Listed 100 (total found 162) sub titles with search on: Mythology for destination: "ARGOS Ancient city ARGOLIS".
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.)
Achlys (Achlus), according to some ancient cosmogonies, the eternal night, and the first created being which existed even before Chaos. According to Hesiod, she was the personification of misery and sadness, and as such she was represented on the shield of Heracles (Scut. Herc. 264, &c.): pale, emaciated, and weeping, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust.
Ialemus (Ialemos), a similar personification to that of Linus, and hence alo called a son of Apollo and Calliope, and the inventor of the song Ialemus, which was a kind of dirge, or at any rate a song of a very serious and mournful character, and is only mentioned as sung on most melancholy occasions. (Aeschyl. Suppl. 106; Eurip. Here. Fur. 109, Suppl. 283.) In later times this kind of poetry lost its popularity, and was ridiculed by the comic poets. Ialemus then became synonymous with cold and frosty poetry, and was used in this sense proverbially.
Echidna, a daughter of Tartarus and Ge (Apollod. ii. 1.2), or of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe (Hesiod. Theog. 295), and according to others again, of Peiras and Styx (Paus. viii. 18.1). Echidna was a monster, half maiden and half serpent, with black eyes, fearful and bloodthirsty. She was the destruction of man, and became by Typhon the mother of the Chimaera, of the many-headed dog Orthus, of the hundredheaded dragon who guarded the apples of the Hesperides, of the Colchian dragon, of the Sphinx, Cerberus, Scylla, Gorgon, the Lernaean Hydra, of the eagle which consumed the liver of Prometheus, and of the Nemean lion (Hes. Theog. 307; Apollod. ii. 3.1, 5.10-11, iii. 5.8; Hygin. Fab. Praef., and Fab. 151). She was killed in her sleep by Argus Panoptes (Apollod. ii. 1.2). According to Hesiod she lived with Typhon in a cave in the country of the Arimi, whereas the Greeks on the Euxine conceived her to have lived in Scythia. When Heracles, they said, carried away the oxen of Geryones, he also visited the country of the Scythians, which was then still a desert. Once while he was asleep there, his horses suddenly disappeared, and when he woke and wandered about in search of them, he came into the country of Hylaea. He there found the monster Echidna in a cave. When he asked whether she knew anything about his horses, she answered, that they were in her own possession, but that she would not give them up, unless lie would consent to stay with her for a time. Heracles complied with the request, and became by her the father of Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes. The last of then became king of the Scythians, according to his father's arrangement, because he was the only one among the three brothers that was able to manage the bow which Heracles had left behind, and to use his father's girdle. (Herod. iv. 8-10)
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
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.
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)
Argus (Argos). The third king of Argos, was a son of Zeus and Niobe. (Apollod. ii. 1.1). A Scholiast (ad Hom. Il. i. 115) calls him a son of Apis, whom he succeeded in the kingdom of Argos. It is from this Argus that the country afterwards called Argolis and all Peloponnesus derived the name of Argos (Hygin. Fab. 145; Paus. ii. 16.1, 22.6, 34.5). By Euadne, or according to others, by Peitho, he became the father of Jasus, Peiranthus or Peiras, Epidaurus, Criasus, and Tiryns (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1151, 1147; ad Eurip. Orest. 1252, 1248, 930).
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
(Euadne). A daughter of Iphis or Iphicles of Argos, who slighted the addresses of Apollo, and married Capaneus one of the seven chiefs who went against Thebes. When her husband had been struck with thunder by Zeus for his blasphemies and impiety, and his ashes had been separated from those of the rest of the Argives, she threw herself on his burning pile and perished in the flames.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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).
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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.<
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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.)
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.)
Biton and Cleobis (Kleobis) were the sons of Cydippe, a priestess of Hera at Argos. Herodotus, who has recorded their beautiful story, makes Solon relate it to Croesus, as a proof that it is better for mortals to die than to live. On one occasion, says Herodotus (i. 31), during the festival of Hera, when the priestess had to ride to the temple of the goddess in a chariot, and when the oxen which were to draw it did not arrive from the country in time, Cleobis and Biton dragged the chariot with their mother, a distance of 45 stadia, to the temple. The priestess, moved by the filial love of her sons, prayed to the goddess to grant them what was best for mortals. After the solemnities of the festival were over, the two brothers went to sleep in the temple and never rose again. The goddess thus shewed, says Herodotus, that she could bestow upon them no greater boon than death. The Argives made statues of the two brothers and sent them to Delphi. Pausanias (ii. 20.2) saw a relief in stone at Argos, representing Cleobis and Biton drawing the chariot with their mother (Comp. Cic. Tuscul. i. 47 ; Val. Max. v. 4, extern. 4; Stobaeus, Sermones, 169; Servius and Philargyr. ad Virg. Georg. iii. 532).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Heracleidae (Herakleidai), a patronymic from Heracles, and consequently given
to all the sons and descendants of the Greek Heracles; but the name is also applied
in a narrower sense to those descendants of the hero who, in conjunction with
the Dorians, invaded and took possession of Peloponnesus.
The many sons of Heracles are enumerated by Apollodorus (ii. 7.8),
though his list is very far from being complete; and a large number of tribes
or noble families of Greece traced their origin to Heracles. In some of them the
belief in their descent from Heracles seems to have arisen only from the fact,
that the hero was worshipped by a particular tribe. The principal sons and descendants
of Heracles are treated of in separate articles, and we shall here confine ourselves
to those Heracleidae whose conquest of Peloponnesus forms the transition from
mythology to history. It was the will of Zeus that lleracles should rule over
the country of the Perseids, at Mycenae
and Tiryns. Through Hera's
cunning, however, Eurystheus had been put into the place of Heracles, and the
latter had become the servant of the former. After the death of the two, the claims
of Heracles devolved upon the sons and descendants of Heracles. The leader of
these Heracleidae was Hyllus, the eldest of the four sons of Heracles by Deianeira.
The descendants of Heracles, who, according to the tradition of the Dorians (Herod.
v. 72), were in reality Achaeans, ruled over Dorians, as Heracles had received
for himself and his descendants one third of the dominions of the Doric king,
Aegimius, for the assistance he had given him against the Lapithae.
The countries to which the Heracleidae had especial claims were Argos,
Lacedaemon, and the Messenian
Pylos, which Heracles himself
had subdued: Elis, the kingdom
of Augeas, might likewise be said to have belonged to him (Apollod. ii. 7.2; Paus.
ii. 18.6, v. 3.1). The Heracleidae, in conjunction with the Dorians, invaded Peloponnesus,
to take possession of those countries and rights which their ancestor had duly
acquired. This expedition is called the return of the Heracleidae, kathodos ton
Herakleidon (Comp. Thuc. i. 12; Isocrat. Archid. 6). They did not, however, succeed
in their first attempt; but the legend mentions five different expeditions, of
which we have the following accounts.
According to some, it happened that, after the demise of Heracles,
his son, Hyllus, with his brothers and a band of Arcadians,
was staving with Ceyx at Trachis.
As Eurystheus demanded their surrender, and Ceyx was unable to protect them, they
fled to various parts of Greece, until they were received as suppliants at Athens,
at the altar of Eleos, Mercy, (Apollod. ii. 8.1; Diod. iv. 57; Paus. i. 32.5;
Longin. 27).
According to the Heracleidae of Euripides, the sons of Heracles were
at first staying at Argos, and thence went to Trachis,
Thessaly, and at length to
Athens. (Comp. Anton. Lib.
33.) Demophon, the son of Theseus, received them, and they settled in the Attic
tetrapolis. Eurystheus, to whom the Athenians refused to surrender the fugitives,
now made war on the Athenians with a large army, but was defeated by the Athenians
under Iolaus, Theseus, and Hyllus, and was slain with his sons. Hyllus took his
head to his grandmother, Alcmene; and the Athenians of later times showed the
tomb of Eurystheus in front of the temple of the Pallenian Athena. The battle
itself was very celebrated in the Attic
stories as the battle of the Seironian reck, on the court of the Saronic
gulf (comp Dem. de Coron. § 147), though Pindar places it in the neighbourhood
of Thebes (Pyth. ix. 137;
comp. Anton. Lib. l. c; Herod. ix. 27; Eurip. Heracl). After the battle, the Heracleidae
entered Peloponnesus, and
maintained themselves there for one year. But a plague, which spread over the
whole peninsula, compelled them (with the exception of Tlepolemus, who went to
Rhodes) to return to Attica,
where, for a time, they again settled in the Attic tetrapolis. From thence, however,
they proceeded to Aegimius, king of the Dorians, about the river Peneius,
to seek protection (Apollod. ii. 8.2; Strab. ix. p. 427). Diodorus
(iv. 57) does not mention this second stay in Attica,
and he represents only the descendants of Hyllus as living among the Dorians in
the country assigned to Heracles by Aegimius: others again do not notice this
first expedition into Peloponnesus
(Pherecyd. ap. Anton. Lib. l. c.), and state that Hyllus, after the defeat of
Eurystheus, went with the other Heracleidae to Thebes,
and settled there at the Electrian gate. The tradition then goes on to say that
Aegimius adopted Hyllus, who, after the lapse of three years, in conjunction with
a band of Dorians, undertook an expedition against Atreus, who, having married
a daughter of Eurystheus, had become king of Mycenae
and Tiryns. They marched across
the Corinthian isthmus, and
first met Echemus of Tegea,
who fought for the interest of the Pelopidae, the principal opponents of the Heracleidae.
Hyllus fell in single combat with Echemus, and according to an agreement which
the two had entered into, the Heracleidae were not to make any further attempt
upon the peninsula within the next fifty years. They accordingly went to Tricorythus,
where they were allowed by the Athenians to take up their abode. During
the period which now followed (ten years after the death of Hyllus), the Trojan
war took place; and thirty years after the Trojan
war Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, again invaded Peloponnesus;
and about twenty years later Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, undertook the
fourth expedition. But both heroes fell.
Not quite thirty years after Aristomachus (that is, about 80 years
after the destruction of Troy),
the Heracleidae prepared for a great and final attack. Temenus, Cresphontes, and
Aristodemus, the sons of Aristomachus, after having received the advice of an
oracle, built a fleet on the Corinthian
gulf; but this fleet was destroyed, because Hippotes, one of the Heracleidae,
had killed Carnus, an Acarnanian
soothsayer; and Aristodemus was killed by a flash of lightning (Apollod. ii. 8.2;
Paus. iii. 1.5). An oracle now ordered them to take a three-eyed man for their
commander. He was found in the person of Oxylus, the son of Andraemon. The expedition
now successfully sailed from Naupactus
towards Rhion in Peloponnesus
(Paus. viii. 5.4). Oxylus, keeping the invaders away from his own kingdom of Elis,
led them through Arcadia.
Cresphontes is said to have married the daughter of the Arcadian
king, Cypselus, and Polycaon Euaechme, the daughter of Hyllus. Thebans,
Trachinians, and Tyrrhenians,
are further said to have supported the Heracleidae and Dorians (Pats. iv. 3. §
4, viii. 5. § 4; Schol. ad Soph. Aj. 17; Eurip. Phoen. 1386; Pind. Pyth. v. 101,
Isthm. vii. 18). Being thus strongly supported in various ways, the Heracleidae
and Dorians conquered Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, who ruled over Argos. Mycenae,
and Sparta (Apollod. l. c.;
Paus. v. 3; Polyaen. i. 9). The conquerors now succeeded without difficulty, for
many of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus
spontaneously opened their gates to them, and other places were delivered up to
them by treachery (Paus. ii. 4.3, iii. 13.2, iv. 3.3, v. 4.1; Strab. viii).
They then distributed the newly acquired possessions among themselves
by lot: Temenus obtained Argos; Procles and Eurystheus, the twin sons of Aristodemus,
Lacedaemon; and Cresphontes,
Messenia.
Such are the traditions about the Heracleidae and their conquest of
Peloponnesus. The comparatively
late period to which these legends refer is alone sufficient to suggest that we
have not before us a purely mythical story, but that it contains a genuine historical
substance, notwithstanding the various contradictions contained in the accounts.
But a critical examination of the different traditions belongs to a history of
Greece, and we refer the reader to Muller's Dorians, book i. chap. 3; Thirlwall,
Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 282, &c., 8vo edit.; Bernardi ten Haar, Commnentatio
praemio ornata, qua respubl. ad quaestionem : Enarrentur Heraclidarum incursiones
in Peloponnesum eurumque causae atque effects exponantur, Groningen, 1830.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Abantiades signifies in general a descendant of Abas, but is used especially to designate Perseus, the great-grandson of Abas (Ov. Met. iv. 673, v. 138, 236), and Acrisius, a son of Abas. (Ov. Met. iv. 607.) A female descendant of Abas, as Danae and Atalante, was called Abantias.
Temenidae, descendands of Temenus, being expelled from Argos, are said to have founded the kingdom of Macedonia, whence the kings of Macedonia called themselves Temenidae (Herod. viii. 138; Thuc. ii. 99).
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)
Son of Phoroneus & Teledeke, 3rd king of Argos (19th century BC)
Apis. A son of Phoroneus by the nymph Laodice, and brother of Niobe. He was king
of Argos, established a tyrannical goverment, and called Peloponnesus after his
own name Apia; but he was killed in a conspiracy headed by Thelxion and Telchis
(Apollod. i. 7. 6, ii. 1.1). In the former of these passages Apollodorus states,
that Apis, the son of Phoroneus, was killed by Aetolus; but this is a mistake
arising from the contusion of our Apis, with Apis the son of Jason, who was killed
by Aetolus during the funeral games celebrated in honour of Azanes (Paus. v. l.6).
Apis, the son of Phoroneus, is said, after his death, to have been
worshipped as a god, under the name of Serapis (Sarapis); and this statement shews
that Egyptian mythuses are mixed up with the story of Apis. This confusion is
still more manifest in the tradition, that Apis gave his kingdom of Argos to his
brother, and went to Egypt, where he reigned for several fears afterwards (Euseb.
Chron. n. 271; Augustin, de Civ. Dei, xviii. 5). Apis is spoken of as one of the
earliest lawgivers among the Greeks (Theodoret. Graec. Affect. Cur. vol. iv. p.
927, ed. Schulz.).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Son of Argus, 5th king of Argos.
Son of Argus, brother of Ecbasus, 6th king of Argos
Phorbas. A son of Argos or Criasus, was a brother of Peirasus, and married to Euboea, by whom he became the father of Triopas, whence he seems to have been a grandson of No. 1. (Paus. ii. 16.1, iv. 1.2; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 920.)
Triopas. A son of Phorbas, an Argive, was the father of lasts, Agenor and Messene. (Paus. ii. 16.1, iv. 1.2)
The son and successor of Triopas, in the kingdom of Argos. He belonged to the house of Phoroneus, and was father of Crotopus. (Paus. ii. 16.1; Hygin. Fab. 145.)
Iasus. A son of Triopas, grandson of Phorbas, and brother of Agenor. This person is in reality the same as No. 3, with only a different pedigree assigned to him. (Paus. ii. 16. 1; Hom. Od. xviii. 246; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1465.)
Iasus. A son of Argus and Evadne, a daughter of Strymon, or, according to a scholiast (ad Eurip. Phoen. 1151), a son of Peitho, the father of Agenor, and father of Argus Panoptes. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 2.)
A son of Argus Panoptes and Ismene, the daughter of Asopus, and the father of Io. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 3.)
Iasus. A son of Phoroneus, and brother of Pelasgus and Agenor, or Arestor. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 385.)
Agenor. A son of Ιasus, and father of Argοs Panoptes, king of Argos. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 2.) Hellanicus (Fragm. p. 47, ed. Sturz.) states that Agenor was a son of Phoroneus, and brother of Jasus and Pelasgus, and that after their father's death, the two elder brothers divided his dominions between themselves in such a manner, that Pelasgus received the country about the river Erasinus, and built Larissa, and Jasus the country about Elis. After the death of these two, Agenor, the youngest, invaded their dominions, and thus became king of Argos.
King of Argos, son of Agenor and father of Sthenelus, his tomb.
Son of Crotopus, father of Gelanor, king of Argos, surrenders the kingdom to Danaus
1572 - 1500
Gelanor. A descendant of Inachus, king of Argos. When Danaus, likewise a descendant of Inachus, came to Argos, and laid claim to the sovereign power, the citizens were doubtful in whose favour they should decide. While they were hesitating, a wolf fell upon the cattle which were feeding before the city, and killed the bull who was defending them. The citizens regarded this as a sign from heaven, and, interpreting the wolf as meaning Danaus, they compelled Gelanor to retire in his favour. In the Supplices of Aeschylus, Pelasgus is king of Argos. He gives Danaus a friendly welcome, and defends him against the sons of Aegyptus. But he is vanquished by them, retires from the sovereignty spontaneously in favour of the stranger, and leaves the country.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
One of the fifty sons of Aegyptus. He obtained Hypermnestra for his bride, and was the only one of the fifty whose life was spared by his spouse. (See Lyrceia )
Abas. The twelfth King of Argos. He was the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, and grandson of Danaus. He married Ocaleia, who bore him twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus. (Apollod. ii. 2. Β§ 1; Hygin. Fab. 170.) When he informed his father of the death of Danaus, he was rewarded with the shield of his grandfather, which was sacred to Hera. He is described as a successful conqueror and as the founder of the town of Abae in Phocis (Paus. x. 35. Β§ 1), and of the Pelasgic Argos in Thessaly. (Strab. ix.) The fame of his warlike spirit was so great, that even after his death. when people revolted, whom he had subdued, they were put to flight by the simple act of showing them his shield. (Virg. Aen. iii. 286; Serv. ad loc.) It was from this Abas that the kings of Argos were called by the patronymic Abantiads
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ocaleia (Okaleia), a daughter of Mantineus, and wife of Abas, by whom she became the mother of Acrisius and Proetus (Apollod. ii. 2.1). The Scholiast of Euripides (Orcst. 953) calls her Aglaia
Acrisius (Akrisios). The son of Abas, king of Argos, by Ocalia, daughter of Mantineus. He was born at the same birth as Proetus, with whom it is said that he quarrelled even in his mother's womb. After many dissensions, Proetus was driven from Argos. Acrisius had Danae by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon; and an oracle having declared that he should lose his life by the hand of his grandson, he endeavoured to frustrate the prediction by the imprisonment of his daughter, in order to prevent her becoming a mother. His efforts failed of success, and he was eventually killed by Perseus, son of Danae and Zeus. Acrisius, it seems, had been attracted to Larissa by the reports which had reached him of the prowess of Perseus. At Larissa, Perseus, wishing to show his skill in throwing a quoit, killed an old man who proved to be his grandfather, whom he knew not, and thus the oracle was fulfilled.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Acrisius (Akrisios), a son of Abas, king of Argos and of Ocaleia. He was grandson of Lynceus and great-grandson of Danaus. His twin-brother was Proetus, with whom he is said to have quarrelled even in the womb of his mother. When Abas died and Acrisius had grown up, he expelled Proetus from his inheritance; but, supported by his father-in-law Iobates, the Lycian, Proetus returned, and Acrisius was compelled to share his kingdom with his brother by giving up to him Tiryns, while he retained Argos for himself. An oracle had declared that Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, would give birth to a son, who would kill his grandfither. For this reason he kept Danae shut up in a subterraneous apartment, or in a brazen tower. But here she became mother of Perseus, notwithstanding the precautions of her father, according to some accounts by her uncle Proetus, and according to others by Zeus, who visited her in the form of a shower of gold. Acrisius ordered mother and child to be exposed on the wide sea in a chest; but the chest floated towards the island of Seriphus, where both were rescued by Dictys, the brother of king Polydectes (Apollod. ii. 2.1, 4.1; Paus. ii. 16.2, 25.6, iii. 13.6; Hygin. Fab. 63). As to the manner in which the oracle was subsequently fulfilled in the case of Acrisius, see Perseus wonderful myth in Serifos island. According to the Scholiast on Euripides (Orest. 1087), Acrisius was the founder of the Delphic amphictyony. Strabo (ix.) believes that this amphictyony existed before the time of Acrisius, and that he was only the first who regulated the affairs of the amphictyons, fixed the towns which were to take part in the council, gave to each its vote, and settled the jurisdiction of the amphictyons (Comp. Libanius, Orat. vol. iii. 472, ed. Reiske).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Son of Zeus by Danae, the daughter of Acresius, and founder of Mycenae. (information about Perseus see at Serifos, Island )
Megapenthes. A son of Proetus, was king of Argos, and father of Anaxagoras and Iphianeira. (Paus. ii. 18. 4; Diod. iv. 68.) He exchanged his dominion for that of Perseus, so that the latter received Tiryns instead of Argos (Apollod. ii. 4. 4; Paus. ii. 16.3).He is said to have afterwards slain Perseus. (Hygin. Fab. 244.)
Son of Argus, king of Argos, shares the kingdom with Melampus and Bias, father of Alector.
Bias :The son of Amythaon and Idomene, was king of Argos, and brother to the famous
soothsayer Melampus.
Pero :The daughter of Neleus and Chloris, famous for her beauty. She was married
to Bias (Pausan. x. 31, 9).
Bias, son of Amythaon, and brother of the seer Melampus. He married Pero, daughter of Neleus, whom her father had refused to give to any one unless he brought him the oxen of Iphiclus. These Melampus obtained by his courage and skill, and so won the princess for his brother (Schol. ad Theocrit. Idyll. iii. 43; Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. i. 118; Paus. iv. 36; comp. Hom. Odyss. xi. 286, xv. 231). Through his brother also Bias is said to have gained a third of the kingdom of Argos, Melampus having insisted upon it in his behalf, as part of the condition on which alone he would cure the daughters of Proetus and the other Argive women of their madness. According to Pausanias, the Biantidae continued to rule in Argos for four generations. Apollonius Rhodius mentions three sons of Bias among the Argonauts, Talaus, Argius, and Leodocus (Herod. ix. 34; Pind. Nem. ix. 30; Schol. ad. loc.; Diod. iv. 68; Paus. ii. 6, 18; Apoll. Rhod. i. 118). According to the received reading in Diod. iv. 68, "Bias" was also the name of a son of Melampus by Iphianeira, daughter of Megapenthes; but it has been proposed to read " Abas," in accordance with Paus. i. 43; Apoll. Rhod. i. 142; Apollod. i. 9.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pero. A daughter of Neleus and Chloris, was married to Bias, and celebrated for her beauty. (Hom. Od. xi. 286; Apollod. i. 9.9; Paus. x. 31.2.)
Five kings of Argos, descendants of Bias, were Neleids on mother's side (Paus. 2.18.4)
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