(Cloud), by whom he had two children, Phrixos and Hellé. He then espoused Inó the daughter of Kadmos, who bore him two sons, Learchos and Melikertés. Inó feeling the usual jealousy of a step-mother, resolved to destroy the children of Nephelé. For this purpose she persuaded the women to parch the seed-corn unknown to their husbands. They did as she desired, and the lands consequently yielded no crop. Athamas sent to Delphi to consult the oracle how the threatening famine might be averted; and Inó persuaded the messengers to say that Apolló had directed that Phrixos should be sacrificed to Zeus. Compelled by his people Athamas reluctantly placed his son before the altar; but Nephelé snatched away both her son and her daughter, and gave them a gold-fleeced ram she had obtained from Hermés, which carried them through the air over sea and land. They proceeded safely till they came to the sea between Sigeion and the Chersonése, into which Hellé fell, and it was named from her Helléspontos (Helle's Sea). Phrixos went on to Kolchis, to Æétés the son of Hélios, who received him kindly, and gave him in marriage Chalkiopé his daughter. He there sacrificed his ram to Zeus Phyxios, and gave the golden fleece to Æétés, who nailed it to an oak in the grove of Arés. Through the enmity of Héra to Inó, who had suckled the infant Dionýsos, Athamas was afterwards seized with madness. In his phrensy he shot his son Learchos with an arrow, or, as others say, dashed him to pieces against a rock. Inó fled with her other son; and being closely pursued by her furious husband, sprang with her child from the cliff of Moluris near Corinth into the sea. The gods took pity on her and made her a sea-goddess under the name of Leukothea, and Melikertés a sea-god under that of Palæmón.1 Athamas, being obliged to leave Bœótia, inquired of the god where he should settle. He was told to establish himself in the place where he should be entertained by the wild beasts. Having wandered over many lands, he came one day to where some wolves were devouring the thighs of sheep. At the sight of him they fled, abandoning their prey. Judging this to be the fulfilment of the oracle, he settled in that place, built a town which he named from himself Athamantia; and marrying Themistó the daughter of Hypseus, had by her four sons named Leukón, Erythrios, Schoneus, and Ptóos.2 It is thus that we find this important mythe related by Apollodóros. There are however many variations in the tale. Thus 1 See above, p. 220. 2 Apollod. i. 9, 1, 2. it is said that Inó was Athamas' first wife, and that he put her away by the direction of Héra and married Nephelé, who left him after she had borne two children, on finding that he still kept up an intercourse with Inó. When the response of the oracle came to Athamas he sent for Phrixos out of the country, desiring him to come and to bring the finest sheep in the flock for a sacrifice. The ram then spoke with a human voice to Phrixos warning him of his danger, and offering to carry him and his sister to a place of safety. The ram, it was added, died at Kolchis.1 It was also said that the flight of Phrixos was caused by his rejection of the amorous advances of his step-mother or his aunt,2 and again that in the time of dearth he offered himself as a voluntary victim. It has been already observed that the tragic poets allowed themselves great liberties in their treatment of the ancient mythes. There is none which has suffered more at their hands than the present one, for it was a favourite subject with them. Thus Euripidés in his Inó said that Athamas thinking that Inó had perished in the woods married Themistó; but Inó, who was alive, came and lived as a maid-servant unknown in the house of her husband. Here Themistó made her the confidant of her design to destroy her step-children, and directed her for that purpose to dress them in black and her own in white, that she might be able to distinguish them. Inó however reversed the orders, and Themistó unwittingly killed her own children, and then seeing what she had done slew herself." 5 We will now endeavour to point out the meaning of this very obscure legend. Athamas it is plain belonged to the Minyans, who dwelt in Bœótia and about the bay of Pagasa in Thessaly. At Alos in this last region stood a temple of Laphystian* Zeus, about which there was the following tradition. To punish the crime of Athamas the oracle directed that the eldest person of his posterity should abstain from entering the Prytaneion or senate-house, or if found there should be offered as a sacrifice. Many of those in this situation fled the country, and such as returned and were caught in the Prytaneion were led forth to sacrifice bound with woollen fillets. These persons were said to be the descendants of Kytissóros the son of Phrixos, who had come from Kolchis and 1 Philostephanos, ap. Schol. Il. vii. 86. 2 Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 20. 3 Hygin. 4. Nonnus, ix. 247 seq. The last trait reminds one of Petit Poucet and the Ogre. Flight-giving, according to Müller, who says that λapúoow is the same as OTEúdu, pevyw; but in Homer (see I. xi. 176) it signifies, to devour, swallow up greedily. 5 Hérod, vii. 127. saved his grandfather Athamas, when the people were about to sacrifice him as a sin-offering by command of the oracle. By this act Kytissóros had drawn the anger of the gods on his posterity. It is not unlikely then that this mythe of Athamas took its rise from the sin-offering (káðapμa), a real or symbolic human sacrifice which prevailed in various parts of Greece; and of which this was the most sublime form, as it represented not criminals, as elsewhere, but the noblest members of society, the descendants of Zeus himself, expiating by their lives for the sin not of themselves but of the people.1 We shall find this mythe connected with the Argonautic Expedition. ̓Αγαυῆ καὶ Πενθεύς. Agave et Pentheus. Agaué, the remaining daughter of Kadmos, was married to Echíón, one of the Spartans. Her son Pentheus succeeded his grandfather in the government over Thébes. During his reign, Dionysos came from the East and sought to introduce his orgies into his native city. The women all gave enthusiastically in to the new religion, and Mount Kithærón rang to the frantic yells of the Bakchantes. Pentheus sought to check the phrensy; but, deceived by the god, he went secretly and ascended a tree on Kithærón to be an ocular witness of the revels. While there he was descried by his mother and aunts, to whom Dionýsos made him appear to be a wild beast, and he was torn to pieces by them.2 The name of Pentheus, it is plain, is derived from the grief (Téveos) occasioned by his fate. Agaué (Illustrious) is an epithet of Persephoné, who may have been made a heroine, as Thébes was a principal seat of the worship of Démétér and the Koré. Ζῆθος καὶ ̓Αμφίων. Zethus et Amphion. After the death of Pentheus Thébes was governed by Polydóros the son of Kadmos, who married Nyktéis the daughter of Nykteus. Their son was Labdakos, who on succeeding his father opposed himself like Pentheus to the religion of Dionýsos, and underwent a similar fate. As his son Laïos was only a year old, the throne was occupied by Lykos the brother of Nykteus. Both Lykos and his brother, it is said, had fled from Euboea for killing Phlegyas the son of Arés; and as they were related to Pentheus, he enrolled them among the citizens of Thébes. Lykos on the death of Labdakos was chosen polemarch by the Thébans; 1 See Müller, Orchom. 161 seq. and our Ovid's Fasti, Excurs, vi, and he seized on the regal power, which he held for twenty years, till he was killed by Zéthos and Amphíón. These were the sons of Zeus by Antiopé the daughter of Nykteus. Terrified at the threats of her father when the consequences of her frailty became apparent, Antiopé fled to Sikyón, where she married Epópeus. Nykteus out of grief put an end to himself, having previously charged his brother Lykos to punish Epópeus and Antiopé. Lykos accordingly marched an army against Sikyón, took it, slew Epópeus, and led Antiopé away captive. On the way to Thébes she brought forth twins at Eleutheræ. The unhappy babes were exposed on the mountain; but a neatherd having found them, reared them, calling the one Zéthos, the other Amphíón. The former devoted himself to the care of cattle; the latter passed his time in the practice of music, having been presented with a lyre and taught to play on it by Hermés. Meantime Lykos had put Antiopé in bonds, and she was treated with the utmost cruelty by him and his wife Dirké. But her chains loosed of themselves, and she fled to the dwelling of her sons in search of shelter and protection. Having recognised her, they resolved to avenge her wrongs: they attacked and slew Lykos, and tying Dirké by the hair to a bull let him drag her till she was dead: they then cast her body into the fount which was named from her. They expelled Laïos, seized on the government, and walled-in the town; for which purpose the stones are said to have moved in obedience to the lyre of Amphíón. Zéthos married Thébé, from whom he named the town. Amphíón espoused Niobé the daughter of Tantalos, who bore him an equal number of sons and daughters. Elated with her numerous progeny she set herself above Létó, who was the mother of but two children; the latter complained to Apolló and Artemis, and the sons of Niobé soon fell by the arrows of the former, while her daughters perished by those of his sister. Nine days they lay in blood, and there was none The people stones; but on the tenth the gods Thought, being tired out with shedding tears. In Sipylos, where are they say the beds Of the goddess-nymphs who by the Achelóos dance, 1 Il. xxiv. 602 seq. It is here said that Niobé had six sons and six daughters. Hésiod (Sch. Eur. Phon. 160) said ten of each sex; the tragedians 'Id. ib.) said seven, but this was probably on account of the chorus. It was said that one son and a daughter named Chlóris escaped, and that Amphíón in attempting, out of vengeance, to destroy the temple of Apolló, perished by the shafts of that deity.1 According to another tradition2 Zéthos was married to Aédón the daughter of Pandareos, by whom he had only a son named Itylos, and a daughter Néis. Aédón, jealous of the superior fecundity of her sister-in-law Niobé, resolved to kill her eldest son Amaleus in the night. As the two cousins slept together, she directed her own son Itylos to lie inside; but he mistook or neglected her directions, and in the dark she killed him instead of Amaleus.3 When she discovered what she had done she prayed to the gods to take her out of the world, and she was changed into a nightingale (åndóv). Zéthos is also said to have fallen by the arrows of Apolló. This legend is thus noticed in the Odyssey :* As when Pandareos' daughter, green Aédón, She, frequent changing, poureth forth her voice King Zéthos' child, whom erst with ruthless brass We shall find another form of it among the mythes of Attica. In this story also there are great variations, caused chiefly, it is probable, by the tragedians. By Homer Antiopé is called the daughter of Asópos, and Asios made her the wife of Epópeus at the time of her conception. It is indeed not improbable that this poet represented these twins, like those of Léda, as being the one immortal the other mortal, corresponding to the nature of their sires. The mythe in every view of it has, we think, a physical aspect. Lykos and Nykteus are plainly Light and Night; Antiopé the daughter of the latter is the Beholder (åvrì ö), or simply the Opposer, and may remind us of the moon, which at the full sits so calmly looking down on the earth, or which then rises in the See above, p. 15. Apollónios (iv. 1090) terms Antiopé ev@mis. |