thoé, whom Poseidón carried off to the Echinadian isles. She there bore him a son named Taphios, who settled at Taphos, and called his people Téleboans, because he had gone far from his native land.1 He had a son named Pteroláos, whom Poseidón made immortal by setting a golden lock of hair on his head. Pteroláos had several sons, and one daughter who was named Komæthó (Hair-burner).

When Elektryón succeeded to the throne of Mykénæ, the sons of Pteroláos came with an army of Taphians, and claimed it in right of their great-grandfather Méstór, who was elder brother to E'lektryón; and on his refusal to comply with their demands, they drove off his kine. The sons of E'lektryón came to the rescue of their cattle. A fight ensued, in which all the sons of E'lektryón met their death except Likymnios, who was still a child, and all the sons of Pteroláos fell but Euérés, who was in charge of their ships. The Taphians fled in their vessels, leaving the cattle, which they had driven away, in the charge of Polyxenés king of the E'leians. Amphitryón pursued them to E'lis, and redeemed them; for E'lektryón, desirous to avenge the death of his sons, had given to Amphitryón the kingdom and his daughter Alkméné, binding him by oath not to claim a husband's rights until he had returned from his expedition against the Téleboans. But as Amphitryón was driving home the cattle which he had recovered, one of the cows chancing to run aside, he flung the stick he had in his hand after her, which happening to strike E'lektryón on the head killed him. Sthenelos, the fifth son of Perseus, taking advantage of this unlucky deed, drove Amphitryón from Mykénæ and Tiryns; and sending for his nephews Atreus and Thyestés, the sons of Pelops, settled them at Mideia. Amphitryón, accompanied by his wife Alkméné and her halfbrother Likymnios,2 retired to Thebes, where he was purified by Kreón, who gave his daughter Perimédé in marriage to Likymnios. Alkméné still refusing to admit the embraces of Amphitryón till he had avenged her brothers, he applied to Kreón to assist him in the war. To this Kreón assented, on condition of his guest's first freeing Kadmeia from the fox which ravaged it, and which was fated never to be caught. To this animal the Thébans were obliged to give a child every month, to save the rest. Amphitryón undertook the task, and with the aid of Kephalos and his dog succeeded.3

Strengthened by a number of auxiliaries, Amphitryón now 1 ὅτι τηλοῦ ἔβη.

2 Evidently i. q. Ligymnios (Arybuvios, Sweet-singer), and there was probably a mythe, now lost, connected with his name. 3 See above, p. 339.

went against the Téleboans. He landed, and ravaged their islands; but so long as Pteroláos lived, he could accomplish nothing. At length Komæthó, the daughter of that prince, falling in love with Amphitryón, pulled out the fatal golden lock, and he died, and the islands were conquered.1 Amphitryon put Komæthó to death, and then sailed with his booty to Thebes, having given the islands to his ally Kephalos and his uncle E'leios. The remainder of his history has been already related.2

Ασκληπιός. #sculapius.

Asklepios is called by Homer an excellent physician (ȧμúμwv iŋτîp), who had been instructed by Cheirón. His sons Podaleirios and Macháón, who were also renowned for their skill in treating wounds, led to Troy the men of Trikka, Ithómé and Echalia in northern Thessaly."

4

As has been already related, Asklepios was the son of Apolló by Korónis the daughter of Phlegyas. The care of his education was committed to Cheirón, who taught him the healing art, in which he arrived at such perfection as to be able to restore life to the dead. He is said to have thus recalled from the nether-world Kapaneus and Lykurgos, Tyndareós,' Glaukos the son of Minós, and Hippolytos.8 Zeus on the complaint of Hadés struck him with thunder, and Apolló in revenge killed the Kyklópes, for which deed he was banished from Olympos.

The tradition at Epidauros (the great seat of the worship of Asklepios) was that Phlegyas, having come to explore the strength of the Peloponnése, was accompanied by his daughter, who was at the time pregnant by Apolló, but unknown to her father. Her labour came on in the country of Epidauros, and she exposed the babe on Mount Myrtion, afterwards named Titthion (ríroŋ nurse). Here one of the goats that fed on the mountain gave it suck, and the goatherd's dog kept guard over The herdsman, missing his dog and goat, went in search of them. He thus discovered the babe, and on approaching to take it up he perceived that its body emitted a brilliant light, at which proof of divinity he drew back. The fame of the healing powers of the wonderful child was quickly spread over sea and land."

it.

1 See above, p. 342. We may here observe that the Grecian mythes frequently borrowed from each other. Compare those of Kadmos and Iasón, of Andromeda and Hésioné, of Téreus and Thyestés, of Kadmos and Ilos, of Péleus, Héraklés, and Menelaos with the sea-deities, etc. The same appearance is presented in the chivalric romances of the middle ages.

3 Il. ii. 731; iv. 194, 219; xi. 518. Pind. Pyth. iii. 43 (75) seq. Panyasis, ap. eund.

2 See above, p. 310.
4 See above, p. 106.
Apollod. iii. 10, 3.
9 Paus. ii. 26, 3-5.

• Stésichoros, ap. The Naupaktics, ap. eund.

The Messénians asserted that Asklepios first saw the light in their country. His mother they said was Arsinoé the daughter of Leukippos, and the places from which his sons led the troops to Troy were in Messéné, and not in Thessaly. They showed at Gerénia the tomb of Macháón, and at Pharæ the temple of his children.1

Asklepios was one of those who sailed in the Argó. He had by Lampetié (Bright-one) the daughter of the Sun two sons, Macháón and Podaleirios, and three daughters, Panakeia (Allheal), Iasó (Healer), and Æglé (Brightness);2 or rather, according to the Athenian view, only the two first-named.

At Epidauros Asklepios was represented under the form of an old man with a venerable beard, wrapt in a mantle and leaning on a staff round which a serpent was twined. It was said that when he was about to raise Glaukos a serpent came and crept to his staff; he struck and killed it. Soon after another serpent came, bearing a herb in its mouth, which it laid on the head of the dead one, who instantly recovered. Asklepios took the herb and by means of it restored Glaukos. Others said that Athéna had given him the blood of the Gorgon, and with what flowed from the veins of the left side he injured men, while with that of the right side he cured them.5

4

From all that is related of Asklepios it is plain that he was an original deity, probably of the Phlegyans or Lapiths. Müller,“ who sees a great resemblance between him and Trophónios, says that his union with Apolló is merely mythologic, as they were never worshipped together, and that it was probably founded on the epithet Pæan of this god. We however feel inclined to see in Asklepios a form of the sun-god, to whose daughter he is married. Of his name no satisfactory derivation has as yet been offered."

1 Paus. iv. 3, 2. Asklépiadés, ap. Sch. Pind. Pyth, iii. 8 (14). 2 Hermippos, ap. Sch. Aristoph. Plut. 701.

3 See Aristoph. Plut. 701 seq. Eglé then corresponds to Hersé in the mythe of Kekrops. Hygin. Poet, Astr. ii. 14. Apollod. iii. 10, 3.

6 See Müller, Orchom. 199 seq. Dor. i. 307.

5

7 Perhaps the root may be σkάλλw, whose original sense may have been to cut (okaλun knife, comp. scalpo), and thus the name, like that of Cheirón, have denoted the surgeon. With this the names of his daughters are in harmony. Those of his sons seem of a different nature: for Macháón is plainly the Pugnacious, while Podaleirios may be the Light- or Swift-footed; for Actos may originally have answered to levis as well as lēvis, and λeipòs is a leveret.

CHAPTER VIII.

MYTHES OF ARKADIA.

ARKADIA, fenced in by its mountains, never suffered from the revolutionary movements of the rest of the peninsula. Its population may therefore be regarded as unmixed Pelasgian; and its principal deities are those which seem to have been worshipped by that people, namely, Zeus, Hermés, Démétér, Artemis, and Poseidón. The Arkadian legends, which are very scanty and of a peculiar character, all refer to the worship of these deities.

Λυκάων. Lycaon.

Pelasgos1 was by the O'keanis Meliboa or the nymph Kylléné the father of Lykáón king of Arkadia.

Lykáón had many wives by whom he became the father of fifty sons, who were like himself impious and cruel. Zeus, to satisfy himself of the truth of the reports that reached him, disguised himself as a poor man and sought their hospitality. To entertain the stranger, they slaughtered a boy, and mingling his flesh with that of the victims, set it before their guest. The god, in indignation and horror at the barbarous act, overturned the table (whence the place derived its future name of Trapezós), and struck with lightning the godless father and sons, with the exception of Nyktimos, whom Earth, raising her hands and grasping the right-hand of Zeus, saved from the wrath of the avenging deity. According to another account, Zeus destroyed the dwelling of Lykáón with lightning, and turned its master into a wolf. The deluge of Deukalión which shortly afterwards occurred is ascribed to the impiety of the sons of Lykáón.2

In Arkadia Zeus was worshipped under the title of Lykæos on the summit of Mount Lykæon, at the foot of which stood the town of Lykosura, said to have been built by Lykáón, who established there games called Lykaa. At Mount Lykæon there 1 Hésiod (ap. Apollod. iii. 8, 1) calls him an autochthon, and Asios said (Paus. viii. 1, 4).

̓Αντίθεον δὲ Πέλασγον ἐν ὑψικόμοισιν ὄρεσσι
Γαῖα μέλαιν' ἀνέδωκεν, ἵνα θνητῶν γένος εἴη.

2 Apollod. iii. 8. Ov. Met. i. 216 seq. Hygin. 176. Poet. Astr. ii. 4. Tzetz. Lyc. 481.

3 Paus. viii. 2, 1.

Human victims appear to have been offered. Any one who tasted of the flesh became a wolf. Plat. Rep. viii. § 15.

was a sacred inclosure or temenos of Zeus, within which neither man nor beast cast a shadow, and any one who entered it designedly was put to death. These names and circumstances might lead to the supposition that Zeus Lykæos was in Arkadia what Apollo Lykios was elsewhere; and that the true root in this case also was AY'KH, lux, light; while similarity of sound gave occasion to the legends of wolves, of which there were many in Arkadia. In this case Lykáón would be only another name for Zeus, to whom he raised an altar, and he could not therefore have been described as impious in the primitive legend. The opposition between his name and that of Nyktimos strongly confirms this hypothesis. It may indeed be said that Zeus derived his appellation from the mountain; but against this is to be observed, that there was an eminence in the territory of Kyréné or Barké in Libya dedicated to Zeus Lykæos.2

Καλλιστὼ καὶ ̓́Αρκας. Callisto et Arcas.

Besides his other sons, and Nyktimos who reigned over Arkadia at the time of Deukalión's flood, Lykáón had a daughter named Kallisto, who dedicated herself to the service of Artemis, and vowed to the goddess the maintenance of perpetual virginity. But Zeus saw and loved Kallistó; and changing himself into the form of the huntress goddess, accompanied the maiden to the chase, and surprised her virtue. She long concealed her shame; but at length, as she was one day bathing with her divine mistress, the alteration in her person was observed; and Artemis, in her anger, turned her into a bear. While in this form she brought forth her son Arkas, who lived with her in the woods, till the herdsmen caught both her and him, and brought them to Lykáón. Some time afterwards she went into the temenos of Zeus Lykæos, which it was unlawful to enter. A number of Arkadians, among whom was her own son, followed to kill her; but Zeus, in memory of his love, snatched her out of their hands, and placed her as a constellation in the sky.*

This fable is narrated with great difference in the circumstances. Some say it was the form of Apolló that Zeus took. In some versions it is Zeus who turns Kallistó into a bear to conceal her from Héra; and this goddess persuades Artemis to 2 Hérod. iv. 205.

1 Paus. viii. 38, 6. Plut. Quæst. Gr. 39.

Eumélos ap. Apollod. iii. 8, 2. Asios said that Nykteus, i.e. Nyktimos, was ner father; Pherekýdes said Kéteus. Apollod. ut sup. Sch. Eurip. Orest. 1645.

Apollod. iii. 8, 2. Ov. Met. ii. 401 seq. Fast. ii. 155 seq. Hygin. 177. Poet. Astr. i. It was also fabled that, at the request of Héra, Téthys forbade the constellation of the Bear to descend into her waves.