The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics) (21 page)

³
They began by sacking the villages in the neighbourhood of Thebes, and then, when the Thebans under Laodamas, son of Eteocles, advanced against them, they fought with valour. Laodamas killed Aigialeus,
*
but was killed in his turn by Alcmaion, and after his death the Thebans fled inside their walls. Teiresias then advised them to send a herald to the Argives to talk about a truce while they themselves made their escape. So they sent a herald to the enemy, and in the meantime loaded their women and children on to the wagons and fled from the city. They arrived by night at a spring called Tilphoussa, and as Teiresias drank from it, his life came to an end. After travelling a great distance, the Thebans founded the city of Hestiaia
*
and settled there.
⁴
When the Argives eventually learned that the Thebans had fled, they entered the city, where they gathered together the plunder and pulled down the walls. They sent part of the plunder to Delphi as an offering to Apollo, and with it Manto, daughter of Teiresias; for they had made a vow that if they captured Thebes, they would dedicate the finest of the spoils to the god.

⁵
After the capture of Thebes, when Alcmaion learned that his mother Eriphyle had accepted bribes to his detriment also, his outrage was all the greater, and in obedience to an oracle granted him by Apollo, he put his mother to death. Some say that he killed her with the help of his brother Amphilochos, others that he did so on his own. Alcmaion was pursued by
the Fury of his mother’s murder,
*
and overcome by madness, he went first to Oicles in Arcadia and then to Phegeus in Psophis; and after he had been purified by Phegeus, he married his daughter Arsinoe, and gave her the necklace and the robe. But afterwards, as a result of his presence, the earth grew barren, and he was told by the god in an oracle to depart to Acheloos and receive from him [a land which had not yet been seen by the Sun
*
]. So he went first to Oineus in Calydon, who offered him hospitality, and then to the Thesprotians, who drove him from their country; but finally he arrived at the springs of Acheloos, and was purified by him, and received his daughter, Callirrhoe, in marriage. And on land that Acheloos had formed by laying down his silt, he founded a city and settled there.

Later, Callirrhoe wanted to acquire the necklace and the robe, and told Alcmaion that she would no longer live with him unless she obtained them; so he went back to Psophis and told Phegeus that he had been informed by an oracle
*
that he would be delivered from his madness when he had taken the robe and necklace to Delphi and dedicated them. Phegeus believed him and handed them over; but when a servant revealed that he was taking them to Callirrhoe, the sons of Phegeus, on their father’s orders, set an ambush for Alcmaion and killed him. When Arsinoe rebuked them, the sons of Phegeus packed her into a chest and carried her to Tegea, where they gave her to Agapenor as a slave, on the false accusation that it was she who had murdered Alcmaion.
⁶
When Callirrhoe learned of Alcmaion’s death, she asked Zeus (who had become her lover) to cause the sons whom she had borne to Alcmaion to become fully grown, and so enable them to avenge their father’s murder. And all of a sudden her sons were adults, and they set off to avenge their father. It happened that Pronoos and Agenor, the sons of Phegeus, who were taking the necklace and robe to Delphi for dedication, called in at the house of Agapenor at just the same time as Amphoteros and Acarnan, the sons of Alcmaion; so the sons of Alcmaion killed their father’s murderers, and then went on to Psophis, where they entered the palace and killed Phegeus and his wife. They were pursued as far as Tegea, but were saved by the Tegeans and some Argives, who came to their rescue and put the Psophidians to flight.

⁷
When they had informed their mother of what had happened, they went to Delphi, and dedicated the necklace and the robe, on the instructions of Acheloos. Then they travelled to Epirus, gathered together some settlers, and founded Acarnania.
*

Euripides
*
says that during the time of his madness Alcmaion had two children by Manto, daughter of Teiresias, namely Amphilochos and a daughter, Tisiphone; and that he took the babies to Corinth and gave them to Creon, king of Corinth, to bring up; and because of her exceptional beauty, Tisiphone was sold into slavery by Creon’s wife, who was afraid that Creon might take her as his wife, and she was purchased by Alcmaion, who kept her as a servant girl without realizing that she was his daughter; and when he returned to Corinth to reclaim his children, he recovered his son also; and Amphilochos, in obedience to oracles from Apollo, founded Amphilochian Argos.
*

8. Arcadian mythology (the Pelasgids)

¹
Let us return now to Pelasgos, who is described by

8

Acousilaos as a son of Zeus and Niobe, as we observed above,
*
while Hesiod says that he was born from the earth. By Meliboia, daughter of Oceanos, or according to others, by a nymph, Cyllene, he had a son, Lycaon, who became king of the Arcadians, and by many different women fathered fifty sons:
*
Melaineus, Thesprotos, Helix, Nyctimos, Peucetios, Caucon, Mecisteus, Hopleus, Macareus, Macednos, Horos, Polichos, Acontes, Evaimon, Ancyor, Archebates, Carteron, Aigaion, Pallas, Eumon, Canethos, Prothoos, Linos, Corethon, Mainalos, Teleboas, Physios, Phassos, Phthios, Lycios, Halipheros, Genetor, Boucolion, Socleus, Phineus, Eumetes, Harpaleus, Portheus, Plato, Haimon, Cynaithos, Leon, Harpalycos, Heraieus, Titanas, Mantineus, Cleitor, Stymphalos, and Orchomenos. They outstripped all men in arrogance and impiety; and Zeus, wanting to test their impiety, visited them in the guise of a labourer. They invited him to share their hospitality,
and slaughtering a child from the local population, they mixed his entrails into the sacrifices
*
and served them up to him, at the instigation of the eldest brother, Mainalos. Zeus, in revulsion, overturned the
table
at the place which is now known as
Trapezous
*
and struck Lycaon and his sons with thunderbolts, with the exception of the youngest, Nyctimos, for Ge interceded beforehand by grasping the right hand of Zeus and calming his anger.
²
When Nyctimos succeeded to the throne, Deucalion’s flood took place; some said that it had been brought about by the impiety of Lycaon’s sons.

According to Eumelos and some other sources, Lycaon had a daughter too, named Callisto (though Hesiod says that she was one of the nymphs,
*
Asios that she was a daughter of Nycteus, and Pherecydes that she was a daughter of Ceteus). A companion of Artemis in the hunt, she wore the same clothing, and had sworn to her that she would remain a virgin. But Zeus conceived a passion for her, and despite her unwillingness, had intercourse with her, taking on the form, some say, of Artemis, or according to others, of Apollo; and wanting Hera to remain ignorant of the matter, he turned her into a bear. Hera persuaded Artemis, however, to shoot her
*
down as a wild beast (though some say that Artemis shot her because she had failed to preserve her virginity). After Callisto’s death, Zeus gathered up her baby son and gave him to Maia to bring up in Arcadia, naming him Areas.
*
As for Callisto, he turned her into a constellation and called it the Bear.

^l
Areas had two sons,
*
Elatos and Apheidas, by Leaneira,

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daughter of Amyclas (or by Meganeira, daughter of Crocon, or according to Eumelos, by a nymph, Chrysopeleia). They divided the land between them, but Elatos held all the power. Elatos had two sons, Stymphalos and Pereus, by Laodice, daughter of Cinyras; and Apheidas had a son, Aleos, and a daughter, Stheneboia, who became the wife of Proitos. Aleos in turn had a daughter, Auge, and two sons, Cepheus and Lycourgos, by Neaira, daughter of Pereus.

Auge was raped by Heracles,
*
and hid her baby in the
sanctuary of Athene, whose priesthood she held. When the land became infertile and the oracles revealed that there was something sacrilegious in the sanctuary of Athene, she was found out, and delivered by her father to Nauplios to be put to death; but Nauplios passed her on to Teuthras, the ruler of the Mysians, who married her. Her baby was exposed on Mount Parthenion, where a
doe
offered him her
teat
, which is how he came to be called
Telephos
. After he had been reared by the herdsmen of Corythos, he went to Delphi in the hope of discovering his parents, and following the advice of the god, he made his way to Mysia, where he became the adopted son of Teuthras, and later, when Teuthras died, his successor as king.

²
Lycourgos had four sons, Ancaios, Epochos, Amphidamas, and Iasos, by Cleophyle or Eurynome. Amphidamas had a son, Melanion, and a daughter, Antimache, who became the wife of Eurystheus. Iasos and Clymene, daughter of Minyas, had a daughter, Atalante.
*
She was exposed by her father, who desired male children, but a she-bear came along frequently to suckle her until she was discovered by some hunters, who brought her up amongst themselves. When she was fully grown, Atalante preserved her virginity, and spent her time hunting in the wilderness, arms in hand. The Centaurs Rhoicos and Hylaios tried to rape her, but she shot them down with her arrows and killed them. She was present, moreover, amongst the heroes at the hunt for the Calydonian boar,
*
and at the games held in honour of Pelias
*
she wrestled with Peleus and defeated him. Later she discovered her parents, and when her father tried to persuade her to marry, she went to a place which was well fitted to be a race-course, and halfway along it she placed a three-cubit stake. From this point, she caused her suitors to set out in advance of her in a race, which she would run fully armed; and if she caught up with any of the suitors, his penalty was death on the spot, and if she did not, his reward was marriage. When many suitors had already perished, Melanion fell in love with her and arrived to take part in the race. He brought with him some golden apples
*
which he had acquired from Aphrodite, and as Atalante was chasing after him, he threw them down; and when Atalante delayed to pick them up, she was defeated in the race. So Melanion became her husband. And one day, so it is said, while they were out hunting, they entered the sanctuary of Zeus, and when they ventured to make love there, they were turned into lions.

According to Hesiod and some other sources, Atalante was a daughter not of Iasos, but of Schoineus, while according to Euripides, she was a daughter of Mainalos, and her husband was not Melanion, but Hippomenes. She bore to Melanion (or Ares) a son, Parthenopaios, who took part in the expedition against Thebes.

9. Laconian and Trojan mythology (the Atlantids)

¹
To Atlas and Pleione, daughter of Oceanos, seven daughters

10

were born at Cyllene in Arcadia, who were known as the Pleiades,
*
namely, Alcyone, Merope, Celaino, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia. Of these, Sterope became the wife of Oinomaos, and Merope the wife of Sisyphos; and Poseidon had intercourse with two of them, first with Celaino, who bore him a son, Lycos, whom he settled in the Isles of the Blessed, and secondly with Alcyone, who bore him a daughter, Aithousa (who bore Eleuther to Apollo), and two sons, Hyrieus and Hyperenor. Hyrieus and a nymph, Clonie, had two sons, Nycteus and Lycos; and by Polyxo, Nycteus became the father of Antiope, who bore Zethos and Amphion to Zeus.

²
Zeus had intercourse with the three remaining daughters of Atlas. After the eldest of them, Maia, had slept with him, she gave birth to Hermes
*
in a cave on Mount Cyllene. He was laid on a winnowing fan in his swaddling clothes, but freed
himself from them and made his way to Pieria,
*
where he stole the cattle which were being pastured there by Apollo. So as not to be given away by their tracks, he put shoes over their feet, and took them to Pylos, where he concealed them in a cave, except for two that he sacrificed. He nailed the skins of these to some rocks, and some of their flesh he boiled and ate, and some of it he burned; and he then returned swiftly to Cyllene. And in front of the cave there, he found a tortoise grazing. Clearing out the shell, he stretched across it some strings made from the guts of the sacrificed cattle; and after creating a lyre by this means, he also invented the plectrum.

As Apollo was searching for his cattle, he arrived in Pylos and questioned the inhabitants. They said that they had seen a boy driving the cattle away, but were unable to say where they had been driven, because they could find no tracks. Discovering the identity of the thief by divination, Apollo went to Maia in Cyllene and accused Hermes. She pointed to him in his swaddling clothes; and Apollo took him to Zeus, and demanded the return of his cattle. When Zeus ordered him to give them back, Hermes denied that he had them, but meeting with disbelief, he took Apollo to Pylos and handed the cattle back. On hearing his lyre, however, Apollo gave him the cattle in exchange for it; and while Hermes was pasturing them, he made a shepherd’s pipe and played on that. Wanting to acquire the pipe as well, Apollo offered him the golden staff that he possessed as a herdsman. But as well as receiving this in exchange for the pipe, Hermes wanted to acquire the art of divination also. So he handed over the pipe, and learned from Apollo how to divine by the use of pebbles.
*
And Zeus made him his own herald and herald to the gods of the Underworld.
*

³
Taygete bore to Zeus a son, Lacedaimon, from whom the land of Lacedaimon derives its name; and by Sparta, daughter of Eurotas (who was a son of Lelex,
*
who had been born from the earth, and of Cleochareia, a naiad nymph), Lacedaimon had a son, Amyclas, and a daughter, Eurydice, who
became the wife of Acrisios. Amyclas and Diomede, daughter of Lapithes, had two sons, Cynortas and Hyacinthos.
*
This last is said to have been the beloved of Apollo, who accidentally killed him when throwing a discus. Cynortas had a son, Perieres, who married Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, according to Stesichoros, and fathered Tyndareus, Icarios, Aphareus, and Leucippos. Aphareus
*
and Arene, daughter of Oibalos, had three sons, Lynceus, Idas, and Peisos; but it is said by many that the father of Idas was in fact Poseidon. Lynceus was remarkable for the sharpness of his sight, which was so acute that he could even see what lay beneath the earth. Leucippos had two daughters, Hilaeira and Phoebe, who were carried off by the Dioscuri, and became their wives.