The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics) (13 page)

4. Early Argive mythology (the Inachids, Belid line)

¹
Now that we have given a full account of the family of Deucalion, let us proceed to that of Inachos.

Oceanos and Tethys had a son, Inachos,
*
after whom the River Inachos in Argos is named. To Inachos and Melia, daughter of Oceanos, two sons were born, Phoroneus and Aigialeus.
*
Aigialeus died without offspring, and the whole country was called Aigialeia; and Phoroneus, who reigned over the whole of what would later be called the Peloponnese, fathered Apis and Niobe by a nymph, Teledice.

Apis turned his power into a tyranny; a brutal tyrant, he named the Peloponnese Apia after himself, and died childless as the result of a plot by Thelxion and Telchis. He was reckoned to be a god and was called Sarapis.
*
Niobe, for her part, had a son, Argos, by Zeus (she was the first mortal woman with whom he had intercourse), and according to Acousilaos, she had another son, Pelasgos,
*
and the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called the Pelasgians
*
after him. According to Hesiod, however, Pelasgos was born from the earth;
²
but we will return to him later. Argos took over the kingdom, calling the Peloponnese Argos
*
after himself; and marrying Evadne, daughter of Strymon and Neaira, he had four sons, Ecbasos, Peiras, Epidauros, and Criasos, who succeeded to the kingdom in his turn.

Ecbasos had a son, Agenor, and Agenor had a son, Argos, the one who is known as Panoptes [or the All-Seeing]. He had eyes all over his body,
*
and being endowed with exceptional strength, he killed the bull that was bringing ruin to Arcadia and clothed himself in its hide; and when a Satyr ill-treated the Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, he confronted him and put him to death. And they say of Echidna
*
too, the
daughter of Tartaros and Ge who used to snatch away passers-by, that Argos watched out until she was asleep and then killed her. He also avenged the death of Apis by killing those who were responsible.

³
Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, had a son, Iasos, who is said to have been the father of Io. But Castor, the author of the
Chronicles
, and many of the tragic poets claim that Io was a daughter of Inachos; while Hesiod and Acousilaos say that she was a daughter of Peiren.
*
Zeus seduced Io
*
while she held the priesthood of Hera, but when Hera found him out, he transformed the girl with a touch into a white cow and swore that he had never made love with her; and for that reason, according to Hesiod, oaths made for love attract no anger from the gods. But Hera asked Zeus for the cow, and placed it under the guard of Argos the All-Seeing. (Pherecydes says that this Argos was a son of Arestor, Asclepiades that he was a son of Inachos, and Cercops that he was a son of Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, while according to Acousilaos, he was born from the earth.) Hera tethered the cow to the olive tree which lay in the sacred grove of the Mycenaeans. Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, but the plan was betrayed by Hierax,
*
and since Hermes was now unable to steal the cow without being seen, he
killed Argos
by throwing a stone at him; and that is how he came to be called
Argeiphontes
*
Hera sent a gadfly after the cow; the animal went first to the
Ionian
Gulf,
*
which bears that name because of her, and then, after travelling through Illyria and over Mount Haimos, she crossed what was then called the Thracian Sound but is now called the
Bosporos
*
because of her. From there she went to Scythia and the land of the Cimmerians, wandering a great distance overland and swimming a great distance through the sea, in Europe and Asia alike, until she finally arrived in Egypt, where she recovered her original form, and gave birth to a son, Epaphos, by the banks of the River Nile. Hera asked the Curetes to steal the child away, and they did so. When Zeus learned of it, he killed the Curetes, and Io, for her part, went in search of her
child. She wandered through the whole of Syria (for it had been revealed to her that the wife of the king of Byblos was nursing her son there), and when she had discovered Epaphos,
*
she returned to Egypt and married Telegonos, who was king of the Egyptians at the time. She erected a statue of Demeter, whom the Egyptians called Isis; and they gave this name, Isis, to Io likewise.

⁴
When Epaphos became king of the Egyptians, he married Memphis, daughter of the Nile, founded the city of Memphis in her name, and fathered a daughter, Libya, after whom the land of Libya was named. By Poseidon, Libya had twin sons, Agenor and Belos. Agenor departed to Phoenicia, where he became king and the founder of a great line, and for that reason, we shall reserve our treatment of him until later.
*
But Belos
*
remained in Egypt, where he became king, and married Anchinoe, daughter of the Nile, who bore him twin sons, Aigyptos and Danaos (and according to Euripides, Cepheus and Phineus in addition).

Belos established Danaos in Libya and Aigyptos in Arabia; but Aigyptos conquered the land of the Melampodes
*
too, and named it Egypt after himself. Both had children by many different women, Aigyptos fifty sons and Danaos fifty daughters. Later, they quarrelled over the throne, and Danaos, fearing the sons of Aigyptos, constructed a ship on the advice of Athene— he was the first man to do so
*
—and putting his daughters on board, he fled the country.

Calling in at Rhodes, he set up the statue of Lindian Athene; and from there he went to Argos, where Gelanor, who was king at the time, surrendered the throne to him.
*
[After he had taken control of the country, Danaos named its inhabitants the Danaans after himself.
*
] There was no water in the land, because Poseidon had caused even the springs to run dry in his anger against Inachos for having testified that the land belonged to Hera;
*
so Danaos sent his daughters in search of water. Now one of them, Amymone, during her search, threw a javelin at a deer and hit a sleeping Satyr, who leapt up and
was eager to make love with her; but when Poseidon appeared, the Satyr fled, and Amymone slept with Poseidon, who then revealed the springs of Lerna
*
to her.

⁵
The sons of Aigyptos came to Argos, and they invited Danaos to call an end to his hostility and asked to marry his daughters. Although Danaos distrusted their protestations and bore them a grudge because of his exile, he agreed to the marriages and apportioned the girls by lot. Hypermnestra, the eldest, was selected to be the wife of Lynceus, and Gorgophone to be the wife of Proteus; for Lynceus and Proteus were borne to Aigyptos by a woman of royal blood, Argyphie. Of those who remained, Bousiris, Encelados, Lycos, and Daiphron obtained in the lot the daughters who were borne to Danaos by Europe, namely, Automate, Amymone, Agave, and Scaie. These were borne to Danaos by a woman of royal blood; Gorgophone and Hypermnestra, for their part, were borne to him by Elephantis. Istros obtained Hippodameia in the lot; Chalcodon, Rhodia; Agenor, Cleopatra; Chaitos, Asteria; Diocorystes, [Phylodameia]; Alces, Glauce; Alcmenor, Hippomedousa; Hippothoos, Gorge; Euchenor, Iphimedousa; and Hippolytos, Rhode. These ten sons were borne by an Arabian woman, and the daughters by hamadryad nymphs, some being daughters of Atlanteia, others of Phoebe. Agaptolemos obtained Peirene in the lot; Cercetes, Dorion; Eurydamas, Phartis; Aigios, Mnestra; Argios, Evippe; Archelaos, Anaxibia; and Menemachos, Nelo. These seven sons were borne by a Phoenician woman, and the daughters by an Ethiopian woman. The sons borne by Tyria obtained the daughters of Memphis as their wives, not through the lot, but because of the similarity of their names, Cleitos obtaining Cleite; Sthenelos, Sthenele; and Chrysippos, Chrysippe. The twelve sons of Aigyptos by the naiad nymph Caliadne cast lots for the daughters of Danaos by the naiad nymph Polyxo. The sons were Eurylochos, Phantes, Peristhenes, Hermos, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixos, Imbros, Bromios, Polyctor, and Cthonios; the daughters were Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe, Antheleia, Cleodore, Evippe, Erato, Stygne, and Bryce. The sons of Aigyptos by Gorgo cast lots for the daughters of Danaos by Pieria. Periphas obtained Actaie; Oineus, Podarce; Aigyptos, Dioxippe; Menalces, Adite;
Lampos, Ocypete; and Idmon, Pylarge. To proceed to the youngest sons, Idas obtained Hippodice, and Daiphron Adiante (the mother of these two girls was Herse); Pandion obtained Callidice; Arbelos, Oime; Hyperbios, Celaino; and Hippocorystes, Hyperippe: these were sons of Hephaistine and daughters of Crino respectively.

When they had obtained their brides in the lot and the marriage feast had been celebrated, Danaos handed daggers to his daughters, and they killed their bridegrooms as they slept, except for Hypermnestra, who spared Lynceus
*
because he had allowed her to preserve her virginity. Danaos imprisoned her for this, and kept her under guard. The rest of his daughters buried the heads of their bridegrooms at Lerna and held funerals for their bodies in front of the city; and they were purified
*
by Athene and Hermes on the orders of Zeus. Danaos later reunited Hypermnestra to Lynceus, and gave his other daughters in marriage to the victors at an athletic contest.
*

Amymone bore a son, Nauplios, to Poseidon. This Nauplios lived to a great age, sailing the seas, and using beacon fires to draw those who came across him to their death. And it turned out that he himself met his death in that very manner.
*
Before his death, he married Clymene, daughter of Catreus (according to the tragic poets, but according to the author of the
Returns
, Philyra, or according to Cercops, Hesione), and had three sons by her, Palamedes, Oiax, and Nausimedon.

¹
Lynceus became king of Argos after Danaos, and had a son,

2

Abas, by Hypermnestra; and Abas had twin sons, Acrisios and Proitos, by Aglaia, daughter of Mantineus. The twins quarrelled with one another even while they were still in the womb, and when they grew up, they went to war over the kingdom. (It was during this war that they became the first inventors of shields.) Acrisios gained the upper hand and drove Proitos from Argos. Arriving in Lycia at the court of Iobates, or according to some, of Amphianax, Proitos married the king’s daughter, whom Homer calls Anteia,
*
and the tragic poets, Stheneboia.
His father-in-law, with a Lycian army, restored Proitos to his own land, and he took possession of Tiryns, which was fortified for him by the Cyclopes.
*
The brothers divided the whole of the Argolid between them, and made it their home, Acrisios ruling in Argos, and Proitos in Tiryns.

²
By Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaimon, Acrisios had a daughter, Danae, and Proitos had three daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboia. When the daughters of Proitos were fully grown, they went mad, because, according to Hesiod, they refused to accept the rites of Dionysos, or, according to Acousilaos, because they had disparaged the wooden image of Hera.
*
In their madness, they wandered through the whole of the Argolid, and then, after passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese, rushed through the desert in a state of complete abandon. Melampous, the son of Amythaon and Eidomene, daughter of Abas, who was a diviner and the first man to discover that illnesses could be cured by drugs and purifications, promised to cure the girls if he was given a third of the kingdom in return. When Proitos refused to hand them over for treatment at such a high price, not only did the girls’ madness grow worse, but the other women
*
went mad also; for they too deserted their houses, destroyed their own children, and wandered into the wilderness. The calamity had developed to such an extreme that Proitos now offered to pay the demanded fee; but Melampous would promise to undertake the cure only if his brother Bias received a share of the land equal to his own. Fearing that if the cure were delayed, a still greater fee would be demanded of him, Proitos agreed to the cure on these terms.
*
So Melampous took the most vigorous of the young men, and with loud cries and ecstatic dancing, they chased the women out of the mountains and into Sicyon. During the pursuit, the eldest of Proitos’ daughters, Iphinoe, met her death; but the other two were duly purified, and recovered their reason. Proitos gave his daughters in marriage to Melampous and Bias, and later became the father of a son, Megapenthes.

¹
Bellerophon, the son of Glaucos and grandson of Sisyphos,

3

had accidentally killed his brother
*
Deliades (or according to some, Peiren, or according to others, Alcimenes) and came to Proitos to be purified.
*
Stheneboia fell in love with him,
*
and sent word to him proposing an assignation; but when he refused, she told Proitos that Bellerophon had been sending her messages in the hope of seducing her. Proitos believed her, and gave Bellerophon a letter to deliver to Iobates,
*
which con tained a message that he should put Bellerophon to death; so when Iobates had read it, he told him to kill the Chimaera, believing that he would be destroyed by the monster. For it was no easy prey for a multitude of men, let alone for one, seeing that it was a single creature which yet had the power of three, having the foreparts of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and a third head in the middle
*
—a goat’s head, through which it breathed fire. The beast was devastating the land and destroying the cattle. It is said, furthermore, that this Chimaera was reared by Amisodaros,
*
as Homer has stated also, and was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, as Hesiod records.
*