Sky was the first who ruled over the whole
								world. And having wedded Earth, he begat first the
							Hundred-handed, as they are named: Briareus, Gyes, Cottus, who were
							unsurpassed in size and might, each of them having a hundred hands and
							fifty heads.

After these, Earth bore him the Cyclopes, to wit, Arges , Steropes, Brontes, of whom each had one eye on his forehead. But them Sky bound and
							cast into Tartarus, a gloomy place in Hades as far distant from earth as
							earth is distant from the sky.

And again he begat children by Earth, to wit, the Titans as they are
							named: Ocean, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, and, youngest of all,
							Cronus; also daughters, the Titanides as they are called: Tethys, Rhea,
							Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione, Thia.

But Earth, grieved at the destruction of her
							children, who had been cast into Tartarus, persuaded the Titans to
							attack their father and gave Cronus an adamantine sickle. And they, all
							but Ocean, attacked him, and Cronus cut off his father's genitals and
							threw them into the sea; and from the drops of the flowing blood were
							born Furies, to wit, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. And, having dethroned their father, they brought up their brethren who had been hurled down to Tartarus, and committed
							the sovereignty to Cronus.

But he again bound and shut them up in Tartarus,
							and wedded his sister Rhea; and since both Earth and Sky foretold him
							that he would be dethroned by his own son, he used to swallow his
							offspring at birth. His firstborn Hestia he swallowed, then Demeter and
							Hera, and after them Pluto and Poseidon.

Enraged at this, Rhea repaired to Crete , when she was big with Zeus, and brought him forth in
							a cave of Dicte. She gave him to the Curetes and to the nymphs
							Adrastia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, to nurse.

So these nymphs fed the child on the milk of Amalthea; and the Curetes in arms guarded
							the babe in the cave, clashing their spears on their shields
							in order that Cronus might not hear the child's voice. But Rhea wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to
							Cronus to swallow, as if it were the newborn child.

But when Zeus was full-grown, he took Metis,
							daughter of Ocean, to help him, and she gave Cronus a drug to swallow,
							which forced him to disgorge first the stone and then the children whom
							he had swallowed, and with their aid
							Zeus waged the war against Cronus and the Titans. They fought for ten years, and Earth prophesied victory to Zeus if he should have as allies those who had been hurled
							down to Tartarus. So he slew their jailoress Campe, and loosed their
							bonds. And the Cyclopes then gave Zeus thunder and lightning and a
								thunderbolt, and on Pluto they bestowed a helmet and on Poseidon a trident.
							Armed with these weapons the gods overcame the Titans, shut them up in
							Tartarus, and appointed the Hundred-handers their guards; but they themselves cast lots for the sovereignty, and to Zeus
							was allotted the dominion of the sky, to Poseidon the dominion of the
							sea, and to Pluto the dominion in Hades.

Now to the Titans were born offspring: to Ocean
							and Tethys were born Oceanids, to wit, Asia , Styx, Electra, Doris,
							Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis; to Coeus and Phoebe were born
							Asteria and Latona; to Hyperion and Thia were born Dawn, Sun, and Moon; to Crius and Eurybia, daughter of Sea ( Pontus), were born
							Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses;

to Iapetus and Asia was born Atlas, who has the sky on his shoulders, and
							Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Menoetius, he whom Zeus in the battle
							with the Titans smote with a thunderbolt and hurled down to
								Tartarus.

And to Cronus and Philyra was born Chiron, a centaur of double
								form; and to Dawn and Astraeus were born winds
							and stars; to Perses and Asteria was born Hecate; and to Pallas and Styx were born Victory,
							Dominion, Emulation, and Violence.

But Zeus caused oaths to be sworn by the water of Styx, which flows from
							a rock in Hades, bestowing this honor on her because she and her
							children had fought on his side against the Titans.

And to Sea ( Pontus) and Earth were born
							Phorcus, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto. Now to
							Thaumas and Electra were born Iris and the Harpies, Aello and
								Ocypete; and to Phorcus and Ceto were born the Phorcides and
								Gorgons, of whom we shall speak when we treat of Perseus.

To Nereus and Doris were born the Nereids, whose names are Cymothoe, Spio, Glauconome,
							Nausithoe, Halie, Erato, Sao, Amphitrite, Eunice, Thetis, Eulimene,
							Agave, Eudore, Doto, Pherusa, Galatea, Actaea, Pontomedusa, Hippothoe,
							Lysianassa, Cymo, Eione, Halimede, Plexaure, Eucrante, Proto, Calypso,
							Panope, Cranto, Neomeris, Hipponoe, Ianira, Polynome, Autonoe, Melite,
							Dione, Nesaea, Dero, Evagore, Psamathe, Eumolpe, Ione, Dynamene, Ceto,
							and Limnoria.

Now Zeus wedded Hera and begat Hebe, Ilithyia,
							and Ares, but he had intercourse with many
							women, both mortals and immortals. By Themis, daughter of Sky, he had
							daughters, the Seasons, to wit, Peace, Order, and Justice; also the
							Fates, to wit, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropus; by Dione he had Aphrodite; by Eurynome, daughter of Ocean, he had the Graces, to wit,
							Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia; by Styx he had Persephone; 
							and by Memory ( Mnemosyne) he had the Muses, first Calliope, then Clio,
							Melpomene, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Urania, Thalia, and
								Polymnia.

Now Calliope bore to Oeagrus or, nominally, to
							Apollo, a son Linus, whom Hercules slew;
							and another son, Orpheus, who practised minstrelsy and by his songs moved stones and
							trees. And when his wife Eurydice died, bitten by a snake, he went down
							to Hades, being fain to bring her up, and
							he persuaded Pluto to send her up. The god promised to do
							so, if on the way Orpheus would not turn round until he should be come
							to his own house. But he disobeyed and turning round beheld his wife; so
							she turned back. Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria.

Clio fell in love with Pierus, son of Magnes, in consequence of the
							wrath of Aphrodite, whom she had twitted with her love of Adonis; and
							having met him she bore him a son Hyacinth, for whom Thamyris, the son
							of Philammon and a nymph Argiope, conceived a passion, he being the
							first to become enamored of males. But afterwards Apollo loved Hyacinth
							and killed him involuntarily by the cast of a quoit. And Thamyris, who excelled in beauty and
							in minstrelsy, engaged in a musical contest with the Muses, the
							agreement being that, if he won, he should enjoy them all, but that if
							he should be vanquished he should be bereft of what they would. So the
							Muses got the better of him and bereft him both of his eyes and of his
								minstrelsy.

Euterpe had by the river Strymon a son Rhesus, whom Diomedes slew at
								 Troy ; but some say his mother was Calliope.
							Thalia had by Apollo the Corybantes; and Melpomene had by Achelous the Sirens, of whom we shall speak
							in treating of Ulysses.

Hera gave birth to Hephaestus without
							intercourse with the other sex, but according to Homer he was one of her children by Zeus. Him Zeus cast out of heaven, because he came to the
							rescue of Hera in her bonds. For when Hercules had taken Troy and was at sea, Hera sent a storm
							after him; so Zeus hung her from Olympus . Hephaestus fell on Lemnos and was lamed of his legs, but Thetis saved him.

Zeus had intercourse with Metis, who turned into
							many shapes in order to avoid his embraces. When she was with child,
							Zeus, taking time by the forelock, swallowed her, because
							Earth said that, after giving birth to the maiden who was then in her
							womb, Metis would bear a son who should be the lord of heaven. From fear
							of that Zeus swallowed her. And when the time came for the birth
							to take place, Prometheus or, as others say, Hephaestus, smote the head
							of Zeus with an axe, and Athena, fully armed, leaped up from the top of
							his head at the river Triton.

Of the daughters of Coeus, Asteria in the
							likeness of a quail flung herself into the sea in order to escape the
							amorous advances of Zeus, and a city was formerly called after her
							Asteria, but afterwards it was named Delos . But Latona for
							her intrigue with Zeus was hunted by Hera over the whole earth, till she
							came to Delos and brought
							forth first Artemis, by the help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave
							birth to Apollo. 
 
 Now Artemis devoted herself to the chase and
							remained a maid; but Apollo learned the art of prophecy from Pan, the
							son of Zeus and Hybris, and came to
								 Delphi , where Themis
							at that time used to deliver oracles; and when the snake Python, which guarded the oracle,
							would have hindered him from approaching the chasm, he killed it and took over
							the oracle. Not long afterwards
							he slew also Tityus, who was a son of Zeus and Elare, daughter of Orchomenus ; for her,
							after he had debauched her, Zeus hid under the earth for
							fear of Hera, and brought forth to the light the son Tityus, of
							monstrous size, whom she had borne in her womb. When Latona
							came to Pytho , Tityus beheld
							her, and overpowered by lust drew her to him. But she called her
							children to her aid, and they shot him down with their arrows. And he is
							punished even after death; for vultures eat his heart in Hades.

Apollo also slew Marsyas, the son of Olympus . For Marsyas, having
							found the pipes which Athena had thrown away because they disfigured her
								face, 
 engaged in a musical contest with Apollo. They agreed that
							the victor should work his will on the vanquished, and when the trial
							took place Apollo turned his lyre upside down in the competition and
							bade Marsyas do the same. But Marsyas could not, so Apollo was judged
							the victor and despatched Marsyas by hanging him on a tall pine tree and
							stripping off his skin.

And Artemis slew Orion in Delos . They say that he was of gigantic stature and born of the earth;
							but Pherecydes says that he was a son of Poseidon and Euryale. Poseidon bestowed on him the power of
							striding across the sea. He first married
								Side, whom Hera cast into
							Hades because she rivalled herself in beauty. Afterwards he went to
								 Chios and wooed Merope, daughter of Oenopion. But Oenopion made him
							drunk, put out his eyes as he slept, and cast him on the beach. But he
							went to the smithy of Hephaestus, and snatching up a lad set him on his
							shoulders and bade him lead him to the sunrise. Being come thither he
							was healed by the sun's rays, and having recovered his sight he hastened
							with all speed against Oenopion.

But for him Poseidon had made ready a house under the earth constructed
							by Hephaestus. And Dawn
							fell in love with Orion and carried him off and brought him to Delos ; for Aphrodite caused
							Dawn to be perpetually in love, because she had bedded with Ares.

But Orion was killed, as some say, for challenging Artemis to a match at
							quoits, but some say he was shot by Artemis for offering violence to
							Opis, one of the maidens who had come from the Hyperboreans. 
 
 Poseidon wedded Amphitrite, daughter of Ocean,
							and there were born to him Triton and Rhode, who was married to the Sun.

Pluto fell in love with Persephone and with the
							help of Zeus carried her off secretly. But Demeter went about seeking her all over the
							earth with torches by night and day, and learning from the people of
								 Hermion that Pluto
							had carried her off, 
 she was wroth with the gods and quitted heaven, and came in
							the likeness of a woman to Eleusis . And first she sat down on the rock which has been
							named Laughless after her, beside what is called the Well of the Fair
								Dances ; thereupon she made her
							way to Celeus, who at that time reigned over the Eleusinians. Some women
							were in the house, and when they bade her sit down beside them, a
							certain old crone, Iambe, joked the goddess and made her smile. For
							that reason they say that the women break jests at the
								Thesmophoria. 
 But Metanira, wife of Celeus, had a child and
							Demeter received it to nurse, and wishing to make it immortal she set
							the babe of nights on the fire and stripped off its mortal flesh. But as
							Demophon — for that was the child's name— grew marvelously
							by day, Praxithea watched, and discovering him buried in the fire she
							cried out; wherefore the babe was consumed by the fire and the goddess
							revealed herself.

But for Triptolemus, the elder of Metanira's children, she made a
							chariot of winged dragons, and gave him wheat, with which, wafted
							through the sky, he sowed the whole inhabited earth. But Panyasis affirms that Triptolemus was a son of Eleusis , for he says that
							Demeter came to him. Pherecydes, however, says that he was a son of
							Ocean and Earth.

But when Zeus ordered Pluto to send up the Maid,
							Pluto gave her a seed of a pomegranate to eat, in order that she might
							not tarry long with her mother. 
 Not foreseeing the consequence, she swallowed it; and
							because Ascalaphus, son of Acheron and Gorgyra, bore witness against
							her, Demeter laid a heavy rock on him in Hades. But Persephone was compelled to
							remain a third of every year with Pluto and the rest of the time with
							the gods.

Such is the legend of Demeter. But Earth, vexed
							on account of the Titans, brought forth the giants, whom she had by
								Sky. These were
							matchless in the bulk of their bodies and invincible in their might;
							terrible of aspect did they appear, with long locks drooping from their
							head and chin, and with the scales of dragons for feet. They were born, as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to
							others in Pallene . And they darted
							rocks and burning oaks at the sky. Surpassing all the rest were
							Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal so long as he fought in
							the land of his birth. He also drove away the cows of the Sun from
							Erythia. Now the gods had an oracle that none of the giants could perish
							at the hand of gods, but that with the help of a mortal they would be
							made an end of. Learning of this, Earth sought for a simple to prevent
							the giants from being destroyed even by a mortal. But Zeus
							forbade the Dawn and the Moon and the Sun to shine, and then, before
							anybody else could get it, he culled the simple himself, and by means of
							Athena summoned Hercules to his help. Hercules first shot Alcyoneus with
							an arrow, but when the giant fell on the ground he somewhat revived.
							However, at Athena's advice Hercules dragged him outside Pallene , and so the giant
								died.

But in the battle Porphyrion attacked Hercules and Hera. Nevertheless
							Zeus inspired him with lust for Hera, and when he tore her robes and
							would have forced her, she called for help, and Zeus smote him with a
							thunderbolt, and Hercules shot him dead with an arrow. As for the other giants, Ephialtes was shot
							by Apollo with an arrow in his left eye and by Hercules in his right;
							Eurytus was killed by Dionysus with a thyrsus, and Clytius by Hecate
							with torches, and Mimas by Hephaestus with missiles of red-hot
								metal. Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in
							his flight the island of Sicily 
 ; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own body
							in the fight. Polybotes was chased through the
							sea by Poseidon and came to Cos; and Poseidon, breaking off that piece
							of the island which is called Nisyrum, threw it on him. And Hermes,
							wearing the helmet of Hades, slew Hippolytus in the fight, and Artemis slew Gration. And the
							Fates, fighting with brazer clubs, killed Agrius and Thoas. The other
							giants Zeus smote and destroyed with thunderbolts and all of them
							Hercules shot with arrows as they were dying.

When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth,
							still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth
							Typhon in Cilicia , a hybrid between
							man and beast. In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring of
							Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious
							bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed
							the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the
							east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. From
							the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out,
							reached to his very head and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all
								winged :unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his
							head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes. Such and so great was
							Typhon when, hurling kindled rocks, he made for the very heaven with
							hissings and shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from his mouth. But
							when the gods saw him rushing at heaven, they made for Egypt in flight, and being
							pursued they changed their forms into those of animals. However Zeus
							pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters
							struck him down with an adamantine sickle, and as he fled pursued him
							closely as far as Mount Casius, which overhangs Syria . There, seeing the monster sore
							wounded, he grappled with him. But Typhon twined about him and gripped
							him in his coils, and wresting the sickle from him severed the sinews of
							his hands and feet, and lifting him on his shoulders carried him through
							the sea to Cilicia and
							deposited him on arrival in the Corycian cave. Likewise he put away the
							sinews there also, hidden in a bearskin, and he set to guard them the
							she-dragon Delphyne, who was a half-bestial maiden. But Hermes and
							Aegipan stole the sinews and fitted them unobserved to
								Zeus. And having recovered his strength Zeus
							suddenly from heaven, riding in a chariot of winged horses, pelted
							Typhon with thunderbolts and pursued him to the mountain called Nysa , where the Fates
							beguiled the fugitive; for he tasted of the ephemeral fruits in the
							persuasion that he would be strengthened thereby. So
							being again pursued he came to Thrace , and in fighting at Mount Haemus he heaved whole mountains. But when
							these recoiled on him through the force of the thunderbolt, a stream of
							blood gushed out on the mountain, and they say that from that
							circumstance the mountain was called Haemus . And when he started to flee through the Sicilian
							sea, Zeus cast Mount Etna in
								 Sicily upon him. That is
							a huge mountain, from which down to this day they say that blasts of
							fire issue from the thunderbolts that were thrown. So much for that subject.

Prometheus moulded men out of water and
								earth and gave them also fire, which,
							unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus
							to nail his body to Mount Caucasus, which is a Scythian mountain. On it
							Prometheus was nailed and kept bound for many years. Every day an eagle
							swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night.
							That was the penalty that Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until
							Hercules afterwards released him, as we shall show in dealing with
								Hercules.

And Prometheus had a son Deucalion. He
							reigning in the regions about Phthia , married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and
							Pandora, the first woman fashioned by the gods. And
							when Zeus would destroy the men of the Bronze Age, Deucalion
							by the advice of Prometheus constructed a chest, and having stored it with provisions he embarked in it with
							Pyrrha. But Zeus by pouring heavy rain from heaven flooded the greater
							part of Greece , so that all
							men were destroyed, except a few who fled to the high mountains in the
							neighborhood. It was then that the mountains in Thessaly parted, and that all the world
							outside the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. But Deucalion, floating in the
							chest over the sea for nine days and as many nights, drifted to Parnassus , and there, when the
							rain ceased, he landed and sacrificed to Zeus, the god of Escape. And
							Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him to choose what he would, and he
							chose to get men. And at the bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw
							them over his head, and the stones which Deucalion threw became men, and
							the stones which Pyrrha threw became women. Hence people were called
							metaphorically people ( laos) from laas , “ a stone.
								” And Deucalion had children by Pyrrha, first
								 Hellen, whose father some say was Zeus, and second
							Amphictyon, who reigned over Attica after Cranaus; and third a daughter Protogenia, who
							became the mother of Aethlius by Zeus.

Hellen had Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus by a nymph Orseis. Those who were called Greeks he
							named Hellenes after himself, and divided the country among his sons. Xuthus received Peloponnese and begat Achaeus
							and Ion by Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus, and from Achaeus and Ion the
							Achaeans and Ionians derive their names. Dorus received the country over
							against Peloponnese and
							called the settlers Dorians after himself. Aeolus reigned over the
							regions about Thessaly and
							named the inhabitants Aeolians. He married Enarete, daughter of Deimachus, and
							begat seven sons, Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes,
							Perieres, and five daughters, Canace, Alcyone, Pisidice, Calyce,
								Perimede. 
 Perimede had Hippodamas and Orestes by Achelous;
							and Pisidice had Antiphus and Actor by Myrmidon.

Alcyone was married by Ceyx, son of Lucifer. 
 These perished by reason of their pride; for he said that
							his wife was Hera, and she said that her husband was Zeus. But Zeus turned them into birds; her he made a kingfisher (
							alcyon) and him a gannet ( ceyx). 
 Canace had by Poseidon Hopleus and Nireus and
							Epopeus and Aloeus and Triops. Aloeus wedded Iphimedia, daughter of
							Triops; but she fell in love with Poseidon, and often going to the sea
							she would draw up the waves with her hands and pour them into her lap.
							Poseidon met her and begat two sons, Otus and Ephialtes, who are called
							the Aloads. These grew every year a
							cubit in breadth and a fathom in height; and when they were nine years
								old, being
							nine cubits broad and nine fathoms high, they resolved to fight against
							the gods, and they set Ossa on Olympus , and having set Pelion on Ossa they threatened by means of these mountains
							to ascend up to heaven, and they said that by filling up the sea with
							the mountains they would make it dry land, and the land they would make
							sea. And Ephialtes wooed Hera, and Otus wooed Artemis; moreover they put
							Ares in bonds. However, Hermes rescued Ares by
							stealth, and Artemis killed the Aloads in Naxos by a ruse. For she changed
							herself into a deer and leaped between them, and in their eagerness to
							hit the quarry they threw their darts at each other.

Calyce and Aethlius had a son Endymion who led
							Aeolians from Thessaly and
							founded Elis . But some say
							that he was a son of Zeus. As he was of surpassing beauty, the Moon fell
							in love with him, and Zeus allowed him to choose what he would, and he
							chose to sleep for ever, remaining deathless and ageless.

Endymion had by a Naiad nymph or, as some say,
							by Iphianassa, a son Aetolus, who slew Apis, son of Phoroneus, and fled
							to the Curetian country. There he killed his hosts, Dorus and Laodocus
							and Polypoetes, the sons of Phthia and Apollo, and called the country Aetolia after himself.

Aetolus and Pronoe, daughter of Phorbus, had
							sons, Pleuron and
							Calydon, after whom the cities in Aetolia were named. Pleuron wedded Xanthippe, daughter of Dorus, and begat a son
							Agenor, and daughters, Sterope and Stratonice and Laophonte. Calydon and
								 Aeolia , daughter of
							Amythaon, had daughters, Epicaste and Protogenia, who had Oxylus by
							Ares. And Agenor, son of Pleuron , married Epicaste, daughter of Calydon, and begat
							Porthaon and Demonice, who had Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and
							Thestius by Ares.

Evenus begat Marpessa, who was wooed by Apollo,
							but Idas, son of Aphareus, carried her off in a winged chariot which he
							received from Poseidon. Pursuing him in a chariot, Evenus came to
							the river Lycormas, but when he could not catch him he slaughtered his
							horses and threw himself into the river, and the river is called Evenus
							after him.

But Idas came to Messene , and Apollo, falling in with him, would have robbed him
							of the damsel. As they fought for the girl's hand, Zeus parted them and
							allowed the maiden herself to choose which of the two she would marry;
							and she, because she feared that Apollo might desert her in her old age,
							chose Idas for her husband.

Thestius had daughters and sons by Eurythemis,
							daughter of Cleoboea: the daughters were Althaea, Leda, Hypermnestra, and the males were
							Iphiclus, Evippus, Plexippus, and Eurypylus. Porthaon and Euryte, daughter of Hippodamas, had sons, Oeneus, Agrius,
							Alcathous, Melas, Leucopeus, and a daughter Sterope, who is said to have
							been the mother of the Sirens by Achelous.

Reigning over Calydon, Oeneus was the first who received a vine-plant from Dionysus. He married Althaea, daughter of Thestius, and
							begat Toxeus, whom he slew with his own hand because he leaped over the
								ditch. And besides Toxeus he had Thyreus and
							Clymenus, and a daughter Gorge, whom Andraemon married, and another
							daughter Deianira, who is said to have been begotten on Althaea by
							Dionysus. This Deianira drove a chariot and practised the art of war,
							and Hercules wrestled for her hand with Achelous.

Althaea had also a son Meleager, by Oeneus, though they say that he was begotten by Ares. It is
							said that, when he was seven days old, the Fates came and declared that
							Meleager should die when the brand burning on the hearth was burnt out.
							On hearing that, Althaea snatched up the brand and deposited it in a
								chest. Meleager grew up to be an invulnerable and gallant man, but came
							by his end in the following way. In sacrificing the first fruits of the annual crops of the country to all the gods Oeneus
							forgot Artemis alone. But she in her wrath sent a boar of extraordinary
							size and strength, which prevented the land from being sown and
							destroyed the cattle and the people that fell in with it. To attack this
							boar Oeneus called together all the noblest men of Greece , and promised that to him who should
							kill the beast he would give the skin as a prize. Now the men who
							assembled to hunt the boar were these :—
							Meleager, son of Oeneus; Dryas, son of Ares; these came from Calydon;
							Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus, from Messene ; Castor and Pollux, sons of
							Zeus and Leda, from Lacedaemon ; Theseus, son of Aegeus, from Athens ; Admetus, son of Pheres, from
							Pherae; Ancaeus and Cepheus, sons of Lycurgus, from Arcadia ; Jason, son of Aeson, from Iolcus;
							Iphicles, son of Amphitryon, from Thebes ; Pirithous, son of Ixion, from
							Larissa; Peleus, son of Aeacus, from Phthia ; Telamon, son of Aeacus, from
								 Salamis ;
							Eurytion, son of Actor, from Phthia ; Atalanta, daughter of Schoeneus, from Arcadia ; Amphiaraus, son of
							Oicles, from Argos . With
							them came also the sons of Thestius. And when they were assembled,
							Oeneus entertained them for nine days; but on the tenth, when Cepheus
							and Ancaeus and some others disdained to go hunting with a woman,
							Meleager compelled them to follow the chase with her, for he desired to
							have a child also by Atalanta, though he had to wife Cleopatra, daughter
							of Idas and Marpessa. When they surrounded the boar, Hyleus
							and Ancaeus were killed by the brute, and Peleus struck down Eurytion
							undesignedly with a javelin. But Atalanta was the first to shoot the
							boar in the back with an arrow, and Amphiaraus was the next to shoot it
							in the eye; but Meleager killed it by a stab in the flank, and on
							receiving the skin gave it to Atalanta. Nevertheless the sons of
							Thestius, thinking scorn that a woman should get the prize in the face
							of men, took the skin from her, alleging that it belonged to them by
							right of birth if Meleager did not choose to take it.

But Meleager in a rage slew the sons of Thestius and gave the skin to
							Atalanta. However, from grief at the slaughter of her brothers Althaea
							kindled the brand, and Meleager immediately expired. But some say that Meleager did not die in that
								way, but that when the sons of Thestius claimed the skin on the
							ground that Iphiclus had been the first to hit the boar, war broke out
							between the Curetes and the Calydonians; and when Meleager had sallied
								out and slain some of the sons of
							Thestius, Althaea cursed him, and he in a rage remained at home;
							however, when the enemy approached the walls, and the citizens
							supplicated him to come to the rescue, he yielded reluctantly to his
							wife and sallied forth, and having killed the rest of the
							sons of Thestius, he himself fell fighting. After the death of Meleager,
							Althaea and Cleopatra hanged themselves, and the women who mourned the
							dead man were turned into birds.

After Althaea's death Oeneus married Periboea,
							daughter of Hipponous. The author of the Thebaid says that when Olenus was sacked, Oeneus
							received Periboea as a gift of honor; but Hesiod says that she was
							seduced by Hippostratus, son of Amarynceus, and that her father
							Hipponous sent her away from Olenus in Achaia 
							to Oeneus, because he dwelt far from Greece , with an injunction to put her to
								death.

However, some say that Hipponous discovered that his daughter had been
							debauched by Oeneus, and therefore he sent her away to him when she was
							with child. By her Oeneus begat Tydeus. But Pisander says that the
							mother of Tydeus was Gorge, for Zeus willed it that Oeneus should fall
							in love with his own daughter. 
 When Tydeus had grown to be a gallant man he was
							banished for killing, as some say, Alcathous, brother of Oeneus; but
							according to the author of the Alcmaeonid his
							victims were the sons of Melas who had plotted against Oeneus, their
							names being Pheneus, Euryalus, Hyperlaus, Antiochus,
							Eumedes, Sternops, Xanthippus, Sthenelaus; but as Pherecydes will have
							it, he murdered his own brother Olenias. Being arraigned by Agrius, he
							fled to Argos and came to
							Adrastus, whose daughter Deipyle he married and begat Diomedes.
								 Tydeus marched against Thebes with Adrastus, and died of a wound which he received at the hand of Melanippus.

But the sons of Agrius, to wit, Thersites, Onchestus, Prothous,
							Celeutor, Lycopeus, Melanippus, wrested the kingdom from Oeneus and gave
							it to their father, and more than that they imprisoned Oeneus in his
							lifetime and tormented him. Nevertheless Diomedes afterwards came secretly with Alcmaeon
							from Argos and put to
							death all the sons of Agrius, except Onchestus and Thersites, who had
							fled betimes to Peloponnese ;
							and as Oeneus was old, Diomedes gave the kingdom to Andraemon who had
							married the daughter of Oeneus, but Oeneus himself he took with him to
								 Peloponnese . Howbeit,
							the sons of Agrius, who had made their escape, lay in wait for the old
							man at the hearth of Telephus in Arcadia , and killed him. But Diomedes conveyed the corpse to
								 Argos and buried him
							in the place where now a city is called Oenoe after him. 
 And having married Aegialia, daughter of Adrastus or, as
							some say, of Aegialeus, he went to the wars against Thebes and Troy .

Of the sons of Aeolus, Athamas ruled over Boeotia and begat a son
							Phrixus and a daughter Helle by Nephele. And he married a second wife, Ino, by whom he had Learchus and
							Melicertes. But Ino plotted against the children of Nephele and
							persuaded the women to parch the wheat; and having got the wheat they
							did so without the knowledge of the men. But the earth, being sown with
							parched wheat, did not yield its annual crops; so Athamas sent to Delphi to inquire how he
							might be delivered from the dearth. Now Ino persuaded the messengers to
							say it was foretold that the infertility would cease if Phrixus were
							sacrificed to Zeus. When Athamas heard that, he was forced by the
							inhabitants of the land to bring Phrixus to the altar. But Nephele
							caught him and her daughter up and gave them a ram with a golden fleece,
							which she had received from Hermes, and borne through the sky by the ram
							they crossed land and sea. But when they were over the sea
							which lies betwixt Sigeum and the Chersonese , Helle slipped into the deep and was drowned, and
							the sea was called Hellespont after her. But Phrixus came to the Colchians,
							whose king was Aeetes, son of the Sun and of Perseis, and brother of
							Circe and Pasiphae, whom Minos married. He received Phrixus and gave him
							one of his daughters, Chalciope. And Phrixus sacrificed the ram with the
							golden fleece to Zeus the god of Escape, and the fleece he gave to
							Aeetes, who nailed it to an oak in a grove of Ares. And Phrixus had
							children by Chalciope, to wit, Argus, Melas , Phrontis, and Cytisorus.

But afterwards Athamas was bereft also of the
							children of Ino through the wrath of Hera; for he went mad and shot
							Learchus with an arrow, and Ino cast herself and Melicertes into the
								sea. Being banished from
								 Boeotia , Athamas
							inquired of the god where he should dwell, and on receiving an oracle
							that he should dwell in whatever place he should be entertained by wild
							beasts, he traversed a great extent of country till he fell in with
							wolves that were devouring pieces of sheep; but when they saw him they
							abandoned their prey and fled. So Athamas settled in that country and
							named it Athamantia after himself; and he married
							Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, and begat Leucon, Erythrius, Schoeneus,
							and Ptous.

And Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, founded Ephyra , which is now called
								 Corinth , and married Merope,
							daughter of Atlas. They had a son Glaucus, who had by Eurymede a son
							Bellerophon, who slew the fire breathing Chimera. But Sisyphus is punished in Hades by rolling a stone
							with his hands and head in the effort to heave it over the top; but push
							it as he will, it rebounds backward. This punishment he endures for the sake of Aegina , daughter of Asopus; for
							when Zeus had secretly carried her off, Sisyphus is said to have
							betrayed the secret to Asopus, who was looking for her.

Deion reigned over Phocis and married Diomede, daughter of
							Xuthus; and there were born to him a daughter, Asterodia, and sons,
							Aenetus, Actor, Phylacus, and Cephalus, who married Procris, daughter of
								Erechtheus. 
							But afterwards Dawn fell in love with him and carried him off.

Perieres took possession of Messene and married Gorgophone,
							daughter of Perseus, by whom he had sons, to wit, Aphareus and
								Leucippus, and Tyndareus, and also Icarius. But many say that
							Perieres was not the son of Aeolus but of Cynortas, son of Amyclas; so we shall narrate
							the history of the descendants of Perieres in dealing with the family of
							Atlas.

Magnes married a Naiad nymph, and sons were born
							to him, Polydectes and Dictys; these colonized Seriphus.

Salmoneus at first dwelt in Thessaly , but afterwards he came to Elis and there founded a
								city. And being arrogant and wishful to put himself on an equality
							with Zeus, he was punished for his impiety; for he said that he was
							himself Zeus, and he took away the sacrifices of the god and ordered
							them to be offered to himself; and by dragging dried hides, with bronze
							kettles, at his chariot, he said that he thundered, and by flinging
							lighted torches at the sky he said that he lightened. But Zeus struck
							him with a thunderbolt, and wiped out the city he had founded with all
							its inhabitants.

Now Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus and Alcidice,
							was brought up by Cretheus, brother of Salmoneus, and conceived a
							passion for the river Enipeus, and often would she hie to its running
							waters and utter her plaint to them. But Poseidon in the
							likeness of Enipeus lay with her, and she secretly gave birth to twin sons, whom she exposed. As
							the babes lay forlorn, a mare, belonging to some passing horsekeepers,
							kicked with its hoof one of the two infants and left a livid mark on its
							face. The horsekeeper took up both the children and reared them; and the
							one with the livid ( pelion ) mark he called Pelias,
							and the other Neleus. When they were
							grown up, they discovered their mother and killed their stepmother
							Sidero. For knowing that their mother was ill-used by her, they attacked
							her, but before they could catch her she had taken refuge in the
							precinct of Hera. However, Pelias cut her down on the very altars, and ever after he continued to treat
							Hera with contumely.

But afterwards the brothers fell out, and Neleus, being banished, came
							to Messene , and founded
							Pylus, and married Chloris, daughter of Amphion, by whom he had a daughter,
							Pero, and sons, to wit, Taurus, Asterius, Pylaon, Deimachus, Eurybius,
							Epilaus, Phrasius, Eurymenes, Evagoras, Alastor, Nestor and
							Periclymenus, whom Poseidon granted the power of changing his shape. And
							when Hercules was ravaging Pylus, in the fight Periclymenus turned
							himself into a lion, a snake, and a bee, but was slain by Hercules with
							the other sons of Neleus. Nestor alone was saved, because he was brought
							up among the Gerenians. He married Anaxibia, daughter of
								Cratieus, and begat daughters, Pisidice and Polycaste, and
							sons, Perseus, Stratichus, Aretus, Echephron, Pisistratus, Antilochus,
							and Thrasymedes.

But Pelias dwelt in Thessaly and married Anaxibia, daughter of
							Bias, but according to some his wife was Phylomache, daughter of
							Amphion; and he begat a son, Acastus, and daughters, Pisidice, Pelopia,
							Hippothoe, and Alcestis.

Cretheus founded Iolcus and married Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he had sons, Aeson, Amythaon,
							and Pheres. 
							Amythaon dwelt in Pylus and married Idomene, daughter of Pheres, and
							there were born to him two sons, Bias and Melampus. The latter lived in
							the country, and before his house there was an oak, in which there was a
							lair of snakes. His servants killed the snakes, but Melampus gathered
							wood and burnt the reptiles, and reared the young ones. And when the
							young were full grown, they stood beside him at each of his shoulders as
							he slept, and they purged his ears with their tongues. He started up in
							a great fright, but understood the voices of the birds flying overhead,
							and from what he learned from them he foretold to men what should come
							to pass. He acquired besides the art of taking the auspices, and having
							fallen in with Apollo at the Alpheus he was ever after an excellent
							soothsayer.

Bias wooed Pero, daughter of Neleus. But as there were many suitors for
							his daughter's hand, Neleus said that he would give her to
							him who should bring him the kine of Phylacus. These were in Phylace , and they were
							guarded by a dog which neither man nor beast could come near. Unable to
							steal these kine, Bias invited his brother to help him. Melampus
							promised to do so, and foretold that he should be detected in the act of
							stealing them, and that he should get the kine after being kept in
							bondage for a year. After making this promise he repaired to Phylace and, just as he
							had foretold, he was detected in the theft and kept a prisoner in a
							cell. When the year was nearly up, he heard the worms in the hidden part
							of the roof, one of them asking how much of the beam had been already
							gnawed through, and others answering that very little of it was left. At
							once he bade them transfer him to another cell, and not long after that
							had been done the cell fell in. Phylacus marvelled, and perceiving that
							he was an excellent soothsayer, he released him and invited him to say
							how his son Iphiclus might get children. Melampus promised to tell him,
							provided he got the kine. And having sacrificed two bulls and cut them
							in pieces he summoned the birds; and when a vulture came, he learned
							from it that once, when Phylacus was gelding rams, he laid down the
							knife, still bloody, beside Iphiclus, and that when the child was
							frightened and ran away, he stuck the knife on the sacred oak, and the bark
							encompassed the knife and hid it. He said, therefore, that if the knife
							were found, and he scraped off the rust, and gave it to Iphiclus to
							drink for ten days, he would beget a son. Having learned these things
							from the vulture, Melampus found the knife, scraped the rust, and gave
							it to Iphiclus for ten days to drink, and a son Podarces was born to
								him. But he drove the kine to Pylus, and having received the
							daughter of Neleus he gave her to his brother. For a time he continued
							to dwell in Messene , but
							when Dionysus drove the women of Argos mad, he healed them on condition of receiving part of
							the kingdom, and settled down there with Bias.

Bias and Pero had a son Talaus, who married
							Lysimache, daughter of Abas, son of Melampus, and had by her Adrastus,
							Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, Aristomachus, and Eriphyle, whom
							Amphiaraus married. Parthenopaeus had a son Promachus, who marched with
							the Epigoni against Thebes ; and Mecisteus had a son Euryalus, who went to
								 Troy . Pronax had a son Lycurgus; and Adrastus had by Amphithea,
							daughter of Pronax, three daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and Aegialia, and
							two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus.

Pheres, son of Cretheus, founded Pherae in Thessaly and begat Admetus and
							Lycurgus. Lycurgus took up his abode at Nemea , and having married Eurydice, or,
							as some say, Amphithea, he begat Opheltes, afterwards called
								Archemorus.

When Admetus reigned over Pherae, Apollo served him as his thrall, while Admetus
								 wooed Alcestis, daughter of Pelias. Now Pelias had
							promised to give his daughter to him who should yoke a lion and a boar
							to a car, and Apollo yoked and gave them to Admetus, who brought them to
							Pelias and so obtained Alcestis. But in offering a sacrifice at his marriage, he
							forgot to sacrifice to Artemis; therefore when he opened the marriage
							chamber he found it full of coiled snakes. Apollo bade him appease the
							goddess and obtained as a favour of the Fates that, when Admetus should
							be about to die, he might be released from death if someone should
							choose voluntarily to die for him. And when the day of his death came
							neither his father nor his mother would die for him, but Alcestis died
							in his stead. But the Maiden sent her up again,
							or, as some say, Hercules fought with Hades and brought her up to
								him.

Aeson, son of Cretheus, had a son Jason by
							Polymede, daughter of Autolycus. Now Jason dwelt in Iolcus,
							of which Pelias was king after Cretheus. But when Pelias consulted the oracle concerning the kingdom, the
							god warned him to beware of the man with a single sandal. At first the
							king understood not the oracle, but afterwards he apprehended it. For
							when he was offering a sacrifice at the sea to Poseidon, he sent for
							Jason, among many others, to participate in it. Now Jason loved
							husbandry and therefore abode in the country, but he hastened to the
							sacrifice, and in crossing the river Anaurus he lost a sandal in the
							stream and landed with only one. When Pelias saw him, he bethought him
							of the oracle, and going up to Jason asked him what, supposing he had
							the power, he would do if he had received an oracle that he should be
							murdered by one of the citizens. Jason answered, whether at haphazard or
							instigated by the angry Hera in order that Medea should prove a curse to
							Pelias, who did not honor Hera, “ I would command him,” said he, “ to
							bring the Golden Fleece. ” No sooner did Pelias hear that than he bade
							him go in quest of the fleece. Now it was at Colchis in a grove of Ares, hanging on an
							oak and guarded by a sleepless dragon. 
 Sent to fetch the fleece, Jason called in the
							help of Argus, son of Phrixus; and Argus, by Athena's advice, built a ship of fifty oars named Argo after its builder; and at the
							prow Athena fitted in a speaking timber from the oak of Dodona . When the ship was built, and he inquired of the oracle, the god
							gave him leave to assemble the nobles of Greece and sail away. And those who
							assembled were as follows: Tiphys, son of Hagnias, who steered the
							ship; Orpheus, son of Oeagrus; Zetes and Calais, sons of Boreas; Castor
							and Pollux, sons of Zeus; Telamon and Peleus, sons of Aeacus; Hercules,
							son of Zeus; Theseus, son of Aegeus; Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus;
							Amphiaraus, son of Oicles; Caeneus, son of Coronus; Palaemon, son of
							Hephaestus or of Aetolus; Cepheus, son of Aleus; Laertes son of Arcisius; Autolycus, son
							of Hermes; Atalanta, daughter of Schoeneus; Menoetius, son of Actor;
							Actor, son of Hippasus; Admetus, son of Pheres; Acastus, son of Pelias;
							Eurytus, son of Hermes; Meleager, son of Oeneus; Ancaeus, son of
							Lycurgus; Euphemus, son of Poseidon; Poeas, son of Thaumacus; Butes, son
							of Teleon; Phanus and Staphylus, sons of Dionysus; Erginus, son of
							Poseidon; Periclymenus, son of Neleus; Augeas, son of the Sun; Iphiclus,
							son of Thestius; Argus, son of Phrixus; Euryalus, son of Mecisteus;
							Peneleos, son of Hippalmus; Leitus, son of Alector; Iphitus, son of
							Naubolus; Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Ares; Asterius,
							son of Cometes; Polyphemus, son of Elatus.

These with Jason as admiral put to sea and
							touched at Lemnos . At that
							time it chanced that Lemnos 
							was bereft of men and ruled over by a queen, Hypsipyle, daughter of
							Thoas, the reason of which was as follows. The Lemnian women did not
							honor Aphrodite, and she visited them with a noisome smell; therefore
							their spouses took captive women from the neighboring country of Thrace and bedded with them.
							Thus dishonored, the Lemnian women murdered their fathers and husbands,
							but Hypsipyle alone saved her father Thoas by hiding him. So having put
							in to Lemnos , at that time
							ruled by women, the Argonauts had intercourse with the women, and
							Hypsipyle bedded with Jason and bore sons, Euneus and Nebrophonus.

And after Lemnos they landed among the Doliones, of whom Cyzicus was king. He received them kindly. But having put to sea
							from there by night and met with contrary winds, they lost their
							bearings and landed again among the Doliones. However, the
							Doliones, taking them for a Pelasgian army ( for they were constantly
							harassed by the Pelasgians), joined battle with them by night in mutual
							ignorance of each other. The Argonauts slew many and among the rest
							Cyzicus; but by day, when they knew what they had done, they mourned and
							cut off their hair and gave Cyzicus a costly burial; and after the burial they sailed away and touched at Mysia .

There they left Hercules and Polyphemus. For
							Hylas, son of Thiodamas, a minion of Hercules, had been sent to draw
							water and was ravished away by nymphs on account of his beauty. But Polyphemus heard him cry out, and drawing his
							sword gave chase in the belief that he was being carried off by robbers.
							Falling in with Hercules, he told him; and while the two were seeking
							for Hylas, the ship put to sea. So Polyphemus founded a city Cius in
								 Mysia and reigned as
								king; but Hercules returned to Argos . However Herodorus says that Hercules did not sail at
							all at that time, but served as a slave at the court of Omphale. But
							Pherecydes says that he was left behind at Aphetae in Thessaly , the Argo having declared with
							human voice that she could not bear his weight.
							Nevertheless Demaratus has recorded that Hercules sailed to Colchis ; for Dionysius even
							affirms that he was the leader of the Argonauts.

From Mysia they departed to the land of the Bebryces, which was
							ruled by King Amycus, son of Poseidon and a Bithynian nymph. Being a
							doughty man he compelled the strangers that landed to box and in that
							way made an end of them. So going to the Argo as usual, he challenged
							the best man of the crew to a boxing match. Pollux undertook to box
							against him and killed him with a blow on the elbow. When the Bebryces
							made a rush at him, the chiefs snatched up their arms and put them to
							flight with great slaughter.

Thence they put to sea and came to land at
							Salmydessus in Thrace , where
							dwelt Phineus, a seer who had lost the sight of both eyes. Some say he was a son of
								Agenor, but others that he was a son of Poseidon,
							and he is variously alleged to have been blinded by the gods for
							foretelling men the future; or by Boreas and the Argonauts because he
							blinded his own sons at the instigation of their stepmother; or
							by Poseidon, because he revealed to the children of Phrixus how they
							could sail from Colchis to
								 Greece . The gods also
							sent the Harpies to him. These were winged female creatures, and when a
							table was laid for Phineus, they flew down from the sky and snatched up
							most of the victuals, and what little they left stank so that nobody
							could touch it. When the Argonauts would have consulted him about the
							voyage, he said that he would advise them about it if they would rid him
							of the Harpies. So the Argonauts laid a table of viands beside him, and
							the Harpies with a shriek suddenly pounced down and snatched away the
							food. When Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, saw that, they drew
							their swords and, being winged, pursued them through the air. Now it was
							fated that the Harpies should perish by the sons of Boreas, and that the
							sons of Boreas should die when they could not catch up a fugitive. So
							the Harpies were pursued and one of them fell into the river Tigres in
								 Peloponnese , the river
							that is now called Harpys after her; some call her Nicothoe, but others
							Aellopus. But the other, named Ocypete or, according to others, Ocythoe
							( but Hesiod calls her Ocypode) 
							fled by the Propontis till she came to the Echinadian Islands, which are
							now called Strophades after her; for when she came to them
							she turned ( estraphe ) and being at the shore fell
							for very weariness with her pursuer. But Apollonius in the Argonautica says that the Harpies were pursued to
							the Strophades Islands and suffered no harm, having sworn an oath that
							they would wrong Phineus no more.

Being rid of the Harpies, Phineus revealed to
							the Argonauts the course of their voyage, and advised them about the
							Clashing Rocks in the sea. These
							were huge cliffs, which, dashed together by the force of the winds,
							closed the sea passage. Thick was the mist that swept over them, and
							loud the crash, and it was impossible for even the birds to pass between
							them. So he told them to let fly a dove between the rocks, and, if they
							saw it pass safe through, to thread the narrows with an easy mind, but
							if they saw it perish, then not to force a passage. When they heard
							that, they put to sea, and on nearing the rocks let fly a dove from the
							prow, and as she flew the clash of the rocks nipped off the tip of her
							tail. So, waiting till the rocks had recoiled, with hard rowing and the
							help of Hera, they passed through, the extremity of the ship's
							ornamented poop being shorn away right round. Henceforth
							the Clashing Rocks stood still; for it was fated that, so soon as a ship
							had made the passage, they should come to rest completely.

The Argonauts now arrived among the
							Mariandynians, and there King Lycus received them kindly. There died Idmon the seer
							of a wound inflicted by a boar; 
							and there too died Tiphys, and Ancaeus undertook to steer the ship. 
 And having sailed past the Thermodon and the
								 Caucasus they came to
							the river Phasis , which is
							in the Colchian land. When the ship was brought into port, Jason repaired to Aeetes,
							and setting forth the charge laid on him by Pelias invited him to give
							him the fleece. The other promised to give it if single-handed he would
							yoke the brazen-footed bulls. These were two wild bulls that he had, of
							enormous size, a gift of Hephaestus; they had brazen feet and puffed
							fire from their mouths. These creatures Aeetes ordered him to yoke and
							to sow dragon's teeth; for he had got from Athena half of the dragon's
							teeth which Cadmus sowed in Thebes . While Jason puzzled how he could yoke the bulls, 
							Medea conceived a passion for him; now she was a witch, daughter of
							Aeetes and Idyia, daughter of Ocean. And fearing lest he might be
							destroyed by the bulls, she, keeping the thing from her father, promised
							to help him to yoke the bulls and to deliver to him the fleece, if he
							would swear to have her to wife and would take her with him on the
							voyage to Greece . When Jason
							swore to do so, she gave him a drug with which she bade him anoint his
							shield, spear, and body when he was about to yoke the bulls; for she
							said that, anointed with it, he could for a single day be harmed neither
							by fire nor by iron. And she signified to him that, when the teeth were
							sown, armed men would spring up from the ground against him; and when he
							saw a knot of them he was to throw stones into their midst from a
							distance, and when they fought each other about that, he was taken to
							kill them. On hearing that, Jason anointed himself with the
								drug, and being come to the grove of the temple he sought the bulls,
							and though they charged him with a flame of fire, he yoked them. And when he had sowed the teeth, there rose armed men from the
							ground; and where he saw several together, he pelted them unseen with
							stones, and when they fought each other he drew near and slew them. But though the
							bulls were yoked, Aeetes did not give the fleece; for he
							wished to burn down the Argo and kill the crew. But before he could do
							so, Medea brought Jason by night to the fleece, and having lulled to
							sleep by her drugs the dragon that guarded it, she possessed herself of
							the fleece and in Jason's company came to the Argo. She was attended,
							too, by her brother Apsyrtus. And with them the
							Argonauts put to sea by night.

When Aeetes discovered the daring deeds done by
							Medea, he started off in pursuit of the ship; but when she saw him near,
							Medea murdered her brother and cutting him limb from limb threw the
							pieces into the deep. Gathering the child's limbs, Aeetes fell behind in
							the pursuit; wherefore he turned back, and, having buried the rescued
							limbs of his child, he called the place Tomi . But he sent out many of the Colchians
							to search for the Argo, threatening that, if they did not bring Medea to
							him, they should suffer the punishment due to her; so they separated and
							pursued the search in divers places. When the
							Argonauts were already sailing past the Eridanus river, Zeus sent a
							furious storm upon them, and drove them out of their course, because he
							was angry at the murder of Apsyrtus. And as they were
							sailing past the Apsyrtides Islands, the ship spoke, saying that the
							wrath of Zeus would not cease unless they journeyed to Ausonia and were
							purified by Circe for the murder of Apsyrtus. So when they had sailed past the Ligurian and Celtic nations and
							had voyaged through the Sardinian Sea, they skirted Tyrrhenia and came
							to Aeaea, where they supplicated Circe and were purified.

And as they sailed past the Sirens, Orpheus restrained the Argonauts by
							chanting a counter-melody. Butes alone swam off to the Sirens, but
							Aphrodite carried him away and settled him in Lilybaeum . After
							the Sirens, the ship encountered Charybdis and Scylla and the Wandering
								Rocks, above which a great flame and smoke were seen
							rising. But Thetis with the Nereids steered the ship through them at the
							summons of Hera. Having passed by the Island of
							Thrinacia, where are the kine of the Sun, they came to Corcyra , the island
							of the Phaeacians, of which Alcinous was king. But when the Colchians could not find the ship, some of them settled at the Ceraunian mountains, and
							some journeyed to Illyria 
							and colonized the Apsyrtides Islands. But some came to the Phaeacians,
							and finding the Argo there, they demanded of Alcinous that he should
							give up Medea. He answered, that if she already knew Jason, he would
							give her to him, but that if she were still a maid he would send her
							away to her father. However, Arete, wife of Alcinous, anticipated matters by
							marrying Medea to Jason; hence the Colchians settled down among the Phaeacians and the Argonauts put to sea with Medea.

Sailing by night they encountered a violent
							storm, and Apollo, taking his stand on the Melantian ridges, flashed
							lightning down, shooting a shaft into the sea. Then they perceived an
							island close at hand, and anchoring there they named it Anaphe, because
							it had loomed up ( anaphanenai ) unexpectedly. So
							they founded an altar of Radiant Apollo, and having offered sacrifice
							they betook them to feasting; and twelve handmaids, whom Arete had given
							to Medea, jested merrily with the chiefs; whence it is still customary
							for the women to jest at the sacrifice . 
 Putting to sea from there, they were hindered
							from touching at Crete by
								Talos. 
							Some say that he was a man of the Brazen Race, others that he was given
							to Minos by Hephaestus; he was a brazen man, but some say that he was a
							bull. He had a single vein extending from his neck to his ankles, and a
							bronze nail was rammed home at the end of the vein. This Talos kept
							guard, running round the island thrice every day; wherefore, when he saw
							the Argo standing inshore, he pelted it as usual with stones. His death
							was brought about by the wiles of Medea, whether, as some say, she drove
							him mad by drugs, or, as others say, she promised to make him immortal
							and then drew out the nail, so that all the ichor gushed out and he
							died. But some say that Poeas shot him dead in the ankle. After tarrying a single night there they put in to
								 Aegina to draw
							water, and a contest arose among them concerning the drawing of the
								water. Thence they sailed betwixt Euboea and Locris and came to Iolcus,
							having completed the whole voyage in four months.

Now Pelias, despairing of the return of the
							Argonauts, would have killed Aeson; but he requested to be allowed to
							take his own life, and in offering a sacrifice drank freely of the
							bull's blood and died. And Jason's mother cursed Pelias
							and hanged herself, leaving behind an infant son Promachus;
							but Pelias slew even the son whom she had left behind. On his return Jason surrendered the
							fleece, but though he longed to avenge his wrongs he bided his time. At
							that time he sailed with the chiefs to the Isthmus and dedicated the
							ship to Poseidon, but afterwards he exhorted Medea to devise how he
							could punish Pelias. So she repaired to the palace of Pelias and
							persuaded his daughters to make mince meat of their father and boil him,
							promising to make him young again by her drugs; and to win their
							confidence she cut up a ram and made it into a lamb by boiling it. So
							they believed her, made mince meat of their father and boiled him. But
							Acastus buried his father with the help of the inhabitants
							of Iolcus, and he expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus.

They went to Corinth , and lived there happily for
							ten years, till Creon, king of Corinth , betrothed his daughter Glauce to Jason, who married
							her and divorced Medea. But she invoked the gods by whom Jason had
							sworn, and after often upbraiding him with his ingratitude she sent the
							bride a robe steeped in poison, which when Glauce had put on, she was
							consumed with fierce fire along with her father, who went to her
								rescue. But Mermerus and Pheres, the
							children whom Medea had by Jason, she killed, and having got from the
							Sun a car drawn by winged dragons she fled on it to Athens . Another tradition is that on her flight she left
							behind her children, who were still infants, setting them as suppliants
							on the altar of Hera of the Height; but the Corinthians
							removed them and wounded them to death. 
 Medea came to Athens , and being there married to
							Aegeus bore him a son Medus. Afterwards, however, plotting against
							Theseus, she was driven a fugitive from Athens with her son. But he conquered many barbarians and called the
							whole country under him Media, and marching
							against the Indians he met his death. And Medea came unknown to Colchis , and finding that
							Aeetes had been deposed by his brother Perses, she killed Perses and
							restored the kingdom to her father.

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. Ecbasus had a son Agenor, and Agenor
							had a son Argus, the one who is called the All-seeing. He had eyes in
							the whole of his body, and being exceedingly strong he killed the bull
							that ravaged Arcadia and
							clad himself in its hide; 
							and when a satyr wronged the Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle,
							Argus withstood and killed him. It is said, too, that Echidna, daughter of Tartarus and Earth, who used to carry off
							passers-by, was caught asleep and slain by Argus. He also avenged the
							murder of Apis by putting the guilty to death.

Argus and Ismene, daughter of Asopus, had a son
							Iasus, who is said to have been the father of Io. But the annalist Castor and many of the
							tragedians allege that Io was a daughter of Inachus; and Hesiod and Acusilaus say that she was a daughter of Piren. Zeus seduced her
							while she held the priesthood of Hera, but being detected by Hera he by
							a touch turned Io into a white cow and swore that he had not known her; wherefore Hesiod remarks
							that lover's oaths do not draw down the anger of the gods. But Hera
							requested the cow from Zeus for herself and set Argus the All-seeing to
							guard it. Pherecydes says that this Argus was a son of Arestor; but Asclepiades says that he was a
							son of Inachus, and Cercops says that he was a son of Argus and Ismene,
							daughter of Asopus; but Acusilaus says that he was earth-born. He tethered her
							to the olive tree which was in the grove of the Mycenaeans. But Zeus
							ordered Hermes to steal the cow, and as Hermes could not do it secretly
							because Hierax had blabbed, he killed Argus by the cast of a stone; whence he was called Argiphontes. Hera next sent a gadfly to infest the cow, and the animal came first to what is called after her the Ionian
							gulf. Then she journeyed through Illyria and having traversed Mount Haemus she crossed what
							was then called the Thracian Straits but is now called after her the
								Bosphorus. And having gone away
							to Scythia and the Cimmerian
							land she wandered over great tracts of land and swam wide stretches of
							sea both in Europe and Asia until at last she came to Egypt , where
							she recovered her original form and gave birth to a son Epaphus beside
							the river Nile . Him
							Hera besought the Curetes to make away with, and make away with him they
							did. When Zeus learned of it, he slew the Curetes; but Io set out in
							search of the child. She roamed all over Syria , because there it was revealed to her
							that the wife of the king of Byblus was nursing her son; 
							and having found Epaphus she came to Egypt and was married to Telegonus, who
							then reigned over the Egyptians. And she set up an image of Demeter,
							whom the Egyptians called Isis, and Io likewise
							they called by the name of Isis.

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 , she was Philyra; and
							according to Cercops she was Hesione. By her he had Palamedes, Oeax, and
							Nausimedon.

Lynceus reigned over Argos after Danaus and begat a son Abas
							by Hypermnestra; and Abas had twin sons Acrisius and Proetus by Aglaia, daughter
							of Mantineus. These two quarrelled with each other while they were still
							in the womb, and when they were grown up they waged war for the
								kingdom, and in the course of the
							war they were the first to invent shields. And Acrisius gained the
							mastery and drove Proetus from Argos ; and Proetus went to Lycia to the court of Iobates or, as some
							say, of Amphianax, and married his daughter, whom Homer calls
								Antia, but the
							tragic poets call her Stheneboea. His in-law restored him to his own
							land with an army of Lycians, and he occupied Tiryns , which the Cyclopes
							had fortified for him. They divided the
							whole of the Argive 
							territory between them and settled in it, Acrisius reigning over Argos and Proetus over Tiryns .

And Acrisius had a daughter Danae by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon,
							and Proetus had daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by
							Stheneboea. When these damsels were grown up, they went mad, according to Hesiod, because
							they would not accept the rites of Dionysus, but according to Acusilaus,
							because they disparaged the wooden image of Hera. In their madness they
							roamed over the whole Argive 
							land, and afterwards, passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese , they ran through
							the desert in the most disorderly fashion. But Melampus, son of Amythaon
							by Idomene, daughter of Abas, being a seer and the first to devise the
							cure by means of drugs and purifications, promised to cure the maidens
							if he should receive the third part of the sovereignty. When Proetus
							refused to pay so high a fee for the cure, the maidens raved more than
							ever, and besides that, the other women raved with them; for they also
							abandoned their houses, destroyed their own children, and flocked to the
							desert. Not until the evil had reached a very high pitch did Proetus
							consent to pay the stipulated fee, and Melampus promised to effect a
							cure whenever his brother Bias should receive just so much land as
							himself. Fearing that, if the cure were delayed, yet more would be
							demanded of him, Proetus agreed to let the physician proceed on these
							terms. So Melampus, taking with him the most stalwart of the young men,
							chased the women in a bevy from the mountains to Sicyon with shouts and a sort of frenzied
							dance. In the pursuit Iphinoe, the eldest of the daughters, expired; but
							the others were lucky enough to be purified and so to recover their
								wits. Proetus gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias, and
							afterwards begat a son, Megapenthes.

Bellerophon, son of Glaucus, son of Sisyphus,
							having accidentally killed his brother Deliades or, as some say, Piren,
							or, as others will have it, Alcimenes, came to Proetus and
							was purified. And
							Stheneboea fell in love with him, and sent him proposals
							for a meeting; and when he rejected them, she told Proetus that
							Bellerophon had sent her a vicious proposal. Proetus believed her, and
							gave him a letter to take to Iobates, in which it was written that he
							was to kill Bellerophon. Having read the letter, Iobates ordered him to
							kill the Chimera, believing that he would be destroyed by the beast, for
							it was more than a match for many, let alone one; it had the fore part
							of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and its third head, the middle one, was
							that of a goat, through which it belched fire. And it devastated the
							country and harried the cattle; for it was a single creature with the
							power of three beasts. It is said, too, that this Chimera was bred by
							Amisodarus, as Homer also affirms, and that it was begotten by Typhon on Echidna, as Hesiod
								relates.

So Bellerophon mounted his winged steed Pegasus, offspring
							of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring on high shot down the Chimera from
							the height. After that contest
							Iobates ordered him to fight the Solymi, and when he had finished that
							task also, he commanded him to combat the Amazons. And when he had
							killed them also, he picked out the reputed bravest of the Lycians and
							bade them lay an ambush and slay him. But when Bellerophon had killed
							them also to a man, Iobates, in admiration of his prowess, showed him
							the letter and begged him to stay with him; moreover he gave him his
							daughter Philonoe, and dying bequeathed to him the
							kingdom.

When Acrisius inquired of the oracle how he
							should get male children, the god said that his daughter would give
							birth to a son who would kill him. Fearing that, Acrisius built a brazen chamber under
							ground and there guarded Danae. However, she was seduced, as some say, by
							Proetus, whence arose the quarrel between them; 
							but some say that Zeus had intercourse with her in the shape of a stream
							of gold which poured through the roof into Danae's lap. When Acrisius
							afterwards learned that she had got a child Perseus, he would not
							believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, and putting his daughter with
							the child in a chest, he cast it into the sea. The chest was washed
							ashore on Seriphus, and Dictys took up the boy and reared him.

Polydectes, brother of Dictys, was then king of Seriphus and fell in
							love with Danae, but could not get access to her, because Perseus was
							grown to man's estate. So he called together his friends, including
							Perseus, under the pretext of collecting contributions towards a wedding
							gift for Hippodamia, daughter of Oenomaus. Now Perseus having declared that he would not stick even at the
							Gorgon's head, Polydectes required the others to furnish horses, and not
							getting horses from Perseus ordered him to bring the Gorgon's head. So
							under the guidance of Hermes and Athena he made his way to the daughters
							of Phorcus, to wit, Enyo, Pephredo, and Dino; for Phorcus had them by
							Ceto, and they were sisters of the Gorgons, and old women from their
								birth. The three had but one eye and one tooth, and these
							they passed to each other in turn. Perseus got possession of the eye and
							the tooth, and when they asked them back, he said he would give them up
							if they would show him the way to the nymphs. Now these nymphs had
							winged sandals and the kibisis , which they say was
							a wallet. [ But Pindar and Hesiod in The Shield 
							say of Perseus:— 
 
 
 “ But all his back had on the head of a dread monster, 
 < The Gorgon,> and round him ran the kibisis . ” 
 
 Hesiod, Shield of Hercules, 223-4. 
 The kibisis is so called because dress and
							food are deposited in it. ] They had also the cap < of Hades>. When
							the Phorcides had shown him the way, he gave them back the tooth and the
							eye, and coming to the nymphs got what he wanted. So he slung the wallet
								( kibisis ) about him, fitted the sandals to his
							ankles, and put the cap on his head. Wearing it, he saw whom he pleased,
							but was not seen by others. And having received also from Hermes an
							adamantine sickle he flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep.
							They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for
							that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had
							heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like
							swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and
							they turned to stone such as beheld them. So Perseus stood
							over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand and he looked
							with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld the image of
							the Gorgon, he beheaded her. When her head was cut off, there sprang from
							the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon;
							these she had by Poseidon.

So Perseus put the head of Medusa in the wallet ( kibisis ) and went back again; but the Gorgons started up from
							their slumber and pursued Perseus: but they could not see him on account
							of the cap, for he was hidden by it. Being come
							to Ethiopia , of which
							Cepheus was king, he found the king's daughter Andromeda set out to be
							the prey of a sea monster. For Cassiepea, the wife of Cepheus, vied with the Nereids in
							beauty and boasted to be better than them all; hence the Nereids were
							angry, and Poseidon, sharing their wrath, sent a flood and a monster to
							invade the land. But Ammon having predicted deliverance from the
							calamity if Cassiepea's daughter Andromeda were exposed as a prey to the
							monster, Cepheus was compelled by the Ethiopians to do it, and he bound
							his daughter to a rock. When Perseus beheld her, he loved her and
							promised Cepheus that he would kill the monster, if he
							would give him the rescued damsel to wife. These terms having been sworn
							to, Perseus withstood and slew the monster and released Andromeda.
							However, Phineus, who was a brother of Cepheus, and to whom Andromeda
							had been first betrothed, plotted against him; but Perseus discovered
							the plot, and by showing the Gorgon turned him and his fellow
							conspirators at once into stone. And having come to Seriphus he found
							that his mother and Dictys had taken refuge at the altars on account of
							the violence of Polydectes; so he entered the palace, where Polydectes
							had gathered his friends, and with averted face he showed the Gorgon's
							head; and all who beheld it were turned to stone, each in the attitude
							which he happened to have struck. Having appointed Dictys king of
							Seriphus, he gave back the sandals and the wallet ( kibisis ) and the cap to Hermes, but the Gorgon's head he gave
							to Athena. Hermes restored the aforesaid things to the nymphs and Athena
							inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield. But it is
							alleged by some that Medusa was beheaded for Athena's sake; and they say
							that the Gorgon was fain to match herself with the goddess even in
							beauty.

Perseus hastened with Danae and Andromeda to
								 Argos in order that he
							might behold Acrisius. But he, learning of this and dreading the
								oracle, 
 forsook Argos 
							and departed to the Pelasgian land. Now Teutamides, king of Larissa, was
							holding athletic games in honor of his dead father, and Perseus came to
							compete. He engaged in the pentathlum, but in throwing the quoit he
							struck Acrisius on the foot and killed him instantly. Perceiving that the
							oracle was fulfilled, he buried Acrisius outside the city, and being ashamed to
							return to Argos to claim
							the inheritance of him who had died by his hand, he went to Megapenthes,
							son of Proetus, at Tiryns 
							and effected an exchange with him, surrendering Argos into his hands. So
							Megapenthes reigned over the Argives, and Perseus reigned over Tiryns , after fortifying
							also Midea and Mycenae .

And he had sons by Andromeda: before he came to Greece he had Perses, whom he left behind
							with Cepheus ( and from him it is said that the kings of Persia are descended); and in
								 Mycenae he had
							Alcaeus and Sthenelus and Heleus and Mestor and Electryon, and a daughter Gorgophone, whom
							Perieres married. 
 
 Alcaeus had a son Amphitryon and a daughter
							Anaxo by Astydamia, daughter of Pelops; but some say he had them by
							Laonome, daughter of Guneus, others that he had them by Hipponome,
							daughter of Menoeceus; and Mestor had Hippothoe by Lysidice, daughter of
							Pelops. This Hippothoe was carried off by Poseidon, who brought her to
							the Echinadian Islands, and there had intercourse with her, and begat
							Taphius, who colonized Taphos and called the people Teleboans, because
							he had gone far from his native land. And Taphius had a son
							Pterelaus, whom Poseidon made immortal by implanting a golden hair in
							his head. And to
							Pterelaus were born sons, to wit, Chromius, Tyrannus, Antiochus,
							Chersidamas, Mestor, and Eueres. Electryon
							married Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus, and begat a daughter Alcmena, and sons, to wit,
							Stratobates, Gorgophonus, Phylonomus, Celaeneus, Amphimachus, Lysinomus,
							Chirimachus, Anactor, and Archelaus; and after these he had also a
							bastard son, Licymnius, by a Phrygian woman Midea . 
 
 Sthenelus had daughters, Alcyone and Medusa, by
								Nicippe, daughter of Pelops; and he had afterwards a
							son Eurystheus, who reigned also over Mycenae . For when Hercules was about to
							be born, Zeus declared among the gods that the descendant of Perseus
							then about to be born would reign over Mycenae , and Hera out of jealousy
							persuaded the Ilithyias to retard Alcmena's delivery, and contrived that Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, should be born
							a seven-month child.

When Electryon reigned over Mycenae , the sons of Pterelaus came
							with some Taphians and claimed the kingdom of Mestor, their maternal
								grandfather, 
							and as Electryon paid no heed to the claim, they drove away
							his kine; and when the sons of Electryon stood on their defence, they
							challenged and slew each other. But of the
							sons of Electryon there survived Licymnius, who was still young; and of
							the sons of Pterelaus there survived Everes, who guarded the ships.
							Those of the Taphians who escaped sailed away, taking with them the
							cattle they had lifted, and entrusted them to Polyxenus, king of the
							Eleans; but Amphitryon ransomed them from Polyxenus and brought them to
								 Mycenae . Wishing to
							avenge his sons' death, Electryon purposed to make war on the Teleboans,
							but first he committed the kingdom to Amphitryon along with his daughter
							Alcmena, binding him by oath to keep her a virgin until his return. However, as he was
							receiving the cows back, one of them charged, and Amphitryon threw at
							her the club which he had in his hands. But the club rebounded from the
							cow's horns and striking Electryon's head killed him. Hence
							Sthenelus laid hold of this pretext to banish Amphitryon from the whole of Argos , while he himself seized the throne of Mycenae and Tiryns ; and he entrusted
								 Midea to Atreus and
							Thyestes, the sons of Pelops, whom he had sent for. 0 Amphitryon went with Alcmena and Licymnius to Thebes and was purified by
								Creon and gave his sister Perimede to Licymnius. And as Alcmena said
							she would marry him when he had avenged her brothers' death, Amphitryon
							engaged to do so, and undertook an expedition against the Teleboans, and
							invited Creon to assist him. Creon said he would join in the expedition
							if Amphitryon would first rid the Cadmea of the vixen; for a brute of a
							vixen was ravaging the Cadmea. But though Amphitryon undertook the task, it was fated
							that nobody should catch her.

As the country suffered thereby, the Thebans every month exposed a son
							of one of the citizens to the brute, which would have carried off many
							if that were not done. So Amphitryon betook him to
							Cephalus, son of Deioneus, at Athens , and persuaded him, in return for a share of the
							Teleboan spoils, to bring to the chase the dog which Procris had brought
							from Crete as a gift from
								Minos ; for that dog was destined to catch whatever
							it pursued. So then, when the vixen was chased by the dog, Zeus turned
							both of them into stone. Supported by his allies, to wit, Cephalus from
							Thoricus in Attica , Panopeus
							from Phocis , Heleus, son of
							Perseus, from Helos in
								 Argolis , and Creon from
								 Thebes , Amphitryon
							ravaged the islands of the Taphians. Now, so long as Pterelaus lived, he
							could not take Taphos; but when Comaetho, daughter of Pterelaus, falling
							in love with Amphitryon, pulled out the golden hair from her father's
							head, Pterelaus died, and
							Amphitryon subjugated all the islands. He slew Comaetho, and sailed with
							the booty to Thebes , and gave the islands to
							Heleus and Cephalus; and they founded cities named after themselves and
							dwelt in them.

But before Amphitryon reached Thebes , Zeus came by night and
							prolonging the one night threefold he assumed the likeness of Amphitryon
							and bedded with Alcmena and related what had happened concerning the
							Teleboans. But when Amphitryon arrived and saw that he was not welcomed
							by his wife, he inquired the cause; and when she told him that he had
							come the night before and slept with her, he learned from Tiresias how
							Zeus had enjoyed her. And Alcmena bore two sons, to wit, Hercules, whom
							she had by Zeus and who was the elder by one night, and Iphicles, whom
							she had by Amphitryon. When the child was eight months old, Hera desired
							the destruction of the babe and sent two huge serpents to the bed.
							Alcmena called Amphitryon to her help, but Hercules arose and killed the
							serpents by strangling them with both his hands. However, Pherecydes says that it
							was Amphitryon who put the serpents in the bed, because he would know
							which of the two children was his, and that when Iphicles fled, and
							Hercules stood his ground, he knew that Iphicles was begotten of his
							body.

Hercules was taught to drive a chariot by
							Amphitryon, to wrestle by Autolycus, to shoot with the bow by Eurytus,
							to fence by Castor, and to play the lyre by Linus. This Linus was a brother of Orpheus; he came
							to Thebes and became a
							Theban, but was killed by Hercules with a blow of the lyre; for being
							struck by him, Hercules flew into a rage and slew him. When he was tried for murder, Hercules quoted a law of
							Rhadamanthys, who laid it down that whoever defends himself against a
							wrongful aggressor shall go free, and so he was acquitted. But fearing
							he might do the like again, Amphitryon sent him to the cattle farm; and
							there he was nurtured and outdid all in stature and strength. Even by
							the look of him it was plain that he was a son of Zeus; for his body
							measured four cubits, and he
							flashed a gleam of fire from his eyes; and he did not miss, neither with
							the bow nor with the javelin. While he was with
							the herds and had reached his eighteenth year he slew the lion of
							Cithaeron, for that animal, sallying from Cithaeron, harried the kine of
							Amphitryon and of Thespius.

Now this Thespius was king of Thespiae , and Hercules went to him
							when he wished to catch the lion. The king entertained him for fifty
							days, and each night, as Hercules went forth to the hunt, Thespius
							bedded one of his daughters with him( fifty daughters having been borne
							to him by Megamede, daughter of Arneus); for he was anxious that all of
							them should have children by Hercules. Thus Hercules, though he thought
							that his bed-fellow was always the same, had intercourse with them
								all. And having vanquished the
							lion, he dressed himself in the skin and wore the scalp as a helmet.

As he was returning from the hunt, there met him
							heralds sent by Erginus to receive the tribute from the Thebans. Now the Thebans paid tribute to Erginus for the following
							reason. Clymenus, king of the Minyans, was wounded with a cast of a
							stone by a charioteer of Menoeceus, named Perieres, in a precinct of
							Poseidon at Onchestus; and being carried dying to Orchomenus , he with his last breath
							charged his son Erginus to avenge his death. So Erginus marched against
								 Thebes , and after
							slaughtering not a few of the Thebans he concluded a treaty with them,
							confirmed by oaths, that they should send him tribute for twenty years,
							a hundred kine every year. Falling in with the heralds on their way to Thebes to demand this tribute, Hercules outraged them; for
							he cut off their ears and noses and hands, and having fastened them by
							ropes from their necks, he told them to carry that tribute to Erginus
							and the Minyans. Indignant at this outrage, Erginus marched against
								 Thebes . But Hercules,
							having received weapons from Athena and taken the command, killed
							Erginus, put the Minyans to flight, and compelled them to pay double the
							tribute to the Thebans. And it chanced that in the fight Amphitryon fell
							fighting bravely. And Hercules received from Creon his eldest daughter
								 Megara as a prize of
								valor, and by her he
							had three sons, Therimachus, Creontiades, and Deicoon. But Creon gave
							his younger daughter to Iphicles, who already had a son Iolaus by
							Automedusa, daughter of Alcathus. And Rhadamanthys, son of Zeus, married
							Alcmena after the death of Amphitryon, and dwelt as an exile at Ocaleae
							in Boeotia . 
 
 Having first learned from Eurytus the art of
								archery, Hercules received a
							sword from Hermes, a bow and arrows from Apollo, a golden breastplate from Hephaestus, and a robe
							from Athena; for he had himself cut a club at Nemea .

Now it came to pass that after the battle with
							the Minyans Hercules was driven mad through the jealousy of Hera and
							flung his own children, whom he had by Megara , and two children of Iphicles
							into the fire; wherefore
							he condemned himself to exile, and was purified by Thespius, and
							repairing to Delphi he
							inquired of the god where he should dwell. The
							Pythian priestess then first called him Hercules, for hitherto he was
							called Alcides. 
 And she told him to dwell in Tiryns , serving Eurystheus for twelve
							years and to perform the ten labours imposed on him, and so, she said,
							when the tasks were accomplished, he would be immortal.

When Hercules heard that, he went to Tiryns and did as he was
							bid by Eurystheus. First, Eurystheus ordered him to bring the skin of
							the Nemean lion; now that was an
							invulnerable beast begotten by Typhon. On his way to attack the lion he
							came to Cleonae and lodged at the house of a day-laborer,
								Molorchus; and when his host
							would have offered a victim in sacrifice, Hercules told him to wait for
							thirty days, and then, if he had returned safe from the hunt, to
							sacrifice to Saviour Zeus, but if he were dead, to sacrifice to him as
							to a hero. And having come to Nemea and tracked the lion, he first shot an arrow at him,
							but when he perceived that the beast was invulnerable, he heaved up his
							club and made after him. And when the lion took refuge in a cave with
							two mouths, Hercules built up the one entrance and came in upon the
							beast through the other, and putting his arm round its neck held it
							tight till he had choked it; so laying it on his shoulders he carried it
							to Cleonae. And finding Molorchus on the last of the thirty days about
							to sacrifice the victim to him as to a dead man, he sacrificed to
							Saviour Zeus and brought the lion to Mycenae . Amazed at his manhood,
							Eurystheus forbade him thenceforth to enter the city, but ordered him to
							exhibit the fruits of his labours before the gates. They say, too, that
							in his fear he had a bronze jar made for himself to hide in under the
								earth, and that he
							sent his commands for the labours through a herald, Copreus, son of
							Pelops the Elean. This Copreus had killed Iphitus and fled to Mycenae , where he was
							purified by Eurystheus and took up his abode.

As a second labour he ordered him to kill the
							Lernaean hydra. That
							creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna , used to go forth into the plain and ravage both the cattle and the country. Now the hydra had a huge
							body, with nine heads, eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. So
							mounting a chariot driven by Iolaus, he came to Lerna , and having halted his horses, he
							discovered the hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where
							was its den. By pelting it with fiery shafts he forced it to come out,
							and in the act of doing so he seized and held it fast. But the hydra
							wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him. Nor could he effect
							anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one head
							was smashed there grew up two. A huge crab also came to the help of the
							hydra by biting his foot. So he killed it, and in his turn called for
							help on Iolaus who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighboring wood
							and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented them from
							sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting heads, he chopped
							off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside
							the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus. But the body of the hydra he slit up and
							dipped his arrows in the gall. However, Eurystheus said that this labour
							should not be reckoned among the ten because he had not got the better
							of the hydra by himself, but with the help of Iolaus.

As a third labour he ordered him to bring the
							Cerynitian hind alive to Mycenae . Now the hind was at
							Oenoe; it had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis; so wishing neither
							to kill nor wound it, Hercules hunted it a whole year. But when, weary
							with the chase, the beast took refuge on the mountain called Artemisius,
							and thence passed to the river Ladon, Hercules shot it just as it was
							about to cross the stream, and catching it put it on his shoulders and
							hastened through Arcadia .
							But Artemis with Apollo met him, and would have wrested the hind from
							him, and rebuked him for attempting to kill her sacred animal. Howbeit, by pleading necessity and laying the
							blame on Eurystheus, he appeased the anger of the goddess and carried
							the beast alive to Mycenae .

As a fourth labour he ordered him to bring the
							Erymanthian boar alive; now that animal
							ravaged Psophis ,
							sallying from a mountain which they call Erymanthus. So passing through
							Pholoe he was entertained by the centaur Pholus, a son of Silenus by a
								 Melian nymph. He set roast meat before
							Hercules, while he himself ate his meat raw. When Hercules called for
							wine, he said he feared to open the jar which belonged to the centaurs
							in common. But Hercules, bidding him be of good
							courage, opened it, and not long afterwards, scenting the smell, the
							centaurs arrived at the cave of Pholus, armed with rocks and firs. The
							first who dared to enter, Anchius and Agrius, were repelled by Hercules
							with a shower of brands, and the rest of them he shot and pursued as far
							as Malea. Thence they took refuge with Chiron, who, driven by the
							Lapiths from Mount Pelion, took up his abode at Malea. As the centaurs
							cowered about Chiron, Hercules shot an arrow at them, which, passing
							through the arm of Elatus, stuck in the knee of Chiron. Distressed at
							this, Hercules ran up to him, drew out the shaft, and applied a medicine
							which Chiron gave him. But the hurt proving incurable, Chiron retired to
							the cave and there he wished to die, but he could not, for he was
							immortal. However, Prometheus offered himself to Zeus to be immortal in
							his stead, and so Chiron died. The rest of the centaurs fled in
							different directions, and some came to Mount Malea, and Eurytion to
							Pholoe, and Nessus to the river Evenus. The rest of them Poseidon
							received at Eleusis and
								 hid them in a mountain. But Pholus, drawing the arrow
							from a corpse, wondered that so little a thing could kill such big
							fellows; howbeit, it slipped from his hand and lighting on his foot
							killed him on the spot. So
							when Hercules returned to Pholoe, he beheld Pholus dead; and he buried
							him and proceeded to the boar hunt. And when he had chased the boar with
							shouts from a certain thicket, he drove the exhausted animal into deep
							snow, trapped it, and brought it to Mycenae .

The fifth labour he laid on him was to carry out
							the dung of the cattle of Augeas in a single day. Now
							Augeas was king of Elis ;
							some say that he was a son of the Sun, others that he was a son of
							Poseidon, and others that he was a son of Phorbas; and he had many herds
							of cattle. Hercules accosted him, and without revealing the command of
							Eurystheus, said that he would carry out the dung in one day, if Augeas
							would give him the tithe of the cattle. Augeas was incredulous, but
							promised. Having taken Augeas's son Phyleus to witness, Hercules made a
							breach in the foundations of the cattle-yard, and then, diverting the
							courses of the Alpheus and Peneus, which flowed near each
							other, he turned them into the yard, having first made an outlet for the
							water through another opening. When Augeas learned that this had been
							accomplished at the command of Eurystheus, he would not pay the reward;
							nay more, he denied that he had promised to pay it, and on that point he
							professed himself ready to submit to arbitration. The arbitrators having
							taken their seats, Phyleus was called by Hercules and bore witness
							against his father, affirming that he had agreed to give him a reward.
							In a rage Augeas, before the voting took place, ordered both Phyleus and
							Hercules to pack out of Elis . So Phyleus went to Dulichium and dwelt there, and Hercules
							repaired to Dexamenus at Olenus . He found
							Dexamenus on the point of betrothing perforce his daughter Mnesimache to
							the centaur Eurytion, and being called upon by him for help, he slew
							Eurytion when that centaur came to fetch his bride. But Eurystheus would
							not admit this labour either among the ten, alleging that it had been
							performed for hire.

The sixth labour he enjoined on him was to chase
							away the Stymphalian birds. 
							Now at the city of Stymphalus in Arcadia was the lake called Stymphalian, embosomed in a deep
							wood. To it countless birds had flocked for refuge, fearing
							to be preyed upon by the wolves. So when Hercules was at a loss how to drive
							the birds from the wood, Athena gave him brazen castanets, which she had
							received from Hephaestus. By clashing these on a certain mountain that
							overhung the lake, he scared the birds. They could not abide the sound,
							but fluttered up in a fright, and in that way Hercules shot them.

The seventh labour he enjoined on him was to
							bring the Cretan bull. Acusilaus says that this was the bull
							that ferried across Europa for Zeus; but some say it was the bull that
							Poseidon sent up from the sea when Minos promised to sacrifice to
							Poseidon what should appear out of the sea. And they say that when he
							saw the beauty of the bull he sent it away to the herds and sacrificed
							another to Poseidon; at which the god was angry and made the bull
							savage. To attack this bull Hercules came to Crete , and when, in reply to his request
							for aid, Minos told him to fight and catch the bull for himself, he
							caught it and brought it to Eurystheus, and having shown it to him he
							let it afterwards go free. But the bull roamed to Sparta and all Arcadia , and traversing the 
							Isthmus arrived at Marathon in Attica and harried the inhabitants.

The eighth labour he enjoined on him was to
							bring the mares of Diomedes the Thracian to Mycenae . Now this Diomedes was a son of Ares and
								 Cyrene , and he was king
							of the Bistones, a very warlike Thracian people, and he owned man-eating
							mares. So Hercules sailed with a band of volunteers, and having
							overpowered the grooms who were in charge of the mangers, he drove the
							mares to the sea. When the Bistones in arms came to the rescue, he
							committed the mares to the guardianship of Abderus, who was a son of
							Hermes, a native of Opus in Locris , and a minion of Hercules; but the mares killed him
							by dragging him after them. But Hercules fought against the Bistones,
							slew Diomedes and compelled the rest to flee. And he founded a city
								 Abdera beside the
							grave of Abderus who had been done to death, 
 and bringing the mares he gave them to Eurystheus. But
							Eurystheus let them go, and they came to Mount Olympus , as it is called, and there
							they were destroyed by the wild beasts.

The ninth labour he enjoined on Hercules was to
							bring the belt of Hippolyte. She was queen of the Amazons, who dwelt about the
							river Thermodon, a people great in war; for they cultivated the manly
							virtues, and if ever they gave birth to children through intercourse
							with the other sex, they reared the females; and they pinched off the
							right breasts that they might not be trammelled by them in throwing the
							javelin, but they kept the left breasts, that they might suckle. Now
							Hippolyte had the belt of Ares in token of her superiority to all the
							rest. Hercules was sent to fetch this belt because Admete, daughter of
							Eurystheus, desired to get it. So taking with him a band of volunteer
							comrades in a single ship he set sail and put in to the island of Paros , which was
							inhabited by the sons of Minos, to wit, Eurymedon, Chryses, Nephalion, and
							Philolaus. But it chanced that two of those in the ship landed and were
							killed by the sons of Minos. Indignant at this, Hercules killed the sons of Minos on the spot and besieged the rest closely,
							till they sent envoys to request that in the room of the murdered men he
							would take two, whom he pleased. So he raised the siege, and taking on
							board the sons of Androgeus, son of Minos, to wit, Alcaeus and
							Sthenelus, he came to Mysia ,
							to the court of Lycus, son of Dascylus, and was entertained by him; and
							in a battle between him and the king of the Bebryces Hercules sided with
							Lycus and slew many, amongst others King Mygdon, brother of Amycus. And
							he took much land from the Bebryces and gave it to Lycus, who called it
							all Heraclea .
								 Having put in at the harbor of Themiscyra,
							he received a visit from Hippolyte, who inquired why he was come, and
							promised to give him the belt. But Hera in the likeness of an Amazon went up and down the
							multitude saying that the strangers who had arrived were carrying off
							the queen. So the Amazons in arms charged on horseback down on the ship.
							But when Hercules saw them in arms, he suspected treachery, and killing
							Hippolyte stripped her of her belt. And after fighting the rest he
							sailed away and touched at Troy . But it chanced that the city
							was then in distress consequently on the wrath of Apollo and Poseidon.
							For desiring to put the wantonness of Laomedon to the
							proof, Apollo and Poseidon assumed the likeness of men and undertook to
							fortify Pergamum for
							wages. But when they had fortified it, he would not pay them their
								wages. Therefore Apollo sent a
							pestilence, and Poseidon a sea monster, which, carried up by a flood,
							snatched away the people of the plain. But as oracles foretold
							deliverance from these calamities if Laomedon would expose his daughter
							Hesione to be devoured by the sea monster, he exposed her by fastening
							her to the rocks near the sea. 
 Seeing her exposed, Hercules promised to save her on
							condition of receiving from Laomedon the mares which Zeus had given in
							compensation for the rape of Ganymede. 
							On Laomedon's saying that he would give them, Hercules killed the
							monster and saved Hesione. But when Laomedon would not give the
							stipulated reward, Hercules put to sea after threatening to make
							war on Troy . 
 And he touched at Aenus , where he was entertained by Poltys.
							And as he was sailing away he shot and killed on the Aenian beach a lewd
							fellow, Sarpedon, son of Poseidon and brother of Poltys. And having come
							to Thasos and
							subjugated the Thracians who dwelt in the island, he gave it to the sons
							of Androgeus to dwell in. From Thasos he proceeded to Torone , and there, being
							challenged to wrestle by Polygonus and Telegonus, sons of Proteus, son
							of Poseidon, he killed them in the wrestling match. And having brought the belt to Mycenae he gave it to
							Eurystheus.

As a tenth labour he was ordered to fetch the
							kine of Geryon from Erythia. Now
							Erythia was an island near the ocean; it is now called Gadira. This island was inhabited by Geryon, son of Chrysaor
							by Callirrhoe, daughter of Ocean. He had the body of three men grown
							together and joined in one at the waist, but parted in three from the
							flanks and thighs. He owned red kine, of
							which Eurytion was the herdsman and Orthus, 
							the two-headed hound, begotten by Typhon on Echidna, was the watchdog.
							So journeying through Europe 
							to fetch the kine of Geryon he destroyed many wild beasts and set foot
							in Libya , and proceeding to Tartessus
							he erected as tokens of his journey two pillars over against each other at the boundaries of Europe and Libya . But being heated by the Sun on his journey, he bent
							his bow at the god, who in admiration of his hardihood, gave him a
							golden goblet in which he crossed the ocean. 
							And having reached Erythia he lodged on Mount Abas. However the dog,
							perceiving him, rushed at him; but he smote it with his club, and when the herdsman Eurytion came to the help of the dog,
							Hercules killed him also. But Menoetes, who was there pasturing the kine
							of Hades, reported to Geryon what had occurred, and he, coming up with
							Hercules beside the river Anthemus, as he was
							driving away the kine, joined battle with him and was shot dead. And
							Hercules, embarking the kine in the goblet and sailing across to
							Tartessus, gave back the goblet to the Sun. And
							passing through Abderia he came to Liguria , where Ialebion and Dercynus, sons of Poseidon,
							attempted to rob him of the kine, but he killed them and went on his way through Tyrrhenia. But at Rhegium a bull broke
								away 
 and hastily plunging into the sea swam across to Sicily , and having passed
							through the neighboring country since called Italy after it, for the Tyrrhenians called
							the bull italus , came to the plain of Eryx , who reigned over the
								Elymi. Now Eryx was a son of Poseidon, and he mingled
							the bull with his own herds. So Hercules entrusted the kine to
							Hephaestus and hurried away in search of the bull. He found it in the
							herds of Eryx, and when the king refused to surrender it unless Hercules
							should beat him in a wrestling bout, Hercules beat him thrice, killed
							him in the wrestling, and taking the bull drove it with the rest of the
							herd to the Ionian Sea. But when he came to the creeks of the sea, Hera
							afflicted the cows with a gadfly, and they dispersed among the skirts of
							the mountains of Thrace .
							Hercules went in pursuit, and having caught some, drove them to the
								 Hellespont ; but the
							remainder were thenceforth wild. Having with difficulty collected the
							cows, Hercules blamed the river Strymon, and whereas it had been
							navigable before, he made it unnavigable by filling it with rocks; and
							he conveyed the kine and gave them to Eurystheus, who
							sacrificed them to Hera.

When the labours had been performed in eight
							years and a month, 
							Eurystheus ordered Hercules, as an eleventh labour, to fetch golden
							apples from the Hesperides, for he did not acknowledge the labour
							of the cattle of Augeas nor that of the hydra. These apples were not, as
							some have said, in Libya ,
							but on Atlas among the Hyperboreans. They were presented
							< by Earth> to Zeus after his marriage with Hera, and guarded by
							an immortal dragon with a hundred heads, offspring of Typhon and
							Echidna, which spoke with many and divers sorts of voices. With it the
							Hesperides also were on guard, to wit, Aegle, Erythia, Hesperia, and
							Arethusa. So journeying he came to the river Echedorus. And Cycnus, son
							of Ares and Pyrene, challenged him to single combat. Ares championed the
							cause of Cycnus and marshalled the combat, but a thunderbolt was hurled
							between the two and parted the combatants. And going on foot
							through Illyria and
							hastening to the river Eridanus he came to the nymphs, the daughters of
							Zeus and Themis. They revealed Nereus to him, and Hercules seized him
							while he slept, and though the god turned himself into all kinds of
							shapes, the hero bound him and did not release him till he had learned
							from him where were the apples and the Hesperides. Being informed, he traversed
								 Libya . That country was
							then ruled by Antaeus, son of Poseidon, who used to kill
							strangers by forcing them to wrestle. Being forced to wrestle with him,
							Hercules hugged him, lifted him aloft, broke and killed him; for when he touched earth so
							it was that he waxed stronger, wherefore some said that he was a son of
							Earth. After Libya he traversed Egypt . That country was then
							ruled by Busiris, a son of Poseidon by Lysianassa, daughter of Epaphus. This
							Busiris used to sacrifice strangers on an altar of Zeus in accordance
							with a certain oracle. For Egypt was visited with dearth for nine years, and Phrasius,
							a learned seer who had come from Cyprus , said that the dearth would cease if
							they slaughtered a stranger man in honor of Zeus every year. Busiris
							began by slaughtering the seer himself and continued to slaughter the
							strangers who landed. So Hercules also was seized and haled to the
							altars, but he burst his bonds and slew both Busiris and his son
								Amphidamas. 
 And traversing Asia he put in to Thermydrae, the harbor of
							the Lindians. And having loosed one of the bullocks
							from the cart of a cowherd, he sacrificed it and feasted. But the
							cowherd, unable to protect himself, stood on a certain mountain and
							cursed. Wherefore to this day, when they sacrifice to Hercules, they do
							it with curses. 
 
 And passing by Arabia he slew Emathion, son of
								Tithonus, and
							journeying through Libya to
							the outer sea he received the goblet from the Sun. And having crossed to
							the opposite mainland he shot on the Caucasus the eagle, offspring of Echidna
							and Typhon, that was devouring the liver of Prometheus, and he released
								Prometheus, after choosing for
							himself the bond of olive, and to Zeus he
							presented Chiron, who, though immortal, consented to die
							in his stead. Now Prometheus had told Hercules
							not to go himself after the apples but to send Atlas, first relieving
							him of the burden of the sphere; so when he was come to Atlas in the
							land of the Hyperboreans, he took the advice and relieved Atlas. But
							when Atlas had received three apples from the Hesperides, he came to
							Hercules, and not wishing to support the sphere< he said that he
							would himself carry the apples to Eurystheus, and bade Hercules hold up
							the sky in his stead. Hercules promised to do so, but succeeded by craft
							in putting it on Atlas instead. For at the advice of Prometheus he
							begged Atlas to hold up the sky till he should> put a pad on his head. When Atlas heard that,
							he laid the apples down on the ground and took the sphere from Hercules.
							And so Hercules picked up the apples and departed. But some say that he
							did not get them from Atlas, but that he plucked the apples himself
							after killing the guardian snake. And having brought the apples he gave
							them to Eurystheus. But he, on receiving them, bestowed
							them on Hercules, from whom Athena got them and conveyed them back
							again; for it was not lawful that they should be laid down anywhere.

A twelfth labour imposed on Hercules was to
							bring Cerberus from Hades. 
							Now this Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on
							his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When Hercules was about to
							depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis , wishing to be initiated.
							However it was not then lawful for foreigners to be initiated: since he
							proposed to be initiated as the adoptive son of Pylius. But not being
							able to see the mysteries because he had not been cleansed of the
							slaughter of the centaurs, he was cleansed by Eumolpus and then
								initiated. And having come to Taenarum in Laconia , where is the mouth of
							the descent to Hades, he descended through it. But when the souls saw him, they fled, save
							Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa. And Hercules drew his sword against the
							Gorgon, as if she were alive, but he learned from Hermes that she was an
							empty phantom. And being come near to the gates of Hades he found Theseus and
								Pirithous, him who wooed Persephone in wedlock and was therefore bound
							fast. And when they beheld Hercules, they stretched out their hands as
							if they should be raised from the dead by his might. And Theseus,
							indeed, he took by the hand and raised up, but when he would have
							brought up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he let go. And
							he rolled away also the stone of Ascalaphus. And wishing to provide the souls with
							blood, he slaughtered one of the kine of Hades. But Menoetes, son of
							Ceuthonymus, who tended the king, challenged Hercules to wrestle, and,
							being seized round the middle, had his ribs broken; 
							howbeit, he was let off at the request of Persephone. When Hercules
							asked Pluto for Cerberus, Pluto ordered him to take the animal provided
							he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried.
							Hercules found him at the gates of Acheron, and, cased in his cuirass
							and covered by the lion's skin, he flung his arms round the head of the
							brute, and though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his
							grip and pressure till it yielded. So
							he carried it off and ascended through Troezen . But Demeter turned Ascalaphus into a
							short-eared owl, and Hercules, after showing Cerberus to Eurystheus, carried him
							back to Hades.

After his labours Hercules went to Thebes and gave Megara to Iolaus, 
							and, wishing himself to wed, he ascertained that Eurytus, prince of
								 Oechalia , had
							proposed the hand of his daughter Iole as a prize to him who should
							vanquish himself and his sons in archery. So
							he came to Oechalia ,
							and though he proved himself better than them at archery, yet he did not
							get the bride; for while Iphitus, the elder of Eurytus's sons, said that
							Iole should be given to Hercules, Eurytus and the others refused, and
							said they feared that, if he got children, he would again kill his
								offspring.

Not long after, some cattle were stolen from Euboea by Autolycus, and Eurytus supposed
							that it was done by Hercules; but Iphitus did not believe it and went to
							Hercules. And meeting him, as he came from Pherae after saving the dead
							Alcestis for Admetus, he invited him to seek the kine with him. Hercules
							promised to do so and entertained him; but going mad again he threw him
							from the walls of Tiryns . Wishing to be
							purified of the murder he repaired to Neleus, who was prince of the
							Pylians. And when Neleus rejected his request on the score of his
							friendship with Eurytus, he went to Amyclae and was purified by
							Deiphobus, son of Hippolytus. But being
							afflicted with a dire disease on account of the murder of Iphitus he
							went to Delphi and
							inquired how he might be rid of the disease. As the Pythian
							priestess answered him not by oracles, he was fain to plunder the
							temple, and, carrying off the tripod, to institute an oracle of his own.
							But Apollo fought him, and Zeus threw a thunderbolt between them. When they had thus
							been parted, Hercules received an oracle, which declared that the remedy
							for his disease was for him to be sold, and to serve for three years,
							and to pay compensation for the murder to Eurytus.

After the delivery of the oracle, Hermes sold Hercules, and he was
							bought by Omphale, 
							daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia , to whom at his death her husband Tmolus had
							bequeathed the government. Eurytus did not accept the compensation when
							it was presented to him, but Hercules served Omphale as a slave, and in
							the course of his servitude he seized and bound the Cercopes at Ephesus ; and as for Syleus in Aulis , who compelled passing strangers to dig, Hercules killed him with his
							daughter Xenodoce, after burning the vines with the roots. And having put in to the island
							of Doliche, he saw the body of Icarus washed ashore and buried it, and
							he called the island Icaria 
							instead of Doliche. In return Daedalus made a portrait statue of
							Hercules at Pisa , which
							Hercules mistook at night for living and threw a stone and hit it. And
							during the time of his servitude with Omphale it is said that the voyage
							to Colchis 
 and the hunt of the Calydonian boar took place, and
							that Theseus on his way from Troezen cleared the Isthmus of malefactors.

After his servitude, being rid of his disease he
							mustered an army of noble volunteers and sailed for Ilium with eighteen ships of fifty oars
								each. And having come to port at Ilium , he left the guard of
							the ships to Oicles and himself with the rest of the champions
							set out to attack the city. Howbeit Laomedon marched against the ships
							with the multitude and slew Oicles in battle, but being repulsed by the
							troops of Hercules, he was besieged. The siege once laid, Telamon was
							the first to breach the wall and enter the city, and after him Hercules.
							But when he saw that Telamon had entered it first, he drew his sword and
							rushed at him, loath that anybody should be reputed a better man than
							himself. Perceiving that, Telamon collected stones that lay to hand, and
							when Hercules asked him what he did, he said he was building an altar to
							Hercules the Glorious Victor. Hercules
							thanked him, and when he had taken the city and shot down Laomedon and
							his sons, except Podarces, he assigned Laomedon's daughter Hesione as a prize to Telamon and allowed her to take
							with her whomsoever of the captives she would. When she chose her
							brother Podarces, Hercules said that he must first be a slave and then
							be ransomed by her. So when he was being sold she took the veil from her
							head and gave it as a ransom; hence Podarces was called Priam.

When Hercules was sailing from Troy , Hera sent grievous
								storms, which so vexed Zeus that he hung her from Olympus . Hercules sailed to Cos, and the Coans, thinking he was leading a
							piratical squadron, endeavored to prevent his approach by a shower of
							stones. But he forced his way in and took the city by night, and slew
							the king, Eurypylus, son of Poseidon by Astypalaea. And Hercules was
							wounded in the battle by Chalcedon; but Zeus snatched him away, so that
							he took no harm. And having laid waste Cos, he came through Athena's
							agency to Phlegra, and sided with the gods in their victorious war on
							the giants.

Not long afterwards he collected an Arcadian
							army, and being joined by volunteers from the first men in Greece he marched against
								Augeas. But Augeas, hearing of the war that
							Hercules was levying, appointed Eurytus and Cteatus generals of the
							Eleans. They were two men joined in one, who surpassed all of that
							generation in strength and were sons of Actor by Molione, though their
							father was said to be Poseidon; now Actor was a brother of Augeas. But
							it came to pass that on the expedition Hercules fell sick; hence he
							concluded a truce with the Molionides. But afterwards, being apprized of
							his illness, they attacked the army and slew many. On that occasion,
							therefore, Hercules beat a retreat; but afterwards at the celebration of
							the third Isthmian festival, when the Eleans sent the Molionides to take
							part in the sacrifices, Hercules waylaid and killed them at
								Cleonae, and marching on Elis took the city. And
							having killed Augeas and his sons, he restored Phyleus and bestowed on
							him the kingdom. 
							He also celebrated the Olympian games and founded an altar of Pelops, and built six altars of the twelve gods.

After the capture of Elis he marched against Pylus, and having taken the city he slew Periclymenus, the most valiant
							of the sons of Neleus, who used to change his shape in battle. 
							And he slew Neleus and his sons, except Nestor; for he was a youth and
							was being brought up among the Gerenians. In the fight he also wounded
							Hades, who was siding with the Pylians. 
 Having taken Pylus he marched against
							Lacedaemon, wishing to punish the sons of Hippocoon, for he was
							angry with them, both because they fought for Neleus, and still angrier
							because they had killed the son of Licymnius. For when he was looking at
							the palace of Hippocoon, a hound of the Molossian breed ran out and
							rushed at him, and he threw a stone and hit the dog, whereupon the
							Hippocoontids darted out and despatched him with blows of
							their cudgels. It was to avenge his death that Hercules mustered an army
							against the Lacedaemonians. And having come to Arcadia he begged Cepheus to join him with
							his sons, of whom he had twenty. But fearing lest, if he quitted Tegea , the Argives would
							march against it, Cepheus refused to join the expedition. But Hercules
							had received from Athena a lock of the Gorgon's hair in a bronze jar and
							gave it to Sterope, daughter of Cepheus, saying that if an army advanced
							against the city, she was to hold up the lock of hair thrice from the
							walls, and that, provided she did not look before her, the enemy would
							be turned to flight. That
							being so, Cepheus and his sons took the field, and in the battle he and
							his sons perished, and besides them Iphicles, the brother of Hercules.
							Having killed Hippocoon and his sons and subjugated the city, Hercules
							restored Tyndareus and entrusted the kingdom to him.

Passing by Tegea , Hercules debauched Auge, not
							knowing her to be a daughter of Aleus. And she brought forth her babe secretly and
							deposited it in the precinct of Athena. But the country being wasted by
							a pestilence, Aleus entered the precinct and on investigation discovered
							his daughter's motherhood. So he exposed the babe on Mount Parthenius,
							and by the providence of the gods it was preserved: for a doe that had
							just cast her fawn gave it suck, and shepherds took up the
							babe and called it Telephus. And her father
							gave Auge to Nauplius, son of Poseidon, to sell far away in a foreign
							land; and Nauplius gave her to Teuthras, the prince of Teuthrania, who
							made her his wife.

And having come to Calydon, Hercules wooed
							Deianira, daughter of Oeneus. He wrestled for her hand with
							Achelous, who assumed the likeness of a bull; but Hercules broke off one
							of his horns. So Hercules married Deianira, but Achelous recovered
							the horn by giving the horn of Amalthea in its stead. Now Amalthea was a
							daughter of Haemonius, and she had a bull's horn, which, according to
							Pherecydes, had the power of supplying meat or drink in abundance,
							whatever one might wish.

And Hercules marched with the Calydonians
							against the Thesprotians, and having taken the city of Ephyra , of which Phylas was
							king, he had intercourse with the king's daughter Astyoche, and became
							the father of Tlepolemus. While
							he stayed among them, he sent word to Thespius to keep seven of his
							sons, to send three to Thebes and to despatch the remaining forty to the island of
								 Sardinia to plant a
								colony. After these events, as he was feasting with Oeneus, he killed
							with a blow of his knuckles endeavored, son of Architeles, when the lad
							was pouring water on his hands; now the lad was a kinsman of
								Oeneus. Seeing that it was an accident, the
							lad's father pardoned Hercules; but Hercules wished, in accordance with
							the law, to suffer the penalty of exile, and resolved to depart to Ceyx
							at Trachis . And taking
							Deianira with him, he came to the river Evenus, at which the centaur
							Nessus sat and ferried passengers across for hire, alleging that he had received
							the ferry from the gods for his righteousness. So Hercules crossed the
							river by himself, but on being asked to pay the fare he entrusted
							Deianira to Nessus to carry over. But he, in ferrying her across,
							attempted to violate her. She cried out, Hercules heard her, and shot
							Nessus to the heart when he emerged from the river. Being at the point
							of death, Nessus called Deianira to him and said that if she would have
							a love charm to operate on Hercules she should mix the seed he had
							dropped on the ground with the blood that flowed from the wound
							inflicted by the barb. She did so and kept it by her.

Going through the country of the Dryopes and
							being in lack of food, Hercules met Thiodamas driving a
							pair of bullocks; so he unloosed and slaughtered one of the bullocks and
								feasted. And when he came to Ceyx at Trachis he was received by him and
							conquered the Dryopes. 
 And afterwards setting out from there, he fought
							as an ally of Aegimius, king of the Dorians. For the Lapiths, commanded by Coronus, made war on him in a
							dispute about the boundaries of the country; and being besieged he
							called in the help of Hercules, offering him a share of the country. So
							Hercules came to his help and slew Coronus and others, and handed the
							whole country over to Aegimius free. He slew also Laogoras, king of the Dryopes, with his
							children, as he was banqueting in a precinct of Apollo; for the king was
							a wanton fellow and an ally of the Lapiths. And as he passed by Itonus
							he was challenged to single combat by Cycnus a son of Ares
							and Pelopia; and closing with him Hercules slew him also. But when he
							was come to Ormenium, king Amyntor took arms and forbade him to march
							through; but when he would have hindered his passage, Hercules slew him
								also. 
 On his arrival at Trachis he mustered an army to attack
								 Oechalia , wishing
							to punish Eurytus. Being joined by Arcadians, Melians from Trachis , and Epicnemidian
							Locrians, he slew Eurytus and his sons and took the city.
							After burying those of his own side who had fallen, to wit, Hippasus,
							son of Ceyx, and Argius and Melas , the sons of Licymnius, he pillaged the city and led
							Iole captive. And having put in at Cenaeum, a headland of Euboea , he built an altar of
							Cenaean Zeus. Intending
							to offer sacrifice, he sent the herald Lichas to Trachis to fetch fine raiment. 
 From him Deianira learned about Iole, and fearing that
							Hercules might love that damsel more than herself, she supposed that the
							spilt blood of Nessus was in truth a love-charm, and with it she smeared
							the tunic. So Hercules put it on and proceeded to offer
							sacrifice. But no sooner was the tunic warmed than the poison of the
							hydra began to corrode his skin; and on that he lifted Lichas by the
							feet, hurled him down from the headland, and tore off the tunic, which clung to his body, so
							that his flesh was torn away with it. In such a sad plight he was
							carried on shipboard to Trachis : and Deianira, on learning what had happened, hanged
								herself. But Hercules, after
							charging Hyllus his elder son by Deianira, to marry Iole when he came of
								age, proceeded to Mount Oeta, in the Trachinian territory, and there constructed a
								pyre, mounted it, and gave
							orders to kindle it. When no one would do so, Poeas, passing by to look
							for his flocks, set a light to it. On him Hercules bestowed his bow.
							While the pyre was burning, it is said that a cloud passed under
							Hercules and with a peal of thunder wafted him up to heaven. Thereafter he obtained immortality, and being
							reconciled to Hera he married her daughter Hebe, by whom he had sons, Alexiares and Anicetus.

And he had sons by the daughters of
								Thespius, to wit: by
							Procris he had Antileon and Hippeus( for the eldest daughter bore
							twins); by Panope he had Threpsippas; by Lyse he had Eumedes; he
							had Creon; by Epilais he had Astyanax; by Certhe he had Iobes; by
							Eurybia he had Polylaus; by Patro he had Archemachus; by Meline he had
							Laomedon; by Clytippe he had Eurycapys; by Eubote he had Eurypylus; by
							Aglaia he had Antiades; by Chryseis he had Onesippus; by Oriahe had
							Laomenes; by Lysidice he had Teles; by Menippis he had Entelides; by
							Anthippe he had Hippodromus; by Eury he had Teleutagoras; by
							Hippo he had Capylus; by Euboea he had Olympus ; by Nice he had Nicodromus; by Argele he had
							Cleolaus; by Exole he had Erythras; by Xanthis he had Homolippus; by
							Stratonice he had Atromus; by Iphis he had Celeustanor; by Laothoe he
							had Antiphus; by Antiope he had Alopius; by Calametis he had Astybies;
							by Phyleis he had Tigasis, by Aeschreis he had Leucones; by
							Anthea ; by Eurypyle he had Archedicus; by Erato he had Dynastes;
							by Asopis he had Mentor; by Eone he had Amestrius; by
							Tiphyse he had Lyncaeus; by Olympusa he had Halocrates; by Heliconis he
							had Phalias; by Hesychia he had Oestrobles; by Terpsicrate he had
							Euryopes; by Elachia he had Buleus; by Nicippe he had Antimachus; by
							Pyrippehe had Patroclus; by Praxithea he had Nephus; by Lysippe he had
							Erasippus; by Toxicrate he had Lycurgus; by Marse he had Bucolus; by
							Eurytele he had Leucippus; by Hippocrate he had Hippozygus. These he had
							by the daughters of Thespius. And he had sons by other women: by
							Deianira, daughter of Oeneus, he had Hyllus, Ctesippus, Glenus and
								Onites; by Megara , daughter of Creon, he had
							Therimachus, Deicoon, and Creontiades; 
							by Omphale he had Agelaus, 
							from whom the family of Croesus was descended, by Chalciope, daughter of Eurypylus, he had
							Thettalus; by Epicaste, daughter of Augeas, he had Thestalus; by
							Parthenope, daughter of Stymphalus, he had Everes; by Auge, daughter of
							Aleus, he had Telephus; by Astyoche, daughter of Phylas, he had
								Tlepolemus; by
							Astydamia, daughter of Amyntor, he had Ctesippus; by Autonoe, daughter
							of Pireus, he had Palaemon.

When Hercules had been translated to the gods,
							his sons fled from Eurystheus and came to Ceyx. But when Eurystheus demanded their surrender
							and threatened war, they were afraid, and, quitting Trachis , fled through Greece . Being pursued, they
							came to Athens , and
							sitting down on the altar of Mercy, claimed protection. Refusing to surrender them, the Athenians bore the
							brunt of war with Eurystheus, and slew his sons, Alexander, Iphimedon,
							Eurybius, Mentor and Perimedes. Eurystheus himself fled in a chariot,
							but was pursued and slain by Hyllus just as he was driving past the Scironian cliffs; and Hyllus cut off his head and gave it
							to Alcmena; and she gouged out his eyes with weaving-pins.

After Eurystheus had perished, the Heraclids
							came to attack Peloponnese 
							and they captured all the cities. When a year had elapsed from their return, a plague visited the whole of Peloponnese ; and an oracle declared that
							this happened on account of the Heraclids, because they had returned
							before the proper time. Hence they quitted Peloponnese and retired to Marathon and
							dwelt there. Now before they came out of Peloponnese , Tlepolemus had killed
							Licymnius inadvertently; for while he was beating a servant with his
							stick Licymnius ran in between; so he fled with not a few, and came to
								 Rhodes , and dwelt
								there. But Hyllus married Iole according to his
							father's commands, and sought to effect the return of the Heraclids. So
							he went to Delphi and
							inquired how they should return; and the god said that they should await
							the third crop before returning. But Hyllus supposed that the third crop
							signified three years; and having waited that time he returned with his
								army 
 of Hercules to Peloponnese , when Tisamenus, son of Orestes,
							was reigning over the Peloponnesians. And in another battle the Peloponnesians
							were victorious, and Aristomachus was slain. But when the sons of
								Cleodaeus were grown to man's estate, they inquired of the oracle
							concerning their return. And the god having given the same answer as
							before, Temenus blamed him, saying that when they had obeyed the oracle
							they had been unfortunate. But the god retorted that they were
							themselves to blame for their misfortunes, for they did not understand
							the oracles, seeing that by “ the third crop” he meant, not a crop of
							the earth, but a crop of a generation, and that by the narrows he meant
							the broad-bellied sea on the right of the Isthmus. On hearing that, Temenus made ready the army and
							built ships in Locris where
							the place is now named Naupactus from that. While the army
							was there, Aristodemus was killed by a thunderbolt, leaving twin sons, Eurysthenes and Procles, by Argia,
							daughter of Autesion.

And it chanced that a calamity also befell the army at Naupactus . For there appeared
							to them a soothsayer reciting oracles in a fine frenzy, whom they took
							for a magician sent by the Peloponnesians to be the ruin of the army. So
							Hippotes, son of Phylas, son of Antiochus, son of Hercules, threw a
							javelin at him, and hit and killed him. In consequence of that, the naval force perished
							with the destruction of the fleet, and the land force suffered from
							famine, and the army disbanded. When Temenus inquired of the oracle
							concerning this calamity, the god said that these things were done by
							the soothsayer and he ordered
							him to banish the slayer for ten years and to take for his guide the
							Three-Eyed One. So they banished Hippotes, and sought for the Three-Eyed
								One. 
							And they chanced to light on Oxylus, son of Andraemon, a
							man sitting on a one-eyed horse ( its other eye having been knocked out
							with an arrow); for he had fled to Elis on account of a murder, and was now returning from
							there to Aetolia after the
							lapse of a year. So guessing the purport of the oracle, they
							made him their guide. And having engaged the enemy they got the better
							of him both by land and sea, and slew Tisamenus, son of Orestes. Their allies, Pamphylus and Dymas, the sons of Aegimius, also
							fell in the fight.

When they had made themselves masters of Peloponnese , they set up three
							altars of Paternal Zeus, and sacrificed upon them, and cast lots for the
							cities. So the first drawing was for Argos , the second for Lacedaemon , and the third for Messene . And they brought
							a pitcher of water, and resolved that each should cast in a lot. Now
							Temenus and the two sons of Aristodemus, Procles and Eurysthenes, threw
							stones; but Cresphontes, wishing to have Messene allotted to him, threw in a
							clod of earth. As the clod was dissolved in the water, it could not be
							but that the other two lots should turn up. The lot of Temenus having
							been drawn first, and that of the sons of Aristodemus second,
							Cresphontes got 
 Messene .

And on the altars on which they sacrificed they found signs lying: for
							they who got Argos by the
							lot found a toad; those who got Lacedaemon found a serpent; and those who got Messene found a fox. As to these signs the seers said that those
							who found the toad had better stay in the city ( seeing that the animal
							has no strength when it walks); that those who found the serpent would
							be terrible in attack, and that those who found the fox would be wily.
								 Now Temenus, passing over his sons Agelaus,
							Eurypylus, and Callias, favoured his daughter Hyrnetho and her husband
							Deiphontes; hence his sons hired some fellows to murder their
								father. On the perpetration of the murder the army decided
							that the kingdom belonged to Hyrnetho and Deiphontes. Cresphontes had not long
							reigned over Messene 
							when he was murdered with two of his sons; and Polyphontes, one of the true Heraclids,
							came to the throne and took to wife, against her will,
							Merope, the wife of the murdered man. 
							But he too was slain. For Merope had a third son, called Aepytus, whom
							she gave to her own father to bring up. When he was come to manhood he
							secretly returned, killed Polyphontes, and recovered the kingdom of his
								fathers.

Having now run over the family of Inachus and
							described them from Belus down to the Heraclids, we have next to speak
							of the house of Agenor. For as I have said, Libya had by Poseidon two sons,
							Belus and Agenor. Now Belus reigned over the Egyptians and begat the
							aforesaid sons; but Agenor went to Phoenicia , married Telephassa, and begat a daughter Europa
							and three sons, Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix. But some say that Europa was a daughter not
							of Agenor but of Phoenix. Zeus loved her, and turning himself into a
							tame bull, he mounted her on his back and conveyed her through the sea
							to Crete . There Zeus bedded
							with her, and she bore Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys; but according to Homer, Sarpedon was a son of
							Zeus by Laodamia, daughter of Bellerophon. On the disappearance of Europa her father Agenor sent out his
							sons in search of her, telling them not to return until they had found
							Europa. With them her mother, Telephassa, and Thasus, son of Poseidon,
							or according to Pherecydes, of Cilix, 
							went forth in search of her. But when, after diligent search, they could
							not find Europa, they gave up the thought of returning home, and took up
							their abode in divers places; Phoenix settled in Phoenicia ; Cilix settled near Phoenicia , and all the country
							subject to himself near the river Pyramus he called Cilicia ; and Cadmus and Telephassa took up their abode in
								 Thrace and in like
							manner Thasus founded a city Thasus in an island off Thrace and dwelt there.

Now Asterius, prince of the Cretans, married
							Europa and brought up her children. But when they were grown up, they quarrelled with each other;
							for they loved a boy called Miletus , son of Apollo by Aria, daughter of Cleochus. As the boy was more friendly
							to Sarpedon, Minos went to war and had the better of it, and the others
							fled. 
 Miletus landed in Caria and there founded a city
							which he called Miletus 
							after himself; and Sarpedon allied himself with Cilix, who was at war
							with the Lycians, and having stipulated for a share of the country, he
							became king of Lycia . And Zeus
							granted him to live for three generations. But some say that they loved
							Atymnius, the son of Zeus and Cassiepea, and that it was about him that
							they quarrelled. Rhadamanthys legislated for the islanders but afterwards he fled to Boeotia and married Alcmena ; and since his departure from the
							world he acts as judge in Hades along with Minos. Minos, residing in
								 Crete , passed laws, and
							married Pasiphae, daughter of the Sun and Perseis; but Asclepiades says
							that his wife was Crete ,
							daughter of Asterius. He begat sons, to wit, Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus,
							and Androgeus: and daughters, to wit, Acalle, Xenodice, Ariadne,
							Phaedra; and by a nymph Paria he had Eurymedon, Nephalion, Chryses, and
							Philolaus; and by Dexithea he had Euxanthius.

Asterius dying childless, Minos wished to reign
							over Crete , but his claim
							was opposed. So he alleged that he had received the kingdom from the
							gods, and in proof of it he said that whatever he prayed
							for would be done. And in sacrificing to Poseidon he prayed that a bull
							might appear from the depths, promising to sacrifice it when it
							appeared. Poseidon did send him up a fine bull, and Minos obtained the
							kingdom, but he sent the bull to the herds and sacrificed another. [ Being the first to obtain the dominion of the sea,
							he extended his rule over almost all the islands. ]

But angry at him for not sacrificing the bull, Poseidon made the animal
							savage, and contrived that Pasiphae should conceive a passion for
								it. In her love for the bull she found an accomplice in Daedalus, an
							architect, who had been banished from Athens for murder. He constructed a wooden cow on
							wheels, took it, hollowed it out in the inside, sewed it up in the hide
							of a cow which he had skinned, and set it in the meadow in which the
							bull used to graze. Then he introduced Pasiphae into it; and the bull
							came and coupled with it, as if it were a real cow. And she gave birth
							to Asterius, who was called the Minotaur. He had the face of a bull, but
							the rest of him was human; and Minos, in compliance with certain
							oracles, shut him up and guarded him in the Labyrinth. Now the Labyrinth
							which Daedalus constructed was a chamber “ that with its
							tangled windings perplexed the outward way. ” The story of the Minotaur, and Androgeus, and Phaedra, and
							Ariadne, I will tell hereafter in my account of Theseus.

But Catreus, son of Minos, had three daughters,
							Aerope, Clymene, and Apemosyne, and a son, Althaemenes. When
							Catreus inquired of the oracle how his life should end, the god said
							that he would die by the hand of one of his children. Now Catreus hid
							the oracles, but Althaemenes heard of them, and fearing to be his
							father's murderer, he set out from Crete with his sister Apemosyne, and put in at a place in
								 Rhodes , and having taken
							possession of it he called it Cretinia. And having ascended the mountain
							called Atabyrium, he beheld the islands round about; and descrying Crete also and calling to mind
							the gods of his fathers he founded an altar of Atabyrian Zeus. But not long afterwards he became the murderer of
							his sister. For Hermes loved her, and as she fled from him and he could
							not catch her, because she excelled him in speed of foot, he spread
							fresh hides on the path, on which, returning from the spring, she
							slipped and so was deflowered. She revealed to her brother what had
							happened, but he, deeming the god a mere pretext, kicked her to death.

And Catreus gave Aerope and Clymene to Nauplius to sell into foreign
							lands; and of these two Aerope became the wife of Plisthenes, who begat
							Agamemnon and Menelaus; and Clymene became the wife of Nauplius, who
							became the father of Oeax and Palamedes. But afterwards in the grip of
							old age Catreus yearned to transmit the kingdom to his son Althaemenes,
							and went for that purpose to Rhodes. And having landed from the ship
							with the heroes at a desert place of the island, he was chased by the
							cowherds, who imagined that they were pirates on a raid. He told them
							the truth, but they could not hear him for the barking of the dogs, and
							while they pelted him Althaemenes arrived and killed him
							with the cast of a javelin, not knowing him to be Catreus. Afterwards
							when he learned the truth, he prayed and disappeared in a chasm.

To Deucalion were born Idomeneus and Crete and a bastard son
								Molus. But Glaucus, while he was yet
							a child, in chasing a mouse fell into a jar of honey and was
								drowned. On his disappearance Minos made a great search and consulted
							diviners as to how he should find him. The Curetes told him that in his
							herds he had a cow of three different colors, and that the man who could
							best describe that cow's color would also restore his son to him
								alive. So when the diviners were
							assembled, Polyidus, son of Coeranus, compared the color of the cow to
							the fruit of the bramble, and being compelled to seek for the child he
							found him by means of a sort of divination. But Minos declaring that he must recover him
							alive, he was shut up with the dead body. And while he was in great
							perplexity, he saw a serpent going towards the corpse. He threw a stone
							and killed it, fearing to be killed himself if any harm
							befell the body. But another serpent came, and, seeing the former one
							dead, departed, and then returned, bringing a herb, and placed it on the
							whole body of the other; and no sooner was the herb so placed upon it
							than the dead serpent came to life. Surprised at this sight, Polyidus
							applied the same herb to the body of Glaucus and raised him from the
								dead.

Minos had now got back his son, but even so he did not suffer Polyidus
							to depart to Argos until
							he had taught Glaucus the art of divination. Polyidus taught him on
							compulsion, and when he was sailing away he bade Glaucus spit into his
							mouth. Glaucus did so and forgot the art of divination. Thus much must suffice for my account of the descendants of
							Europa.

When Telephassa died, Cadmus buried her, and
							after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to Delphi to inquire about
							Europa. The god told him not to trouble about Europa, but to be guided
							by a cow, and to found a city wherever she should fall down
							for weariness. After receiving such an oracle he journeyed through Phocis ; then falling in with a
							cow among the herds of Pelagon, he followed it behind. And after
							traversing Boeotia , it sank
							down where is now the city of Thebes . Wishing to sacrifice the cow to Athena, he sent some
							of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares. But a dragon,
							which some said was the offspring of Ares, guarded the spring and
							destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus killed
							the dragon, and by the advice of Athena sowed its teeth. When they were
							sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti. These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in
							ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus saw armed men growing up
							out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they,
							supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows.
							However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor,
							and Pelorus.

But Cadmus, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares for an eternal year;
							and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our reckoning. 
 After his servitude Athena procured for him the
							kingdom, and Zeus gave him to wife Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and
							Ares. And all the gods quitted the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea
							celebrated the marriage with hymns. Cadmus gave her a robe and the
							necklace wrought by Hephaestus, which some say was given to Cadmus by
							Hephaestus, but Pherecydes says that it was given by Europa, who had
							received it from Zeus. And to Cadmus
							were born daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, and a son
								Polydorus. Ino was married to Athamas, Autonoe to Aristaeus, and Agave to
							Echion.

But Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to 
								Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for
							her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he would
							come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus
							came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and
							thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright,
							and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from
							the fire, sewed it in his thigh. On the death of Semele the other
							daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had bedded with a mortal
							man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been
							blasted by thunder. But at the proper time Zeus undid the stitches and
							gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to Hermes. And he conveyed him
							to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl. But Hera
							indignantly drove them mad, and Athamas hunted his elder son Learchus as
							a deer and killed him, 
							and Ino threw Melicertes into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the
							dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called
							Leucothea, and the boy is called Palaemon, such being the names they get
							from sailors; for they succour storm-tossed mariners. And
							the Isthmian games were instituted by Sisyphus in honor of
								Melicertes. But Zeus eluded the wrath
							of Hera by turning Dionysus into a kid, and Hermes took him and brought him to the
							nymphs who dwelt at Nysa in
								 Asia , whom Zeus
							afterwards changed into stars and named them the Hyades.

Autonoe and Aristaeus had a son Actaeon, who was
							bred by Chiron to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on
							Cithaeron by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,
							because Zeus was angry at him for wooing Semele; but according to the
							more general opinion, it was because he saw Artemis bathing. And they
							say that the goddess at once transformed him into a deer, and drove mad
							the fifty dogs in his pack, which devoured him unwittingly. Actaeon
							being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the
							search they came to the cave of Chiron, who fashioned an image of
							Actaeon, which soothed their grief. 
 
 [ The names of Actaeon's dogs from the . . . . So 
 Now surrounding his fair body, as it were that of a
										beast, 
 The strong dogs rent it. Near Arcena first. 
 
 . . . . after her a mighty brood, 
 Lynceus and Balius goodly-footed, and Amarynthus. — 
 And these he enumerated continuously by name. 
 And then Actaeon perished at the instigation of Zeus. 
 For the first that drank their master's black blood 
 Were Spartus and Omargus and Bores, the swift on the
										track. 
 These first ate of Actaeon and lapped his blood. 
 And after them others rushed on him eagerly . . . . 
 To be a remedy for grievous pains to men. ] 
 
 unknown

Dionysus discovered the vine, and being driven mad by Hera he roamed about Egypt and 
 Syria . At first he was
							received by Proteus, king of Egypt , but afterwards he arrived at Cybela in Phrygia . And there, after he had been purified by
							Rhea and learned the rites of initiation, he received from her the
							costume and hastened through Thrace against the Indians. But Lycurgus, son of Dryas, was
							king of the Edonians, who dwell beside the river Strymon, and he was the
							first who insulted and expelled him. Dionysus took refuge in
							the sea with Thetis, daughter of Nereus, and the Bacchanals were taken
							prisoners together with the multitude of Satyrs that attended him. But
							afterwards the Bacchanals were suddenly released, and Dionysus drove
							Lycurgus mad. And in his madness he struck his son Dryas dead with an
							axe, imagining that he was lopping a branch of a vine, and when he had
							cut off his son's extremities, he recovered his senses. But the land remaining barren, the god declared oracularly that
							it would bear fruit if Lycurgus were put to death. On hearing that, the
							Edonians led him to Mount Pangaeum and bound him, and
							there by the will of Dionysus he died, destroyed by horses.

Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, he came to Thebes , and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in
							Bacchic frenzy on Cithaeron. But Pentheus, whom Agave bore to Echion,
							had succeeded Cadmus in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to
							these proceedings. And coming to Cithaeron to spy on the Bacchanals, he
							was torn limb from limb by his mother Agave in a fit of madness; for she
							thought he was a wild beast. And having shown the Thebans that he was a
							god, Dionysus came to Argos , and there again, because they did not honor him, he
							drove the women mad, and they on the mountains devoured the flesh of the
							infants whom they carried at their breasts.

And wishing to be ferried across from Icaria to Naxos he hired a pirate ship of
							Tyrrhenians. But when they had put him on board, they sailed past Naxos and made for
								 Asia , intending to sell
							him. Howbeit, he turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the
							vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes. And the pirates went mad, and
							leaped into the sea, and were turned into dolphins. Thus men perceived that he was a god and
							honored him; and having brought up his mother from Hades and named her
							Thyone, he ascended up with her to heaven.

But Cadmus and Harmonia quitted Thebes and went to the
							Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the
							god declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the
							Illyrians if they had Cadmus and Harmonia as their leaders. They
							believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got
							the better of them. And Cadmus reigned over the Illyrians, and a son
							Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with Harmonia,
							turned into a serpent and sent away by Zeus to the Elysian Fields.

Polydorus, having become king of Thebes , married Nycteis,
							daughter of Nycteus, son of Chthonius, and begat Labdacus, who perished
							after Pentheus because he was like-minded with him. But Labdacus having left a year -old son, Laius, the
							government was usurped by Lycus, brother of Nycteus, so long as Laius
							was a child. Both of them had fled [ from 
 Euboea ] because they had
							killed Phlegyas, son of Ares and Dotis the Boeotian, and they took up their abode at Hyria , and thence having come to Thebes , they were enrolled
							as citizens through their friendship with Pentheus. So after being
							chosen commander-in-chief by the Thebans, Lycus compassed the supreme
							power and reigned for twenty years, but was murdered by Zethus and
							Amphion for the following reason. Antiope was a daughter of Nycteus, and
							Zeus had intercourse with her. When she
							was with child, and her father threatened her, she ran away to Epopeus
							at Sicyon and was married to
							him. In a fit of despondency Nycteus killed himself, after charging
							Lycus to punish Epopeus and Antiope. Lycus marched against Sicyon , subdued it, slew
							Epopeus, and led Antiope away captive. On the way she gave birth to two
								 sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia . The infants were exposed, but a
							neatherd found and reared them, and he called the one Zethus and the
							other Amphion. Now Zethus paid attention to cattle-breeding, but Amphion
							practised minstrelsy, for Hermes had given him a lyre. But Lycus and his wife Dirce imprisoned
							Antiope and treated her despitefully. Howbeit, one day her bonds were
							loosed of themselves, and unknown to her keepers she came to her sons
							cottage, begging that they would take her in. They recognized their
							mother and slew Lycus, but Dirce they tied to a bull, and flung her dead
							body into the spring that is called Dirce after her. And having
							succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones
							following Amphion's lyre ;
							and they expelled Laius. He
							resided in Peloponnese ,
							being hospitably received by Pelops; and while he taught Chrysippus, the
							son of Pelops, to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad
							and carried him off.

Zethus married Thebe, after whom the city of
								 Thebes is named; and
							Amphion married Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, who
							bore seven sons, Sipylus, Eupinytus, Ismenus, Damasichthon, Agenor,
							Phaedimus, Tantalus, and the same number of daughters, Ethodaia ( or, as
							some say, Neaera), Cleodoxa, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia, Astycratia, and
							Ogygia, But Hesiod says that they had ten sons and ten daughters; Herodorus that they had two male children and three female;
							and Homer that they had six sons and six daughters. Being blessed with
							children, Niobe said that she was more blessed with children than
							Latona. Stung by the taunt, Latona incited Artemis and Apollo against
							them, and Artemis shot down the females in the house, and Apollo killed
							all the males together as they were hunting on Cithaeron. Of the males
							Amphion alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom
							Neleus married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and
								Meliboea, and Amphion also was shot by them. But Niobe
							herself quitted Thebes and
							went to her father Tantalus at Sipylus, and there, on praying to Zeus,
							she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the
							stone.

After Amphion's death Laius succeeded to the
							kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was
							Jocasta, and some that she was Epicasta. The oracle had warned him not to beget
							a son, for the son that should be begotten would kill his father;
							nevertheless, flushed with wine, he had intercourse with his wife. And
							when the babe was born he pierced the child's ankles with brooches and
							gave it to a herdsman to expose. But the herdsman exposed it on
							Cithaeron; and the neatherds of Polybus, king of Corinth , found the infant and brought
							it to his wife Periboea. She adopted him and passed him
							off as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him
							Oedipus, giving him that name on account of his swollen feet. When the boy grew up and excelled his fellows in
							strength, they spitefully twitted him with being supposititious. He
							inquired of Periboea, but could learn nothing; so he went to Delphi and inquired about
							his true parents. The god told him not to go to his native land, because
							he would murder his father and lie with his mother. On hearing that, and
							believing himself to be the son of his nominal parents, he left Corinth , and riding in a
							chariot through Phocis he
							fell in with Laius driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road. And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laius, ordered
							him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and
							delayed, Oedipus in a rage killed both Polyphontes and Laius, and
							arrived in Thebes .

Laius was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea , and Creon, son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the
							kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes . For Hera sent the Sphinx, whose
							mother was Echidna and her father Typhon; and she had the face of a
							woman, the breast and feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird.
							And having learned a riddle from the Muses, she sat on Mount Phicium,
							and propounded it to the Thebans. And the riddle was this:— What is that
							which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and
							two-footed and three-footed? Now the Thebans were in possession of an
							oracle which declared that they should be rid of the Sphinx whenever
							they had read her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer,
							and when they could not find it the Sphinx used to snatch away one of
							them and gobble him up. When many had perished, and last of all Creon's
							son Haemon, Creon made proclamation that to him who should read the
							riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of Laius. On hearing
							that, Oedipus found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the
							Sphinx referred to man; for as a babe he is four-footed, going on four
							limbs, as an adult he is two-footed, and as an old man he gets besides a
							third support in a staff. So the Sphinx threw herself from the citadel,
							and Oedipus both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his
							mother, and begat sons by her, Polynices and Eteocles, and daughters,
							Ismene and Antigone. But some
							say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of
								Hyperphas.

When the secret afterwards came to light, Jocasta hanged herself in a
								noose, and 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.

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 Argia ; 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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ; 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. 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. So when
							the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be
							victorious if Menoeceus, son of Creon, would offer himself freely as a
							sacrifice to Ares. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of Creon, slew
							himself before the gates. But a battle having taken place, the Cadmeans were chased in a
							crowd as far as the walls, and Capaneus, seizing a ladder, was climbing
							up it to the walls, when Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt.

When that befell, the Argives turned to flee. And as many fell, Eteocles and Polynices, by the resolution of both armies,
							fought a single combat for the kingdom, and slew each other. In
							another fierce battle the sons of Astacus did doughty deeds; for Ismarus
							slew Hippomedon, Leades slew Eteoclus, and Amphidicus
							slew Parthenopaeus. But Euripides says that Parthenopaeus was slain by
							Periclymenus, son of Poseidon. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the
							sons of Astacus, wounded Tydeus in the belly. As he lay half dead,
							Athena brought a medicine which she had begged of Zeus, and by which she
							intended to make him immortal. But Amphiaraus hated Tydeus for thwarting
							him by persuading the Argives to march to Thebes ; so when he perceived the
							intention of the goddess he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it
							to Tydeus, who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And Tydeus split
							open the head and gulped up the brains. But when Athena saw that, in
							disgust she grudged and withheld the intended benefit. 
 Amphiaraus fled beside the river Ismenus, and before
							Periclymenus could wound him in the back, Zeus cleft the earth by
							throwing a thunderbolt, and Amphiaraus vanished with his chariot and his
							charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and Zeus made him immortal. Adrastus alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse
							Poseidon begot on Demeter, when in the likeness of a Fury she consorted
							with him.

Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes , Creon cast out the
								 Argive dead unburied,
							issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But
							Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus, stole the body of Polynices,
							and secretly buried it, and having been detected by Creon himself, she
							was interred alive in the grave. Adrastus fled to Athens 
 and took refuge at
							the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the
							suppliant's bough he prayed that they would bury
							the dead. And the Athenians marched with Theseus, captured Thebes , and gave the dead
							to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of Capaneus was burning,
							his wife Evadne, the daughter of Iphis, thew herself on the pyre, and
							was burned with him.

Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen,
							called the Epigoni, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death
							of their fathers; 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 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.

They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans
							advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of Eteocles,
							they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was
							himself killed by Alcmaeon, 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. 
							After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up
							their abode there.

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.

After the capture of Thebes , when Alcmaeon learned that his
							mother Eriphyle had been bribed to his undoing also, he was more
							incensed than ever, and in accordance with an oracle given to him by
							Apollo he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother
							Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But Alcmaeon was visited by
							the Fury of his mother's murder, and going mad he first repaired to
								Oicles in Arcadia , and thence to Phegeus
							at Psophis . And having
							been purified by him he married Arsinoe, daughter of Phegeus, and gave her
							the necklace and the robe. But afterwards the ground became barren on
							his account, and the god bade him in an oracle to depart to Achelous and to
							stand another trial on the river bank. At first he repaired to Oeneus at Calydon and was
							entertained by him; then he went to the Thesprotians, but was driven
							away from the country; and finally he went to the springs of Achelous,
							and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the
							land which the Achelous had formed by its silt, and he took up his abode
								there. But
							afterwards Callirrhoe coveted the necklace and robe, and said she would
							not live with him if she did not get them. So away Alcmaeon hied to
								 Psophis and told
							Phegeus how it had been predicted that he should be rid of his madness
							when he had brought the necklace and the robe to Delphi and dedicated them. Phegeus believed him and gave them to him.
							But a servant having let out that he was taking the things to
							Callirrhoe, Phegeus commanded his sons, and they lay in wait and killed
								him. When Arsinoe upbraided them,
							the sons of Phegeus clapped her into a chest and carried her to Tegea and gave her as a
							slave to Agapenor, falsely accusing her of Alcmaeon's murder.

Being apprized of Alcmaeon's untimely end and courted by Zeus,
							Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by Alcmaeon might be full
							grown in order to avenge their father's murder. And being suddenly
							full-grown, the sons went forth to right their father's wrong. Now Pronous and Agenor, the sons of Phegeus, carrying the necklace and robe to Delphi to dedicate them, turned in at
							the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and 
							Acarnan, the sons of Alcmaeon; and the sons of Alcmaeon killed their
							father's murderers, and going to Psophis and entering the palace they
							slew both Phegeus and his wife. They were pursued as far as Tegea , but saved by the
							intervention of the Tegeans and some Argives, and the Psophidians took
							to flight.

Having acquainted their mother with these things, they went to Delphi and dedicated the
							necklace and robe according to the injunction of Achelous. Then
							they journeyed to Epirus ,
							collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania . 
 But Euripides says that in the time of his madness Alcmaeon begat two children,
							Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of Tiresias,
							and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to Creon, king of
								 Corinth , to bring
							up; and that on account of her extraordinary comeliness Tisiphone was
							sold as a slave by Creon's spouse, who feared that Creon might make her
							his wedded wife. But Alcmaeon bought her and kept her as a handmaid, not
							knowing that she was his daughter, and coming to Corinth to get back his children he
							recovered his son also. And Amphilochus colonized 
 Amphilochian
								Argos in obedience to oracles of Apollo.

Let us now return to Pelasgus, who, Acusilaus
							says, was a son of Zeus and Niobe, as we have supposed, but Hesiod
							declares him to have been a son of the soil. He had a son Lycaon by Meliboea, daughter of Ocean or,
							as others say, by a nymph Cyllene; and Lycaon, reigning over the
							Arcadians, begat by many wives fifty sons, to wit: Melaeneus,
							Thesprotus, Helix, Nyctimus, Peucetius, Caucon, Mecisteus, Hopleus,
							Macareus, Macednus, Horus, Polichus, Acontes, Evaemon, Ancyor,
							Archebates, Carteron, Aegaeon, Pallas, Eumon, Canethus, Prothous, Linus,
							Coretho, Maenalus, Teleboas, Physius, Phassus, Phthius, Lycius,
							Halipherus, Genetor, Bucolion, Socleus, Phineus, Eumetes, Harpaleus,
							Portheus, Plato, Haemo, Cynaethus, Leo, Harpalycus, Heraeeus, Titanas,
							Mantineus, Clitor, Stymphalus, Orchomenus, These exceeded all men
							in pride and impiety; and Zeus, desirous of putting their
							impiety to the proof, came to them in the likeness of a day-laborer.
							They offered him hospitality and having slaughtered a male child of the
							natives, they mixed his bowels with the sacrifices, and set them before
							him, at the instigation of the elder brother Maenalus. But
							Zeus in disgust upset the table at the place which is still
							called Trapezus , and
							blasted Lycaon and his sons by thunderbolts, all but Nyctimus, the
							youngest; for Earth was quick enough to lay hold of the
							right hand of Zeus and so appease his wrath.

But when Nyctimus succeeded to the kingdom, there occurred the flood in
							the age of Deucalion; 
							some said that it was occasioned by the impiety of Lycaon's sons.
								 But Eumelus and some others say that Lycaon
							had also a daughter Callisto; though Hesiod says she was one of the nymphs, Asius that she was
							a daughter of Nycteus, and Pherecydes that she was a daughter of
								Ceteus. She was a companion of Artemis in the chase, wore
							the same garb, and swore to her to remain a maid. Now Zeus loved her
							and, having assumed the likeness, as some say, of Artemis, or, as others
							say, of Apollo, he shared her bed against her will, and wishing to
							escape the notice of Hera, he turned her into a bear. But Hera persuaded
							Artemis to shoot her down as a wild beast. Some say, however, that
							Artemis shot her down because she did not keep her maidenhood. When Callisto perished, Zeus snatched the babe, named it
							Arcas, and gave it to Maia to bring up in Arcadia ; and Callisto he turned into a star
							and called it the Bear.

Arcas had two sons, Elatus and Aphidas, by
							Leanira, daughter of Amyclas, or by Meganira, daughter of Croco, or,
							according to Eumelus, by a nymph Chrysopelia. These divided the land between them, but Elatus had
							all the power, and he begat Stymphalus and Pereus by Laodice, daughter
							of Cinyras, and Aphidas had a son Aleus and a daughter Stheneboea, who
							was married to Proetus. And Aleus had a daughter Auge and two sons,
							Cepheus and Lycurgus, by Neaera, daughter of Pereus. Auge was seduced by
								Hercules and hid her babe in the precinct
							of Athena, whose priesthood she held. But the land remaining barren, and
							the oracles declaring that there was impiety in the precinct of Athena,
							she was detected and delivered by her father to Nauplius to be put to
							death, and from him Teuthras, prince of Mysia , received and married her. But the
							babe, being exposed on Mount Parthenius, was suckled by a doe and hence
							called Telephus. Bred by the neatheards of Corythus, he went to Delphi in quest of his
							parents, and on information received from the god he repaired to Mysia and became an adopted
							son of Teuthras, on whose death he succeeded to the princedom.

Lycurgus had sons, Ancaeus, Epochus, Amphidamas,
							and Iasus, by Cleophyle or Eurynome.
							And Amphidamas had a son Melanion and a daughter Antimache, whom
							Eurystheus married. And Iasus had a daughter Atalanta by Clymene,
							daughter of Minyas. This Atalanta was exposed by her father, because he
							desired male children; and a she bear came often and gave her suck, till
							hunters found her and brought her up among themselves. Grown to
							womanhood, Atalanta kept herself a virgin, and hunting in the wilderness
							she remained always under arms. The centaurs Rhoecus and Hylaeus tried
							to force her, but were shot down and killed by her. She went moreover
							with the chiefs to hunt the Calydonian boar, and at the games held in
							honor of Pelias she wrestled with Peleus and won.
							Afterwards she discovered her parents, but when her father would have
							persuaded her to wed, she went away to a place that might serve as a
							racecourse, and, having planted a stake three cubits high in the middle
							of it, she caused her wooers to race before her from there, and ran
							herself in arms; and if the wooer was caught up, his due was death on
							the spot, and if he was not caught up, his due was marriage. When many
							had already perished, Melanion came to run for love of her, bringing
							golden apples from Aphrodite, and being pursued he threw them down, and
							she, picking up the dropped fruit, was beaten in the race. So Melanion
							married her. And once on a time it is said that out hunting they entered
							into the precinct of Zeus, and there taking their fill of love were
							changed into lions. But Hesiod and some others have said that
							Atalanta was not a daughter of Iasus, but of Schoeneus; and Euripides
								 says that she was a daughter of Maenalus, and that her
							husband was not Melanion but Hippomenes. And by Melanion, or Ares, Atalanta had a son Parthenopaeus, who
							went to the war against Thebes .

Atlas and Pleione, daughter of Ocean, had seven
							daughters called the Pleiades, born to them at Cyllene in Arcadia , to wit: Alcyone,
							Merope, Celaeno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia. Of these, Sterope was married to Oenomaus, and Merope to
							Sisyphus. And Poseidon had intercourse with two of them, first with
							Celaeno, by whom he had Lycus, whom Poseidon made to dwell in the
							Islands of the Blest, and second with Alcyone, who bore a daughter,
							Aethusa, the mother of Eleuther by Apollo, and two sons Hyrieus and
							Hyperenor. Hyrieus had Nycteus and Lycus by a nymph Clonia; and Nycteus
							had Antiope by Polyxo; and Antiope had Zethus and Amphion by Zeus. And Zeus
							consorted with the other daughters of Atlas.

Maia, the eldest, as the fruit of her
							intercourse with Zeus, gave birth to Hermes in a cave of Cyllene. He was laid in swaddling-bands on the winnowing
								fan, but he slipped
							out and made his way to Pieria 
 and stole the kine which Apollo was herding. And lest he should be detected by the tracks, he put shoes on their feet and brought them to Pylus, and hid the rest in a
							cave; but two he sacrificed and nailed the skins to rocks, while of the
							flesh he boiled and ate some, and some he burned. And
							quickly he departed to Cyllene. And before the cave he found a tortoise
							browsing. He cleaned it out, strung the shell with chords made from the
							kine he had sacrificed, and having thus produced a lyre he invented also
							a plectrum. But Apollo
							came to Pylus in search of the kine, and he questioned the
							inhabitants. They said that they had seen a boy driving cattle, but
							could not say whither they had been driven, because they could find no
							track. Having discovered the thief by divination, Apollo came to Maia at Cyllene and accused Hermes. But
							she showed him the child in his swaddling-bands. So Apollo brought him
							to Zeus, and claimed the kine; and when Zeus bade him restore them,
							Hermes denied that he had them, but not being believed he led Apollo to
							Pylus and restored the kine. Howbeit, when Apollo heard the lyre, he
							gave the kine in exchange for it. And while Hermes pastured them, he
							again made himself a shepherd's pipe and piped on it. And wishing to get the pipe also, Apollo offered to give him the golden
							wand which he owned while he herded cattle. But Hermes wished both to get the wand for the pipe and to
							acquire the art of divination. So he gave the pipe and learned the art
							of divining by pebbles. And Zeus appointed him herald to himself and to the infernal
							gods.

Taygete had by Zeus a son Lacedaemon, after whom
							the country of Lacedaemon is
								called. Lacedaemon and Sparta, daughter of
							Eurotas ( who was a son of Lelex, a son of the soil, by a Naiad nymph Cleocharia), had a
							son Amyclas and a daughter Eurydice, whom Acrisius married. Amyclas and
							Diomede, daughter of Lapithus, had sons, Cynortes and Hyacinth. They say that this
							Hyacinth was beloved of Apollo and killed by him involuntarily with the
								 cast of a quoit. Cynortes had a son Perieres, who married Gorgophone, daughter of
							Perseus, as Stesichorus says, and she bore Tyndareus, Icarius, Aphareus,
							and Leucippus. Aphareus
							and Arene, daughter of Oebalus, had sons Lynceus and Idas and Pisus; but
							according to many, Idas is said to have been gotten by Poseidon. Lynceus
							excelled in sharpness of sight, so that he could even see things
								underground. Leucippus had daughters, Hilaira
							and Phoebe: these the Dioscuri carried off and married. Besides them
							Leucippus begat Arsinoe: with her Apollo had intercourse, and she bore
							Aesculapius. But some affirm that Aesculapius was not a son of Arsinoe,
							daughter of Leucippus, but that he was a son of Coronis, daughter of
							Phlegyas in Thessaly . 
 And they say that Apollo loved her and at once consorted
							with her, but that she, against her father's judgment, preferred and
							cohabited with Ischys, brother of Caeneus. Apollo cursed the raven that
							brought the tidings and made him black instead of white, as he had been
							before; but he killed Coronis. As she was burning, he snatched the babe
							from the pyre and brought it to Chiron, the centaur, 
							by whom he was brought up and taught the arts of healing and
							hunting. And having become a surgeon, and carried the art to a great
							pitch, he not only prevented some from dying, but even raised up the
							dead; for he had received from Athena the blood that flowed from the
							veins of the Gorgon, and while he used the blood that flowed from the
							veins on the left side for the bane of mankind, he used the blood that
							flowed from the right side for salvation, and by that means he raised
							the dead. I found some who are
							reported to have been raised by him, to wit,
							Capaneus and Lycurgus, as Stesichorus says
							in the Eriphyle ; Hippolytus, as the author of the Naupactica 
 reports; Tyndareus, as Panyasis says; Hymenaeus, as the
							Orphics report; and Glaucus, son of Minos, as Melesagoras relates.

But Zeus, fearing that men might acquire the healing art from him and so
							come to the rescue of each other, smote him with a thunderbolt. Angry on that account, Apollo slew the
							Cyclopes who had fashioned the thunderbolt for Zeus. But Zeus would have hurled him
							to Tartarus; however, at the intercession of Latona he
							ordered him to serve as a thrall to a man for a year. So he went to
							Admetus, son of Pheres, at Pherae, and served him as a herdsman, and
							caused all the cows to drop twins. 
 But some say that Aphareus and Leucippus were
							sons of Perieres, the son of Aeolus, and that Cynortes begat Perieres,
							and that Perieres begat Oebalus, and that Oebalus begat Tyndareus,
							Hippocoon, and Icarius by a Naiad nymph Batia.

Now Hippocoon had sons, to wit: Dorycleus,
							Scaeus, Enarophorus, Eutiches, Bucolus, Lycaethus, Tebrus,
							Hippothous, Eurytus, Hippocorystes, Alcinus, and Alcon. With the help of
							these sons Hippocoon expelled Icarius and Tyndareus from Lacedaemon . They fled to Thestius
							and allied themselves with him in the war which he waged with his
							neighbors; and Tyndareus married Leda, daughter of Thestius. But
							afterwards, when Hercules slew Hippocoon and his sons, they returned,
							and Tyndareus succeeded to the kingdom.

Icarius and Periboea, a Naiad nymph, had five
							sons, Thoas, Damasippus, Imeusimus, Aletes, Perileos, and a daughter Penelope, whom Ulysses
								married. 
							Tyndareus and Leda had daughters, to wit, Timandra, whom Echemus
								married, and
							Clytaemnestra, whom Agamemnon married; also another daughter Phylonoe,
							whom Artemis made immortal.

But Zeus in the form of a swan consorted with Leda, and on the same
							night Tyndareus cohabited with her; and she bore Pollux and Helen to
							Zeus, and Castor and Clytaemnestra to Tyndareus. But some
							say that Helen was a daughter of Nemesis and Zeus; for that
							she, flying from the arms of Zeus, changed herself into a goose, but
							Zeus in his turn took the likeness of a swan and so enjoyed her; and as
							the fruit of their loves she laid an egg, and a certain shepherd found
							it in the groves and brought and gave it to Leda; and she put it in a
							chest and kept it; and when Helen was hatched in due time, Leda brought
							her up as her own daughter. And when she grew into a lovely woman, Theseus carried her off
							and brought her to Aphidnae. But
							when Theseus was in Hades, Pollux and Castor marched against Aphidnae,
							took the city, got possession of Helen, and led Aethra, the mother of Theseus, away captive.

Now the kings of Greece 
							repaired to Sparta to win
							the hand of Helen. The wooers were these: — Ulysses, son of
							Laertes; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Antilochus, son of Nestor; Agapenor,
							son of Ancaeus; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus; Amphimachus, son of Cteatus;
							Thalpius, son of Eurytus; Meges, son of Phyleus; Amphilochus, son of
							Amphiaraus; Menestheus, son of Peteos; Schedius and Epistrophus, sons of
							Iphitus; Polyxenus, son of Agasthenes; Peneleos, son of Hippalcimus;
							Leitus, son of Alector; Ajax, son of Oileus; Ascalaphus and Ialmenus,
							sons of Ares; Elephenor, son of Chalcodon; Eumelus, son of Admetus;
							Polypoetes, son of Perithous; Leonteus, son of Coronus; Podalirius and
							Machaon, sons of Aesculapius; Philoctetes, son of Poeas; Eurypylus, son
							of Evaemon; Protesilaus, son of Iphiclus; Menelaus, son of Atreus; Ajax
							and Teucer, sons of Telamon; Patroclus, son of Menoetius.

Seeing the multitude of them, Tyndareus feared that the preference of
							one might set the others quarrelling; but Ulysses promised that, if he
							would help him to win the hand of Penelope, he would suggest a way by
							which there would be no quarrel. And when Tyndareus promised to help
							him, Ulysses told him to exact an oath from all the suitors that they
							would defend the favoured bridegroom against any wrong that might be
							done him in respect of his marriage. On hearing that, Tyndareus put the
							suitors on their oath, and while he chose Menelaus to be the bridegroom of Helen, he
							solicited Icarius to bestow Penelope on Ulysses.

Now Menelaus had by Helen a daughter Hermione
							and, according to some, a son Nicostratus; and by a female slave Pieris, an
							Aetolian, or, according to Acusilaus, by Tereis, he had a
							son Megapenthes; and
							by a nymph Cnossia, according to Eumelus, he had a son Xenodamus.

Of the sons born to Leda Castor practised the
							art of war, and Pollux the art of boxing; and on account of their manliness they were
							both called Dioscuri. And wishing to marry the
							daughters of Leucippus, they carried them off from Messene and wedded them; and Pollux had Mnesileus by Phoebe, and
								 Castor had Anogon by Hilaira. And having driven booty
							of cattle from Arcadia , in
							company with Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus, they allowed Idas to
							divide the spoil. He cut a cow in four and said that one half of the
							booty should be his who ate his share first, and that the rest should be
							his who ate his share second. And before they knew where they were, Idas
							had swallowed his own share first and likewise his brother's, and with
							him had driven off the captured cattle to Messene . But the Dioscuri marched
							against Messene , and
							drove away that cattle and much else besides. And they lay in wait for
							Idas and Lynceus. But Lynceus spied Castor and discovered him to Idas,
							who killed him. Pollux chased them and slew Lynceus by throwing his
							spear, but in pursuing Lynceus he was wounded in the head with a stone
							thrown by him, and fell down in a swoon. And Zeus smote Idas with a
							thunderbolt, but Pollux he carried up to heaven. Nevertheless, as Pollux
							refused to accept immortality while his brother Castor was dead, Zeus
							permitted them both to be every other day among the gods and among
								mortals. 
 And when the Dioscuri were translated to the gods,
							Tyndareus sent for Menelaus to Sparta and handed over the kingdom to him.

Electra, daughter of Atlas, had two sons, Iasion
							and Dardanus, by Zeus. Now Iasion loved Demeter, and
							in an attempt to defile the goddess he was killed by a thunderbolt. Grieved at his brother's death, Dardanus left Samothrace and
							came to the opposite mainland. That country was ruled by a king, Teucer,
							son of the river Scamander and of a nymph Idaea, and the inhabitants of
							the country were called Teucrians after Teucer. Being welcomed by the
							king, and having received a share of the land and the king's daughter
							Batia, he built a city Dardanus, and when Teucer died he called the
							whole country Dardania.

And he had sons born to him, Ilus and Erichthonius, of whom
							Ilus died childless, and Erichthonius succeeded to the
							kingdom and marrying Astyoche, daughter of Simoeis, begat Tros. On succeeding to the kingdom, Tros called
							the country Troy after
							himself, and marrying Callirrhoe, daughter of Scamander, he begat a
							daughter Cleopatra, and sons, Ilus, Assaracus, and Ganymede. 
							This Ganymede, for the sake of his beauty, Zeus caught up on an eagle
							and appointed him cupbearer of the gods in heaven; and Assaracus had by his wife Hieromneme,
							daughter of Simoeis, a son Capys; and Capys had by his wife Themiste,
							daughter of Ilus, a son Anchises, whom Aphrodite met in love's
							dalliance, and to whom she bore Aeneas and Lyrus, who died childless.

But Ilus went to Phrygia ,
							and finding games held there by the king, he was victorious in
							wrestling. As a prize he received fifty youths and as many maidens, and
							the king, in obedience to an oracle, gave him also a dappled cow and bade him found a city wherever the animal should lie down; so
							he followed the cow. And when she was come to what was called the hill
							of the Phrygian Ate, she lay down; there Ilus built a city and called it
								 Ilium . And having prayed to Zeus that a sign might be shown
							to him, he beheld by day the Palladium, fallen from heaven, lying before
							his tent. It was three cubits in height, its feet joined together; in
							its right hand it held a spear aloft, and in the other hand a distaff
							and spindle. 
 
 The story told about the Palladium is as
								follows: They say that when Athena was born she was
							brought up by Triton, who
							had a daughter Pallas; and that both girls practised the arts of war,
							but that once on a time they fell out; and when Pallas was about to
							strike a blow, Zeus in fear interposed the aegis, and Pallas, being
							startled, looked up, and so fell wounded by Athena. And being
							exceedingly grieved for her, Athena made a wooden image in her likeness,
							and wrapped the aegis, which she had feared, about the breast of it, and
							set it up beside Zeus and honored it. But afterwards Electra, at the
							time of her violation, 
							took refuge at the image, and Zeus threw the Palladium along with
								Ate into the Ilian country; and Ilus built a temple for it, and honored it.
							Such is the legend of the Palladium. And Ilus
							married Eurydice, daughter of Adrastus, and begat Laomedon, who married Strymo, daughter of Scamander;
							but according to some his wife was Placia, daughter of Otreus, and
							according to others she was Leucippe; and he begat five sons, Tithonus,
							Lampus, Clytius, Hicetaon, Podarces, and three daughters, Hesione, Cilla, and Astyoche;
							and by a nymph Calybe he had a son Bucolion.

Now the Dawn snatched away Tithonus for love and
							brought him to Ethiopia , and
							there consorting with him she bore two sons, Emathion and Memnon.

But after that Ilium was
							captured by Hercules, as we have related a little before, Podarces, who
							was called Priam, came to the throne, and he married first Arisbe,
							daughter of Merops, by whom he had a son Aesacus, who married Asterope,
							daughter of Cebren, and when she died he mourned for her and was turned
							into a bird. But Priam
							handed over Arisbe to Hyrtacus and married a second wife Hecuba,
							daughter of Dymas, or, as some say, of Cisseus, or, as others say, of
							the river Sangarius and Metope. The first son born
							to her was Hector; and when a second babe was about to be
							born Hecuba dreamed she had brought forth a firebrand, and that the fire
							spread over the whole city and burned it. When Priam learned of the
							dream from Hecuba, he sent for his son Aesacus, for he was an
							interpreter of dreams, having been taught by his mother's father Merops.
							He declared that the child was begotten to be the ruin of his country
							and advised that the babe should be exposed. When the babe was born
							Priam gave it to a servant to take and expose on Ida; now the servant
							was named Agelaus. Exposed by him, the infant was nursed for five days
							by a bear; and, when he found it safe, he took it up, carried it away,
							brought it up as his own son on his farm, and named him Paris. When he
							grew to be a young man, Paris excelled many in beauty and strength, and
							was afterwards surnamed Alexander, because he repelled robbers and
							defended the flocks. 
							And not long afterwards he discovered his parents. After him Hecuba gave birth to daughters, Creusa, Laodice, Polyxena, and Cassandra. Wishing to gain
							Cassandra's favours, Apollo promised to teach her the art of prophecy;
							she learned the art but refused her favours; hence Apollo deprived her
							prophecy of power to persuade. 
							Afterwards Hecuba bore sons, 
							Deiphobus, Helenus, Pammon, Polites, Antiphus, Hipponous, Polydorus, and
							Troilus: this last she is said to have had by Apollo. By other women Priam had sons, to wit, Melanippus,
							Gorgythion, Philaemon, Hippothous, Glaucus, Agathon, Chersidamas,
							Evagoras, Hippodamas, Mestor, Atas, Doryclus, Lycaon, Dryops, Bias,
							Chromius, Astygonus, Telestas, Evander, Cebriones, Mylius, Archemachus,
							Laodocus, Echephron, Idomeneus, Hyperion, Ascanius, Democoon, Aretus,
							Deiopites, Clonius, Echemmon, Hypirochus, Aegeoneus, Lysithous,
							Polymedon; and daughters, to wit, Medusa, Medesicaste, Lysimache, and
							Aristodeme.

Now Hector married Andromache, daughter of
								Eetion, and Alexander married
							Oenone, daughter of the river Cebren. She had learned from
							Rhea the art of prophecy, and warned Alexander not to sail to fetch
							Helen; but failing to persuade him, she told him to come to her if he
							were wounded, for she alone could heal him. When he had carried off
							Helen from Sparta and
								 Troy was besieged, he
							was shot by Philoctetes with the bow of Hercules, and went back to
							Oenone on Ida. But she, nursing her grievance, refused to heal him. So
							Alexander was carried to Troy and died. But Oenone repented her, and brought the
							healing drugs; and finding him dead she hanged herself. The Asopus river was a son of Ocean and Tethys, or, as
							Acusilaus says, of Pero and Poseidon, or, according to some, of Zeus and
							Eurynome. Him Metope, herself a daughter of the river Ladon, married and
							bore two sons, Ismenus and Pelagon, and twenty daughters, of whom one,
							Aegina, was carried off by Zeus. In search
							of her Asopus came to Corinth , and learned from Sisyphus that
							the ravisher was Zeus. Asopus pursued
							him, but Zeus, by hurling thunderbolts, sent him away back to his own
								streams; hence coals are fetched
							to this day from the streams of that river. And having conveyed Aegina to the island then
							named Oenone, but now called Aegina after her, Zeus cohabited
							with her and begot a son Aeacus on her. As Aeacus was alone in the island, Zeus made the ants into men
							for him. And
							Aeacus married Endeis, daughter of Sciron, by whom he had two sons,
							Peleus and Telamon. 
							But Pherecydes says that Telamon was a friend, not a brother of Peleus,
							he being a son of Actaeus and Glauce, daughter of Cychreus. Afterwards Aeacus cohabited with Psamathe, daughter
							of Nereus, who turned herself into a seal to avoid his embraces, and he
							begot a son Phocus. 
 Now Aeacus was the most pious of men. Therefore,
							when Greece suffered from
							infertility on account of Pelops, because in a war with Stymphalus, king
							of the Arcadians, being unable to conquer Arcadia , he slew the king under a pretence
							of friendship, and scattered his mangled limbs, oracles of the gods
							declared that Greece would
							be rid of its present calamities if Aeacus would offer prayers on its
							behalf. So Aeacus did offer prayers, and Greece was delivered from the dearth. Even after his death Aeacus is
							honored in the abode of Pluto, and keeps the keys of Hades. 
 As Phocus excelled in athletic sports, his
							brothers Peleus and Telamon plotted against him, and the lot falling on
							Telamon, he killed his brother in a match by throwing a quoit at his
							head, and with the help of Peleus carried the body and hid it in a wood.
							But the murder being detected, the two were driven fugitives from Aegina by Aeacus.

And Telamon betook himself to Salamis , to the court of
							Cychreus, son of Poseidon and Salamis , daughter of Asopus.
							This Cychreus became king of Salamis through killing a snake
							which ravaged the island, and dying childless he bequeathed the kingdom
							to Telamon. And 
							Telamon married Periboea, daughter of Alcathus, son of
							Pelops, and called his son Ajax, because when Hercules had prayed that
							he might have a male child, an eagle appeared after the prayer. And having
							gone with Hercules on his expedition against Troy , he received as a prize Hesione,
							daughter of Laomedon, by whom he had a son Teucer.

Peleus fled to Phthia to the court of Eurytion, son of
							Actor, and was purified by him, and he received from him his daughter
							Antigone and the third part of the country. And a
							daughter Polydora was born to him, who was wedded by Borus,
							son of Perieres.

Thence he went with Eurytion to hunt the Calydonian boar, but in
							throwing a dart at the hog he involuntarily struck and killed Eurytion.
							Therefore flying again from Phthia he betook him to Acastus at Iolcus and was purified
							by him.

And at the games celebrated in honor of Pelias he contended in wrestling
							with Atalanta. And
							Astydamia, wife of Acastus, fell in love with Peleus, and sent him a
							proposal for a meeting; and when she could not prevail on him she sent word
							to his wife that Peleus was about to marry Sterope, daughter of Acastus;
							on hearing which the wife of Peleus strung herself up. And the wife of
							Acastus falsely accused Peleus to her husband, alleging that he had
							attempted her virtue. On hearing that, Acastus would not kill the man
							whom he had purified, but took him to hunt on Pelion . There a contest taking place in
							regard to the hunt, Peleus cut out and put in his pouch the tongues of
							the animals that fell to him, while the party of Acastus bagged his game
							and derided him as if he had taken nothing. But he produced them the
							tongues, and said that he had taken just as many animals as he had
								tongues. When he had fallen asleep on Pelion , Acastus deserted him,
							and hiding his sword in the cows' dung, returned. On arising and looking
							for his sword, Peleus was caught by the centaurs and would have
							perished, if he had not been saved by Chiron, who also restored him his
							sword, which he had sought and found.

Peleus married Polydora, daughter of Perieres,
							by whom he had a putative son Menesthius, though in fact Menesthius was
							the son of the river Sperchius.

Afterwards he married Thetis, daughter of Nereus, for whose hand
							Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals; but when Themis prophesied that the
							son born of Thetis would be mightier than his father, they
								withdrew. 
							But some say that when Zeus was bent on gratifying his passion for her,
							Prometheus declared that the son borne to him by her would be lord of
								heaven; and others affirm that
							Thetis would not consort with Zeus because she had been brought up by
							Hera, and that Zeus in anger would marry her to a mortal. Chiron, therefore, having
							advised Peleus to seize her and hold her fast in spite of her
							shape-shifting, he watched his chance and carried her off, and though
							she turned, now into fire, now into water, and now into a beast, he did
							not let her go till he saw that she had resumed her former shape. 
							And he married her on Pelion , and there the gods celebrated the marriage
							with feast and song. And Chiron gave Peleus an ashen
								spear, and
							Poseidon gave him horses, Balius and Xanthus, and these were
								immortal.

When Thetis had got a babe by Peleus, she wished
							to make it immortal, and unknown to Peleus she used to hide it in the
							fire by night in order to destroy the mortal element which the child
							inherited from its father, but by day she anointed him with
								ambrosia. But Peleus watched her, and,
							seeing the child writhing on the fire, he cried out; and
							Thetis, thus prevented from accomplishing her purpose, forsook her
							infant son and departed to the Nereids. Peleus brought the child to Chiron, who
							received him and fed him on the inwards of lions and wild swine and the
							marrows of bears, and named him Achilles, because he had not put his lips to the
								breast; but before that time his name
							was Ligyron.

After that Peleus, with Jason and the Dioscuri,
								 laid waste Iolcus; and he slaughtered Astydamia, wife of
							Acastus, and, having divided her limb from limb, he led the army through
							her into the city.

When Achilles was nine years old, Calchas
							declared that Troy could
							not be taken without him; so Thetis, foreseeing that it was fated he
							should perish if he went to the war, disguised him in female garb and
							entrusted him as a maiden to Lycomedes. Bred at his court, Achilles had an intrigue with Deidamia, daughter of
							Lycomedes, and a son Pyrrhus was born to him, who was afterwards called
							Neoptolemus. But the secret of Achilles was betrayed, and Ulysses,
							seeking him at the court of Lycomedes, discovered him by the blast of a
								trumpet. 
							And in that way Achilles went to Troy . He was accompanied by Phoenix,
							son of Amyntor. This Phoenix had been blinded by his father on the
							strength of a false accusation of seduction preferred against him by his
							father's concubine Phthia. But Peleus brought him to Chiron, who
							restored his sight, and thereupon Peleus made him king of the
								Dolopians. 
 Achilles was also accompanied by Patroclus, son
							of Menoetius and Sthenele, daughter of Acastus; or the mother of
							Patroclus was Periopis, daughter of Pheres, or, as Philocrates says, she
							was Polymele, daughter of Peleus. At Opus, in a quarrel over a game of
							dice, Patroclus killed the boy Clitonymus, son of Amphidamas, and flying
							with his father he dwelt at the house of Peleus and became a minion of
						 	Achilles.

Cecrops, a son of the soil, with a body
							compounded of man and serpent, was the first king of Attica , and the country which was formerly
							called Acte he named Cecropia after himself. In his time, they say, the gods resolved to
							take possession of cities in which each of them should
							receive his own peculiar worship. So Poseidon was the first that came to
								 Attica , and with a blow
							of his trident on the middle of the acropolis, he produced a sea which
							they now call Erechtheis. After him came Athena, and, having
							called on Cecrops to witness her act of taking possession, she planted
							an olive tree, which is still shown in the Pandrosium. But when the two strove for possession of the
							country, Zeus parted them and appointed arbiters, not, as
							some have affirmed, Cecrops and Cranaus, nor yet Erysichthon, but the
							twelve gods. And in accordance with their verdict the country was adjudged to
							Athena, because Cecrops bore witness that she had been the first to
							plant the olive. Athena, therefore, called the city Athens after herself, and Poseidon in
							hot anger flooded the Thriasian plain and laid Attica under the sea.

Cecrops married Agraulus, daughter of Actaeus,
							and had a son Erysichthon, who departed this life childless; and Cecrops
							had daughters, Agraulus, Herse, and Pandrosus. Agraulus had a daughter Alcippe by
							Ares. In attempting to violate Alcippe, Halirrhothius, son of Poseidon
							and a nymph Euryte, was detected and killed by Ares. Impeached by Poseidon, Ares was tried in the
							Areopagus before the twelve gods, and was acquitted.

Herse had by Hermes a son Cephalus, whom Dawn
							loved and carried off, and consorting with him in Syria bore a son Tithonus, who
							had a son Phaethon, who had a son Astynous, who had a
							son Sandocus, who passed from Syria to Cilicia 
							and founded a city Celenderis, and having married Pharnace, daughter of
							Megassares, king of Hyria ,
							begat Cinyras. This Cinyras in Cyprus , whither he had come with some people,
							founded Paphos ; and having
							there married Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus , he begat Oxyporus and
								Adonis, and besides them daughters, Orsedice, Laogore, and
							Braesia. These by reason of the wrath of Aphrodite cohabited with
							foreigners, and ended their life in Egypt .

And Adonis, while still a boy, was wounded and killed in hunting by a
							boar through the anger of Artemis. Hesiod, however, affirms that he was a son
							of Phoenix and Alphesiboea; and Panyasis says that he was a son of Thias, king of Assyria, who had a daughter Smyrna. In consequence of the wrath of
							Aphrodite, for she did not honor the goddess, this Smyrna conceived a
							passion for her father, and with the complicity of her nurse she shared
							her father's bed without his knowledge for twelve nights. But when he
							was aware of it, he drew his sword and pursued her, and being overtaken
							she prayed to the gods that she might be invisible; so the gods in
							compassion turned her into the tree which they call smyrna (
								myrrh). Ten
							months afterwards the tree burst and Adonis, as he is called, was born,
							whom for the sake of his beauty, while he was still an infant, Aphrodite
							hid in a chest unknown to the gods and entrusted to Persephone. But when
							Persephone beheld him, she would not give him back. The case being tried
							before Zeus, the year was divided into three parts, and the god ordained
							that Adonis should stay by himself for one part of the year, with
							Persephone for one part, and with Aphrodite for the remainder. 
 However Adonis made over to Aphrodite his own share in
							addition; but afterwards in hunting he was gored and killed by a boar.

When Cecrops died, Cranaus came to the
								throne ; he was a son
							of the soil, and it was in his time that the flood in the age of
							Deucalion is said to have taken place. He married a Lacedaemonian wife, Pedias,
							daughter of Mynes, and begat Cranae, Menaechme, and Atthis; and when
							Atthis died a maid, Cranaus called the country Atthis.

Cranaus was expelled by Amphictyon, who reigned
							in his stead; some say that Amphictyon was a son of
							Deucalion, others that he was a son of the soil; and when he had reigned
							twelve years he was expelled by Erichthonius. Some say that this Erichthonius was a son
							of Hephaestus and Atthis, daughter of Cranaus, and some that he was a
							son of Hephaestus and Athena, as follows: Athena came to Hephaestus,
							desirous of fashioning arms. But he, being forsaken by Aphrodite, fell
							in love with Athena, and began to pursue her; but she fled.
							When he got near her with much ado ( for he was lame), he attempted to
							embrace her; but she, being a chaste virgin, would not submit to him,
							and he dropped his seed on the leg of the goddess. In disgust, she wiped
							off the seed with wool and threw it on the ground; and as she fled and
							the seed fell on the ground, Erichthonius was produced. Him Athena
							brought up unknown to the other gods, wishing to make him immortal; and
							having put him in a chest, she committed it to Pandrosus, daughter of
							Cecrops, forbidding her to open the chest. But the sisters of Pandrosus
							opened it out of curiosity, and beheld a serpent coiled about the babe;
							and, as some say, they were destroyed by the serpent, but according to
							others they were driven mad by reason of the anger of Athena and threw
							themselves down from the acropolis. Having been brought up by Athena herself in the precinct, Erichthonius expelled Amphictyon and became
							king of Athens ; and he
							set up the wooden image of Athena in the acropolis, and instituted the festival of the Panathenaea, and married Praxithea, a Naiad nymph, by
							whom he had a son Pandion.

When Erichthonius died and was buried in the
							same precinct of Athena, 
								Pandion became king, in whose time Demeter and
							Dionysus came to Attica . But
							Demeter was welcomed by Celeus at Eleusis , and Dionysus by Icarius, who
							received from him a branch of a vine and learned the process of making
							wine. And wishing to bestow the god's boons on men, Icarius went to some
							shepherds, who, having tasted the beverage and quaffed it copiously
							without water for the pleasure of it, imagined that they were bewitched
							and killed him; but by day they understood how it was and buried him. When his daughter
							Erigone was searching for her father, a domestic dog, named Maera, which
							had attended Icarius, discovered his dead body to her, and she bewailed
							her father and hanged herself.

Pandion married Zeuxippe, his mother's
								sister, and begat two daughters, Procne and Philomela,
							and twin sons, Erechtheus and Butes. But war having broken out with
							Labdacus on a question of boundaries, he called in the help of Tereus,
							son of Ares, from Thrace ,
							and having with his help brought the war to a successful close, he gave
							Tereus his own daughter Procne in marriage. Tereus had by her a son
							Itys, and having fallen in love with Philomela, he seduced
							her also saying that Procne was dead, for he concealed her in the
							country. Afterwards he married Philomela and bedded with her, and cut
							out her tongue. But by weaving characters in a robe she revealed thereby
							to Procne her own sorrows. And having sought out her sister, Procne
							killed her son Itys, boiled him, served him up for supper to the
							unwitting Tereus, and fled with her sister in haste. When Tereus was
							aware of what had happened, he snatched up an axe and pursued them. And
							being overtaken at Daulia in Phocis , they prayed the gods to be turned into birds, and
							Procne became a nightingale, and Philomela a swallow. And Tereus also
							was changed into a bird and became a hoopoe.

When Pandion died, his sons divided their
							father's inheritance between them, and Erechtheus got the kingdom, and Butes got the priesthood of Athena and
							Poseidon Erechtheus. Erechtheus married Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus by Diogenia,
							daughter of Cephisus, and had sons, to wit, Cecrops, Pandorus, and
							Metion; and daughters, to wit, Procris, Creusa, Chthonia, and Orithyia,
							who was carried off by Boreas. 
 Chthonia was married to Butes, Creusa to Xuthus, 
							and Procris to Cephalus, son of Deion. Bribed by a golden crown,
							Procris admitted Pteleon to her bed, and being detected by Cephalus she
							fled to Minos. But he fell in love with her and tried to seduce her. Now
							if any woman had intercourse with Minos, it was impossible for her to
							escape with life; for because Minos cohabited with many women, Pasiphae
							bewitched him, and whenever he took another woman to his bed, he
							discharged wild beasts at her joints, and so the women perished. But Minos had a swift
							dog and a dart that flew straight; and in return for these gifts Procris
							shared his bed, having first given him the Circaean root to drink that
							he might not harm her. But afterwards, fearing the wife of Minos, she
							came to Athens and being
							reconciled to Cephalus she went forth with him to the chase; for she was
							fond of hunting. As she was in pursuit of game in the thicket, Cephalus,
							not knowing she was there, threw a dart, hit and killed Procris, and,
							being tried in the Areopagus, was condemned to perpetual
								banishment.

While Orithyia was playing by the Ilissus river,
							Boreas carried her off and had intercourse with her; and she bore
							daughters, Cleopatra and Chione, and winged sons, Zetes and Calais.
							These sons sailed with Jason 
							and met their end in chasing the Harpies; but according to Acusilaus,
							they were killed by Hercules in Tenos .

Cleopatra was married to Phineus, who had by her two sons, Plexippus and
							Pandion. When he had these sons by Cleopatra, he married Idaea, daughter
							of Dardanus. She falsely accused her stepsons to Phineus of corrupting
							her virtue, and Phineus, believing her, blinded them both. But when the Argonauts sailed past with Boreas, they punished
								him.

Chione had connexion with Poseidon, and having
								 given birth to Eumolpus unknown to her
							father, in order not to be detected, she flung the child into the deep.
							But Poseidon picked him up and conveyed him to Ethiopia , and gave him to Benthesicyme( a
							daughter of his own by Amphitrite) to bring up. When he was full grown,
							Benthesicyme's husband gave him one of his two daughters. But he tried
							to force his wife's sister, and being banished on that account, he went
							with his son Ismarus to Tegyrius, king of Thrace, who gave his daughter
							in marriage to Eumolpus's son. But being afterwards detected in a plot
							against Tegyrius, he fled to the Eleusinians and made friends with them.
							Later, on the death of Ismarus, he was sent for by Tegyrius and went,
							composed his old feud with him, and succeeded to the kingdom. And war
							having broken out between the Athenians and the Eleusinians, he was
							called in by the Eleusinians and fought on their side with a large force of Thracians. When Erechtheus
							inquired of the oracle how the Athenians might be victorious, the god
							answered that they would win the war if he would slaughter one of his
							daughters; and when he slaughtered his youngest, the others also
							slaughtered themselves; for, as some said, they had taken an oath among
							themselves to perish together. In the battle which took place after the slaughter, Erechtheus
							killed Eumolpus.

But Poseidon having destroyed Erechtheus 
							and his house, Cecrops, the eldest of the sons of Erechtheus, succeeded
							to the throne. He married Metiadusa, daughter of
							Eupalamus, and begat Pandion. This Pandion, reigning after Cecrops, was
								 expelled by the sons of Metion in a sedition, and going
							to Pylas at Megara 
							married his daughter Pylia. And at a later time he
							was even appointed king of the city; for Pylas slew his father's brother
							Bias and gave the kingdom to Pandion, while he himself repaired to Peloponnese with a body of
							people and founded the city of Pylus. 
 While Pandion was at Megara , he had sons born to him, to wit,
							Aegeus, Pallas, Nisus, and Lycus. But some say that Aegeus was a son of
							Scyrius, but was passed off by Pandion as his own.

After the death of Pandion his sons marched against Athens , expelled the Metionids, and
							divided the government in four; but Aegeus had the whole power. The first wife whom he married was Meta,
							daughter of Hoples, and the second was Chalciope, daughter of
								Rhexenor. As no child was born to him, he feared
							his brothers, and went to Pythia and consulted the oracle
							concerning the begetting of children. The god answered him: 
 The bulging mouth of the wineskin, O best of men, 
 Loose not until thou hast reached the height of Athens . 
 
 Not knowing what to make of the oracle, he set out on his
							return to Athens .

And journeying by way of Troezen , he lodged with Pittheus, son of Pelops, who,
							understanding the oracle, made him drunk and caused him to lie with his
							daughter Aethra. But in the same night Poseidon also had connexion with
							her. Now Aegeus charged Aethra that, if she gave birth to a male child,
							she should rear it, without telling whose it was; and he left a sword
							and sandals under a certain rock, saying that when the boy could roll
							away the rock and take them up, she was then to send him away with them.
								 But he himself came to Athens and celebrated the games of the
							Panathenian festival, in which Androgeus, son of Minos, vanquished all
							comers. Him Aegeus sent against the bull of Marathon, by which he was
							destroyed. But some say that as he journeyed to Thebes to take part in the
							games in honor of Laius, he was waylaid and murdered by the jealous
								competitors. But when the
							tidings of his death were brought to Minos, as he was sacrificing to the
							Graces in Paros , he
							threw away the garland from his head and stopped the music of the flute,
							but nevertheless completed the sacrifice; hence down to this day they
							sacrifice to the Graces in Paros without flutes and garlands.

But not long afterwards, being master of the sea, he attacked Athens with a fleet and
							captured Megara , then
							ruled by king Nisus, son of Pandion, and he slew Megareus, son of
							Hippomenes, who had come from Onchestus to the help of Nisus. Now Nisus perished
							through his daughter's treachery. For he had a purple hair on the middle
							of his head, and an oracle ran that when it was pulled out he should
							die; and his daughter Scylla fell in love with Minos and pulled out the
							hair. But when Minos had made himself master of Megara , he tied the damsel by the feet
							to the stern of the ship and drowned her. 
 
 When the war lingered on and he could not take
								 Athens , he prayed to
							Zeus that he might be avenged on the Athenians. And the city being
							visited with a famine and a pestilence, the Athenians at first, in
							obedience to an ancient oracle, slaughtered the daughters of Hyacinth,
							to wit, Antheis, Aegleis, Lytaea, and Orthaea, on the grave of
							Geraestus, the Cyclops; now Hyacinth, the father of the damsels, had
							come from Lacedaemon and
							dwelt in Athens . But when this was of no
							avail, they inquired of the oracle how they could be delivered; and the
							god answered them that they should give Minos whatever satisfaction he
							might choose. So they sent to Minos and left it to him to claim
							satisfaction. And Minos ordered them to send seven youths and the same
							number of damsels without weapons to be fodder for the Minotaur. Now the Minotaur
							was confined in a labyrinth, in which he who entered could
							not find his way out; for many a winding turn shut off the secret
							outward way. The labyrinth was constructed by
							Daedalus, whose father was Eupalamus, son of Metion, and whose mother
							was Alcippe; for he was an excellent architect and the first
							inventor of images. He had fled from Athens , because he had thrown down from the
							acropolis Talos, the son of his sister Perdix; for Talos was
							his pupil, and Daedalus feared that with his talents he might surpass
							himself, seeing that he had sawed a thin stick with a
							jawbone of a snake which he had found. But the corpse was discovered; Daedalus was tried in the
							Areopagus, and being condemned fled to Minos. And there Pasiphae having
							fallen in love with the bull of Poseidon, Daedalus acted as her
							accomplice by contriving a wooden cow, and he constructed the labyrinth,
							to which the Athenians every year sent seven youths and as many damsels
							to be fodder for the Minotaur.

Aethra bore to Aegeus a son Theseus, and when he
							was grown up, he pushed away the rock and took up the sandals and the
								sword, and hastened
							on foot to Athens . And he
								cleared the
							road, which had been beset by evildoers. For first in Epidaurus he slew Periphetes, son of
							Hephaestus and Anticlia, who was surnamed the Clubman from the club
							which he carried. For being crazy on his legs he carried an iron club,
							with which he despatched the passers-by. That club Theseus wrested from
							him and continued to carry about.

Second, he killed Sinis, son of Polypemon and Sylea,
							daughter of Corinthus. This Sinis was surnamed the Pine-bender; for
							inhabiting the Isthmus of Corinth he used to force the passersby to keep bending pine
							trees; but they were too weak to do so, and being tossed up by the trees
							they perished miserably. In that way also Theseus killed Sinis.