (Schol.adEurip. Or. 920, 932; Sophocl. ap. Dionys. l. c.).
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
Inachus (Inachos). A son of Oceanus and Tethys, and father of Io. He
was said to have founded the kingdom of Argos, and was succeeded by his son Phoroneus,
B.C. 1807. Inachus is said, in the old legend, to have given his name to the principal
river of Argolis. Hence, probably, he was described as the son of Oceanus, the
common parent of all rivers. They who make Inachus to have come into Greece from
beyond the sea regard his name as a Greek form for the Oriental term Enak, denoting
"great" or "powerful," and this last as the base of the Greek
anax, "a king." The foreign origin of Inachus, however, or, rather,
his actual existence, is very problematical. According to the mythological writers,
Inachus became the father of Io by his sister, the ocean-nymph Melia, and he is
also described as the father of Aegialeus, Argus, and Rhegeus.
Melia, a nymph, a daughter of Oceanus, became by Inachus the mother of Phoroneus
and Aegialeus or Pegeus (Apollod. ii. 1.1; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 920). By Seilenus
she became the mother of the centaur, Pholus (Apollod. ii. 5.4), and by Poseidon
of Amycus (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 4; Serv. ad Aen. v. 373). She was carried off by
Apollo, and became by him the mother of Ismenius (some call her own brother Ismenus,
Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. xi. 5; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 1211), and of the seer Tenerus. She
was worshipped in the Apollinian sanctuary, the Ismenium, near Thebes (Paus. ix.
10.5, 26.1).
In the plural form Meliai or Meiades is the name of the nymphs, who,
along with the Gigantes and Erinnyes, sprang from the drops of blood that fell
from Uranus, and which were received by Gaea (Hes. Theog. 187). The nymphs that
nursed Zeus are likewise called Meliae (Callim. Hymn. in Joy. 47; Eustath. ad
Horn.).
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 Elionia, who was worshipped at Argos as the goddess of birth (Plut. Quaest. Rom. 49), was probably the same as Eileithvia. (Bottiger, Ilithyia oder die Hexe, Weimar, 1799; Muller, Dor. ii. 2.14)
Son of Apollo: Paus. 2.35.2, builds temple of Apollo at Argos: Paus. 2.24.1
Hyes (Hues), the moist or fertilising god, occurs like Hyetius, as a surname of Zeus, as the sender of rain. (Hesych. s. v. hues.) Under the name of Hyetius, the god had an altar at Argos, and a statue in the grove of Trophonius, near Lebadeia (Paus. ii. 19.7, ix. 39,3). Hyes was also a surname of Dionysus, or rather of the Phrygian Sabazius, who was identified sometimes with Dionysus, and sometimes with Zeus. (Hesych. l.c.; Strab. p. 471.)
Pelasga or Pelasgis, i. e. the Pelasgian (woman or goddess), occurs as a surname of the Thessalian Hera (Apollon. Rhod. i. 14, with the Schol.; Propert. ii. 28. 11), and of Demeter, who, under this name, had a temple at Argos, and was believed to have derived the surname from Pelasgus, the son of Triopas, who had founded her sanctuary. (Paus. ii. 22.2)
Chthonia, may mean the subterraucous, or the goddess of the earth, that is, the protectress of the fields, whence it is used as a surname of infernal divinities, such as Hecate (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 148; Orph. Hymn. 35. 9), Nyx (Orph. Hymn. 2. 8), and Melinoe (Orph. Hymn. 70. 1), but especially of Demeter (Herod. ii. 123; Orph. Hymn. 39. 12; Artemid. ii. 35; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 987). Although the name, in the case of Demeter, scarcely requires explanation, yet mythology relates two stories to account for it. According to one of them, Clymenus and Chthonia, the children of Phoroneus, founded at Hermione a sanctuary of Demeter, and called her Chthonia from the name of one of the founders (Paus. ii. 3.5.3). According to an Argive legend, Demeter on her wanderings came to Argolis, where she was ill-received by Colontas. Chthonia, his daughter, was dissatisfied with her father's conduct, and, when Colontas and his house were burnt by the goddess, Chthonia was carried off by her to Hermione, where she built a sanctuary to Demeter Chthonia, and instituted the festival of the Chthonia in her honour (Paus. ii. 35. 3;) A third mythical personage of this name occurs in Apollodorus (iii. 15. § 1).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Musia. A surname of Demeter, who had a temple, Musaion, between Argos and Mycenae and at Pellene. It is said to have been derived from an Argive Mysius, who received her kindly during her wanderings, and built a sanctuary to her. (Paus. ii. 18.3, 35.3, vii. 27.4.)
Argeiphontes, a surname of Hermes, by which he is designated as the murderer of Argus Panoptes. (Hom. Il. ii 103, and numerous other passages in the Greek and Latin poets.)
As he was born in the fourth month, the number four was sacred to him. In Argos the fourth month was named after him.
Mechaneus), skilled in inventing, was a surname of Zeus at Argos (Paus. ii. 22, § 3). The feminine form, Mechanitis (MechaWitis), occurs as a surname of Aphrodite, at Megalopolis, and of Athena. in the same neighbourhood. (Paus. viii. 31.3, 36.3.)
Melinea (Melinaia), a surname of Aphrodite, which she derived from the Argive town Meline. (Steph. Byz. s. v.; Lycoph. 403.)
Antheia, the blooming, or the friend of flowers, a surname of Hera, under which she had a temple at Argos. Before this temple was the mound under which the women were buried who had come with Dionysus from the Aegean islands, and had fallen in a contest with the Argives and Perseus (Paus. ii. 22.1). Antheia was used at Gnossus as a surname of Aphrodite. (Hesych. s. v.)
Crecius (Kresios), a surname of Dionysus at Argos, where he had a temple in which Ariadne was said to be buried. (Paus. ii. 23.7)
Iynx, a daughter of Peitho and Pan, or of Echo. She endeavoured to charm Zeus, or make him, by magic means, fall in love with Io ; in consequence of which Hera metamorphosed her into the bird called lynx (iynx torquilla). (Schol. ad Theocrit. ii. 17, ad Pind. Pyth. iv. 380, Nem. iv. 56; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 310.) According to another story, she was a daughter of Pierus, and as she and her sisters had presumed to enter into a musical contest with the Muses, she was changed into the bird lynx. (Anton. lib. 9.) This bird, the symbol of passionate and restless love, was given by Aphrodite to Jason, who, by turning it round and pronouncing certain magic words, excited the love of Medeia. (Pind. Pyth. iv. 380, &c.; Tzetz. l. c.)
ASKLEPIEION OF EPIDAURUS (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOLIS
Aegle (Aigle), one of the daughters of Aesculapius (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 40.31) by Lampetia, the daughter of the Sun, according to Hermippus (ap. Schol. in Aristoph. Plut. 701), or by Epione, according to Suidas. (s. v. Epione..) She is said to have derived her name Aegle, " Brightness," or " Splendour," either from the beauty of the human body when in good health, or from the honour paid to the medical profession.
EPIDAVROS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Cotyphaea (Koruphaia), the goddess who inhabits the summit of the mountain, a surname of Artemis, under which she had a temple on mount Coryphaeon, near Epidaurus. (Paus. ii. 281. § 2.) It is also applied to designate the highest or supreme god, and is consequently given as an epithet to Zeus. (Paus. ii. 4.5.)
The Epidaurians' land bore no produce. For this reason they inquired at Delphi
concerning this calamity, and the priestess bade them set up images of Damia and
Auxesia,(1) saying that if they so did their luck would be better. The
Epidaurians then asked in addition whether they should make the images of bronze
or of stone, and the priestess bade them do neither, but make them of the wood
of the cultivated olive. So the men of Epidaurus asked the Athenians to permit
them to cut down some olive trees, supposing the olives there to be the holiest.(2)
Indeed it is said that at that time there were no olives anywhere save at Athens.
The Athenians consented to give the trees, if the Epidaurians would pay yearly
sacred dues to Athena, the city's goddess, and to Erechtheus. The Epidaurians
agreed to this condition, and their request was granted. When they set up images
made of these olive trees, their land brought forth fruit, and they fulfilled
their agreement with the Athenians.
Commentary:
1. Damies kai Auxesies. They were goddesses of increase and fertility.
These deities were also worshipped at Troezen and Epidaurus, and in Laconia. Auxesie
is clearly connected with 'Increase' (auxein, cf. the Attic deity Auxo), but the
derivation of Damie remains a problem. Most probably it may be connected with
Mother-Earth, Demeter, since at Rome and in Italy the Bona Dea, an earth-goddess,
worshipped exclusively by women (Ovid, Fast. v. 150 f.), was called Damia, her
victim damium, and her priestess damiatrix. These names must be of Greek origin,
and seem to show that the Greek deity Damia migrated from Tarentum, where the
feast of Dameia was celebrated, to Rome, and was there engrafted on the Italian
Bona Dea = Fauna (Warde Fowler, Roman Festivals, pp. 102-6). In any case it can
hardly be doubtful that these goddesses are concerned with the increase of the
fruits of the earth, and with child-birth in women. Their worship resembled that
of Demeter and Persephone in the raillery practised at both by the women (ch.
83. 3 n.), in the throwing of stones as a religious rite, and in the manner of
sacrifice (Paus. ii. 30. 4, 32. 2). In the fact that the statues were made of
wood we may perhaps see a relic of the supposed fertilizing power of trees (cf.
the May-pole). For parallel spring customs in many lands and their explanation
cf. Frazer, Paus. ii. 492; iii. 266 f.
2. The moriai at Athens were held sacred and protected by law (Lysias, peri sekou,
2, 7). The first olive, still to be seen in the days of H. in the Erechtheum (viii.
55 n.), was the gift of Athena to Attica; hence the view that olives were once
found in Attica only. The image of Athena Polias in the Erechtheum was made of
olive-wood (Athenagoras, Leg. 17); indeed, primitive statues were generally made
of wood (Paus. viii. 17. 2).
ERMIONI (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Chthonia, may mean the subterraucous, or the goddess of the earth, that is, the
protectress of the fields, whence it is used as a surname of infernal divinities,
such as Hecate (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 148; Orph. Hymn. 35. 9), Nyx (Orph. Hymn. 2.
8), and Melinoe (Orph. Hymn. 70. 1), but especially of Demeter (Herod. ii. 123;
Orph. Hymn. 39. 12; Artemid. ii. 35; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 987). Although the name,
in the case of Demeter, scarcely requires explanation, yet mythology relates two
stories to account for it. According to one of them, Clymenus and Chthonia, the
children of Phoroneus, founded at Hermione a sanctuary of Demeter, and called
her Chthonia from the name of one of the founders (Paus. ii. 3.5.3). According
to an Argive legend, Demeter on her wanderings came to Argolis, where she was
ill-received by Colontas. Chthonia, his daughter, was dissatisfied with her father's
conduct, and, when Colontas and his house were burnt by the goddess, Chthonia
was carried off by her to Hermione, where she built a sanctuary to Demeter Chthonia,
and instituted the festival of the Chthonia
in her honour (Paus. ii. 35. 3;) A third mythical personage of this name occurs
in Apollodorus (iii. 15. § 1).
Chthonius (Chthonios) has the same meaning as Chthonia, and is therefore applied to the
gods of the lower world, or the shades (Hom. II. ix. 457; Hesiod. Op. 435; Orph.
Hymn. 17. 3, 69. 2, Argon. 973), and to beings that are considered as earth-born
(Apollod. iii. 4.1; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1398). It is also used in the sense of
"gods of the land", or "native divinities" (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1322). There are
also several mythical personages of the name of Chthonius (Apollod. ii. 1.5, iii.
4.1, 5; Ov. Met. xii. 441; Diod. v. 53; Paus. ix. 5; Hygin. Fab. 178).
LARISSA (Acropolis) ARGOS
Larissaeus and Larissaea (Larissaios and Larissaia), surnames of Zeus and Apollo, derived from the arx Larissa at Argos (Paus. ii. 24.4; Strab. ix., xiv.; Steph. Byz. s. v. Larissa), and of Athena, who derived it from the river Larissus, between Elis and Achaia, where the goddess had a sanctuary. (Paus. vii. 17.3.)
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Argennis, a surname of Aphrodite, which she derived from Argennus, a favourite of Agamemnon, after whose death, in the river Cephissus, Agamemnon built a sanctuary of Aphrodite Argennis. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Argennis ; Athen. xiii.)
ERASSINOS (River) ARGOS - MYKINES
Britomartis (the Cretan divinity of hunters and fishermen) was fond of solitude, and had vowed to live in perpetual maidenhood. From Phoenicia (for this tradition calls her mother Carme, a daughter of Phoenix) she went to Argos, to the daughters of Erasinus.
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Son of Melampus.
Aegialeus. A son of Inachus and the Oceanid Melia, from whom the part of Peloponnesus
afterwards called Achaia
derived its name of Aegialeia
(Apollod. ii. 1.1). According to a Sicyonian tradition he was an autochthon, brother
of Phoroneus and first king of Sicyon,
to whom the foundation of the town of Aegialeia
was ascribed (Paus. ii. 5.5, vii. 1.1).
Aegialeus (Aigialeus). A son of Adrastus and Amphithea or Demoanassa (Apollod.
i. 9.13; Hygin. Fab. 71). He was the only one among the Epigones that fell in
the war against Thebes (Apollod.
iii. 7.; Paus. ix. 5.7). He was worshipped as a hero at Pegae
in Megaris, and it was believed that his body had been conveyed thither from Thebes
and been buried there (Paus. i. 44.7)
Aeropus (Aeropos). The brother of Perdiccas, who was the first king of Macedonia of the family of Temenus. (Herod. viii. 137.)
Aristomachus (Aristomachos). A son of Talaus and Lysimache, and brother of Adrastus. (Apollod. i. 9.13.) He was the father of Hippomedon, one of the seven heroes against Thebes (Apollod. iii. 6.3). Hyginus (Fab. 70) makes Hippomedon a son of a sister of Adrastus. (Comp. Paus. x. 10.2.)
Archander: Son of Achaeus, marries Scaea, daughter of Danaus, and settles in Argos. Scaea: Daughter of Danaus, wife of Daiphron or of Archander.
Architeles. A son of Achaeus and Automate, and brother of Archander, together with whom he carried on a war against Lamedon. (Paus. ii. 6.2.) He married Automate, the daughter of Danaus. (vii. 1.3)
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