The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics) (10 page)

Canace bore Hopleus, Nireus, Epopeus, Aloeus, and Triops to Poseidon. Aloeus married Iphimedeia, daughter of Triops, but she fell in love with Poseidon, and went down to the sea again and again, where she would scoop water from the waves with her hands and pour it into her lap. Poseidon had intercourse with her and fathered two sons, Otos and Ephialtes, who are known as the Aloads.
*
They grew a cubit broader every year and a fathom
*
higher; and when they were nine years old, and nine cubits across and nine fathoms in height, they resolved to fight against the gods. They piled Ossa on Olympos and Pelion
*
on Ossa, and threatened to use these mountains to climb up to heaven; and they said that by filling the sea with mountains they would turn the sea into dry land and the dry land into sea. And Ephialtes sought to win Hera, and Otos to win Artemis; they also imprisoned Ares.
*
But Hermes freed him surreptitiously, and the Aloads met their death on Naxos
*
as the result of a subterfuge by Artemis; for she changed herself into a deer and leapt between them, and in their desire to hit the beast they struck one another with their javelins.

⁵
Calyce and Aethlios had a son, Endymion, who led the Aeolians out of Thessaly and founded Elis. It is said by some, however, that Endymion was a son of Zeus. Because of his exceptional beauty the Moon fell in love with him; and when Zeus allowed him the choice of whatever he wished, he chose
to sleep for ever and so remain untouched by either age or death.

⁶
By a naiad nymph, or according to some, by Iphianassa, Endymion had a son, Aitolos, who killed Apis, son of Phoroneus,
*
and fled to the land of the Curetes.
*
There he killed the sons of Phthia and Apollo who had welcomed him, namely, Doros, Laodocos, and Polypoites, and called the country Aetolia after himself.

⁷
By Pronoe, daughter of Phorbos, Aitolos had two sons, Pleuron and Calydon, after whom the two cities in Aetolia were named. Pleuron married Xanthippe, daughter of Doros, and had a son, Agenor, and three daughters, Sterope, Stratonice, and Laophonte. To Calydon and Aiolia, daughter of Amy-thaon, were born two daughters, Epicaste and Protogeneia, who bore Oxylos to Ares. Pleuron’s son Agenor married Epicaste, daughter of Calydon, and fathered Porthaon and a daughter, Demonice, who bore Evenos, Molos, Pylos, and Thestios to Ares.

⁸
Evenos had a daughter, Marpessa, who, while she was being courted by Apollo, was carried off by Idas, son of Aphareus, in a winged chariot which he had received from Poseidon. Chasing after him
*
in a chariot, Evenos went as far as the River Lycormas, but finding it impossible to catch up with Idas, he slaughtered his horses and hurled himself into the river, which is now named the Evenos after him.
⁹
Idas went on to Messene,
*
where Apollo happened to meet him and tried to take the girl away from him. As they were fighting for her hand, Zeus separated them and allowed the girl herself to choose which of them she preferred to live with; and Marpessa, fearing that Apollo might leave her when she grew old, selected Idas for her husband.

¹⁰
By Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboia, Thestios had three daughters, Althaia, Leda, and Hypermnestra, and four sons, Iphiclos, Evippos, Plexippos, and Eurypylos.

By Euryte, daughter of Hippodamas, Porthaon had five sons, Oineus, Agrios, Alcathoos, Melas, and Leucopeus, and
a daughter, Sterope, who is said to have borne the Sirens to Acheloos.
*

¹
Oineus, the king of Calydon, was the first to receive a vine

8

plant from Dionysos.
*
He married Althaia, daughter of Thestios, and fathered Toxeus—who was put to death by Oineus himself for jumping over the ditch
*
—and two further sons, Thyreus and Clymenos. He also had a daughter, Gorge, who became the wife of Andraimon, and another daughter, Deianeira, who is said to have been Althaia’s child by Dionysos. Deianeira drove a chariot and practised the arts of war; and Heracles wrestled with Acheloos to gain her hand.

²
Althaia also bore to Oineus a son, Meleager, whose real father is said to have been Ares. When he was seven days old, it is said that the Fates appeared and announced that Meleager would die when the log burning on the hearth was fully consumed. In response, Althaia snatched it from the fire and placed it in a chest.
*
Meleager developed into an invulnerable and valiant man, but met his death in the following manner. When Oineus was offering the first-fruits from the annual harvest in the land to all the gods, he forgot Artemis alone. In her anger, she sent a boar of exceptional size and strength, which prevented the land from being sown, and destroyed the cattle and the people who encountered it. To hunt this boar,
*
Oineus summoned together all the bravest men in Greece, announcing that he would give the beast’s hide to the man who killed it, as a prize for his valour.

These are the people who gathered to hunt the boar: Meleager, son of Oineus, and Dryas, son of Ares, both from Calydon; Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus, from Messene; Castor and Polydeuces, sons of Zeus and Leda, from Lacedaimon; Theseus, son of Aigeus, from Athens; Admetos, son of Pheres, from Pherae; Ancaios and Cepheus, sons of Lycourgos, from Arcadia; Jason, son of Aison, from Iolcos; Iphicles, son of Amphitryon, from Thebes; Peirithoos, son of Ixion, from Larissa; Peleus, son of Aiacos, from Phthia; Telamon, son of
Aiacos, from Salamis; Eurytion, son of Actor, from Phthia; Atalante, daughter of Schoineus, from Arcadia; Amphiaraos, son of Oicles, from Argos; and with the aforementioned, also the sons of Thestios.

When they were assembled, Oineus entertained them as his guests for nine days. On the tenth, when Cepheus, Ancaios, and some others considered it beneath their dignity to take part in the hunt with a woman,
*
Meleager—who wanted to have a child by Atalante although he was married to Cleopatra, the daughter of Idas and Marpessa—compelled them to set out with her on the hunt. When they had surrounded the boar, Hyleus and Ancaios were killed by the beast and, by accident, Peleus struck down Eurytion with his javelin. The first to hit the boar was Atalante, who shot it in the back with an arrow, and the second, Amphiaraos, who shot it in the eye, but Meleager struck the death blow by stabbing it in the side. And when he received the skin, he gave it to Atalante. The sons of Thestios,
*
however, took it amiss that a woman should get the prize when men were present, saying that it belonged to them by right of birth if Meleager chose not to take it.
³
Angered by this, Meleager killed the sons of Thestios and returned the skin to Atalante. But Althaia was so distressed by the loss of her brothers that she rekindled the log, bringing Meleager’s life to a sudden end.

It is said by some,
*
however, that Meleager met his end not in that way, but as follows. The sons of Thestios raised an argument about the hunt, saying that Iphiclos had been the first to hit the boar, and because of this a war broke out between the Curetes and the Calydonians. When Meleager marched out and killed some of the sons of Thestios, Althaia cursed him, which so enraged him that he confined himself to his house. But when the enemy forces were drawing close to the walls, and the citizens approached him as suppliants and asked him to come to their aid, he was persuaded by his wife, though with difficulty, to march out, and after he had killed the other sons of Thestios, he met his own death in the fighting. After the death of Meleager, Althaia and Cleopatra hanged themselves, and the women who wailed over his dead body were transformed into birds.
*

⁴
After Althaia’s death, Oineus married Periboia, the daughter of Hipponoos. According to the author of the
Thebaid
, Oineus received her as a prize after the sack of Olenos, but according to Hesiod she had been seduced by Hippostratos, son of Amarynceus, and her father sent her away from Olenos in Achaea to Oineus,
*
who lived some distance from Greece, with orders that he kill her.
⁵
Or according to some, Hipponoos discovered that his daughter had been seduced by Oineus, and he sent her away to him when she was already pregnant. It was by her that Oineus fathered Tydeus. Peisandros says, however, that Tydeus was born to Gorge; for in accordance with the will of Zeus, Oineus conceived a passion for his own daughter.

When Tydeus grew to manhood, he was exiled for having killed, according to some accounts, Alcathoos, a brother of Oineus, or according to the author of the
Alcmaeonid
, the sons of Melas
*
who had plotted against Oineus, namely Pheneus, Euryalos, Hyperlaos, Antiochos, Eumedes, Sternops, Xanthippos, and Sthenelaos. According to Pherecydes, however, he killed his own brother,
*
Olenias. When Agrios tried to bring charges against him, he fled to Adrastos in Argos, and married Adrastos’ daughter, Deipyle, who bore him a son, Diomedes.
*

⁶
Tydeus joined Adrastos in the expdition against Thebes, where he was wounded by Melanippos and died. The sons of Agrios—Thersites,
*
Onchestos, Prothoos, Celeutor, Lycopeus, and Melanippos—robbed Oineus of his kingdom and gave it to their father, and furthermore they imprisoned Oineus (who was still alive) and ill-treated him. Afterwards, however, Diomedes arrived in secret from Argos with Alcmaion and killed all the sons of Agrios, apart from Onchestos and Thersites, who had fled beforehand to the Peloponnese; and since Oineus was now an old man, Diomedes gave the kingdom to Andraimon, who had married Oineus’ daughter, and took Oineus back with him to the Peloponnese. But the two sons of Agrios who had managed to escape laid an ambush for the old man near the Hearth of Telephos in Arcadia, and killed
him. Diomedes took his body to Argos, and buried him at the place where a city called Oinoe, which is named after him, now lies. After his marriage to Aigialeia, the daughter of Adrastos (or according to some, of Aigialeus), Diomedes took part in the expeditions against Thebes and Troy.

¹
To proceed to the sons of Aiolos, Athamas ruled in Boeotia,

9

and had a son, Phrixos, and a daughter, Helle, by Nephele. He then married Ino, and had two sons by her, Learchos and Melicertes. But Ino began to scheme against the children of Nephele and persuaded the women to parch the wheat-grain;
*
and they took the grain and did so, in secret from the men. When the earth was sown with this parched grain, it failed to produce its annual crop, so Athamas sent envoys to Delphi to ask how they could be delivered from this barrenness. But Ino persuaded the envoys to say that, according to the oracle, the infertility would come to an end if Phrixos were sacrificed to Zeus. When Athamas heard this, he was compelled by the inhabitants of the land to bring Phrixos to the altar; but Nephele snatched him away together with her daughter Helle,
*
and gave them a ram with a golden fleece which she had received from Hermes. Carried through the sky by this ram, they passed over land and sea alike; but while they were over the stretch of sea that lies between Sigeia and the Chersonese, Helle slipped into the waters, and the sea where she died was named the
Hellespont
after her. Phrixos for his part went to the land of the Colchians, which was ruled by Aietes, son of the Sun and Perseis, and brother of Circe and of Pasiphae, who became the wife of Minos. Aietes welcomed Phrixos and offered him one of his daughters, Chalciope, as a wife. Phrixos sacrificed the ram with the golden fleece to Zeus God of Escape, and gave its fleece to Aietes, who nailed it to an oak in a grove sacred to Ares. By Chalciope Phrixos had four sons, Argos, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisoros.

²
Later, through the wrath of Hera,
*
Athamas was also deprived of his children by Ino; for he himself, in a fit of madness, killed Learchos with an arrow, and Ino threw herself into
the sea with Melicertes. Exiled from Boeotia, he asked the gods where he should settle, and was told by the oracle to settle at the place where he was offered hospitality by wild beasts. After he had crossed large expanses of land, he chanced upon some wolves as they were sharing out morsels of sheep; and when they caught sight of him, they fled, leaving behind the food that they were sharing. So Athamas founded a colony there, calling the land Athamantia
*
after himself, and married Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, who bore him four sons, Leucon, Erythrios, Schoineus, and Ptoos.

³
Sisyphos, son of Aiolos, founded Ephyra, now known as Corinth,
*
and married Merope, daughter of Atlas. A son, Glaucos, was born to them, and by Eurymede, Glaucos had a son, Bellerophon, who killed the fire-breathing Chimaera.
*
Sisyphos undergoes the punishment in Hades
*
of rolling a rock with his hands and head in an attempt to roll it over the top of a hill; but however hard he pushes it, it forces its way back down again. He suffers this punishment because of Aegina, daughter of Asopos; for Zeus had carried her off in secret, and Siyphos is said to have revealed this to Asopos, who went in search of her.

⁴
Deion, who reigned over Phocis, married Diomede, daughter of Xouthos, who bore him a daughter, Asterodia, and four sons, Ainetos, Actor, Phylacos, and Cephalos, who married Procris, daughter of Erechtheus. But afterwards Dawn fell in love with him and carried him off
*

⁵
Perieres took possession of Messene, and married Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, who bore him several sons, Aphareus, and Leucippos and Tyndareus, and also Icarios. But many say that Perieres was a son not of Aiolos, but of Cynortas,
*
son of Amyclas; and for that reason, we will tell the story of his descendants in our account of the family of Atlas.