famine might be averted. Ino persuaded the messengers to say that Apollo directed Phrixos to be sacrificed to Zeus. Compelled by his people Athamas reluctantly placed his son before the altar; but Nephele snatched away both her son and her daughter, and gave them a gold-fleeced ram she had obtained from Hermes, which carried them through the air over sea and land. They proceeded safely till they came to the sea between Sigeion and the Chersonese, into which Helle fell, and it was named from her Hellespontos (Helle's Sea). Phrixos went on to Colchis, to Æetes the son of Helios, who received him kindly, and gave him in marriage Chalciope his daughter. He there sacrificed his ram to Zeus Phyxios, and gave the golden fleece to Æetes, who nailed it to an oak in the grove of Ares.

Athamas, through the enmity of Hera to Ino, who had suckled the infant Dionysos, was afterwards seized with madness. In his phrensy he shot his son Learchos with an arrow, or, as others say, dashed him to pieces against a rock. Ino fled with her other son; and being closely pursued by her furious husband, sprang with her child from the cliff of Moluris near Corinth into the sea. The gods took pity on her and made her a sea-goddess under the name of Leucothea, and Melicertes a sea-god under that of Palæmôna.

Athamas, being obliged to leave Boeotia, inquired of the god where he should settle. He was told to establish himself in the place where he should be entertained by the wild beasts. Having wandered over many lands, he came one day to where some wolves were devouring the thighs of sheep. At the sight of him they fled, abandoning their prey. Judging this to be the fulfilment of the oracle, he settled in this place, built a town which he named from himself Athamantia; and marrying Themisto the daughter of Hypseus, had by her four children, Leucôn, Erythroe, Schoneus, and Ptoösb.

It is thus that we find this important mythe related by Apollodorus. There are however many variations in the tale. Thus it is said that Ino was Athamas' first wife, and that he put her away by the direction of Hera and married Nephele, who left him after she had borne two children, on finding that he still See above, p. 249. b Apollod. i. 9.

a

kept up an intercourse with Ino. When the response of the oracle came to Athamas he sent for Phrixos out of the country, desiring him to come and to bring the finest sheep in the flock for a sacrifice. The ram then spoke with a human voice to Phrixos warning him of his danger, and offering to carry him and his sister to a place of safety. The ram, it was added, died at Colchisa. It was also said that the flight of Phrixos was caused by his rejection of the amorous advances of his step-mother or his aunt', and again that in the time of dearth he offered himself as a voluntary victim.

It has been already observed that the tragic poets allowed themselves great liberties in their treatment of the ancient mythes. There is none which has suffered more at their hands than the present one, for it was a favourite subject with them. Thus Euripides in his Ino said that Athamas thinking that Ino had perished in the woods married Themisto; but Ino, who was alive, came and lived as a maid-servant unknown in the house of Athamas. Here Themisto made her the confidant of her design to destroy Ino's children, and directed her for that purpose to dress them in black and her own in white, that she might be able to distinguish them. Ino however reversed the orders, and Themisto unwittingly killed her own children, and then seeing what she had done slew herself.

We will now endeavour to point out the meaning of this very obscure legend. Athamas it is plain belonged to the Minyans, who dwelt in Boeotia and about the bay of Pagasa in Thessaly. At Alos in this last region stood a temple of Laphystiand Zeus, about which there was the following tradition. To punish the crime of Athamas the oracle directed that the eldest person of his posterity should abstain from entering the Prytaneion or senate-house, or if found there should be offered as a sacrifice. Many of those in this situation fled the country, and such as returned and were caught

a Philostephanos, ap. Schol. Il. vii. 86.

b Hygin. P. A. ii. 20.

Hygin. 4. Nonnus, ix. 247. seq. The last trait reminds one of Petit Poucet and the Ogre.

• Fright-giving; λαφύσσω is the same as σπεύδω, φεύγω.

e Herod. vii. 127.

in the Prytaneion were led forth to sacrifice bound with woollen fillets. These persons were said to be the descendents of Kytissoros the son of Phrixos, who had come from Colchis and saved his grandfather Athamas, when the people were about to sacrifice him as a sin-offering by command of the oracle. By this act Kytissoros had drawn the anger of the gods on his posterity.

It is not unlikely then that this mythe of Athamas took its rise from the sin-offering (ká@apμa), a real or symbolic human sacrifice which prevailed in various parts of Greece; and of which this was the most sublime form, as it represented not criminals, as elsewhere, but the noblest members of society, the descendents of Zeus himself, expiating by their lives for the sin not of themselves but of the peoplea. We shall find this mythe connected with the Argonautic Expedition.

̓Αγανῆ καὶ Πενθεύς. Agave et Pentheus.

Agaue, the remaining daughter of Cadmos, was married to Echiôn, one of the Spartans. Her son Pentheus succeeded his grandfather in the government over Thebes. During his reign, Dionysos came from the East and sought to introduce his orgies into his native city. The women all gave enthusiastically into the new religion, and Mount Cithærôn rang to the frantic yells of the Bacchantes. Pentheus sought to check the phrensy; but, deceived by the god, he went secretly and ascended a tree on Cithærôn to be an ocular witness of the revels. While there he was descried by his mother and aunts, to whom Dionysos made him appear to be a wild beast, and he was torn to pieces by them".

The name of Pentheus, it is plain, is derived from the grief (πévos) occasioned by his fate. Agaue (Illustrious) is an epithet of Persephone, who may have been made a heroine, as Thebes was a principal seat of the worship of Demeter and Kora.

Ζῆθος καὶ ̓Αμφίων. Zethus et Amphion.

After the death of Pentheus Thebes was governed by Po

a See Müller, Orchom. 161. seq.

b Eur. Bacchæ. Apollod. iii. 5. 2. Ovid, Met. iii. 511. seq.

lydoros the son of Cadmos, who married Nycteïs the daughter of Nycteus. Their son was Labdacos, who on succeeding his father opposed himself like Pentheus to the religion of Dionysos, and underwent a similar fate. As his son Laïos was but a year old, the throne was occupied by Lycos the brother of Nycteus.

Both Lycos and his brother, it is said, had fled from Eubœa for killing Phlegyas the son of Ares; and as they were related to Pentheus, he enrolled them among the citizens of Thebes. Lycos on the death of Labdacos was chosen polemarch by the Thebans; and he seized the regal power, which he occupied for twenty years, till he was killed by Zethos and Amphiôn.

These were the sons of Zeus by Antiope the daughter of Nycteus. Terrified at the threats of her father when the consequences of her frailty became apparent, Antiope fled to Sicyôn, where she married Epopeus. Nycteus out of grief put an end to himself, having previously charged his brother Lycos to punish Epopeus and Antiope. Lycos accordingly marched an army against Sicyôn, took it, slew Epopeus, and led Antiope away captive. On the way to Thebes she brought forth twins at Eleutheræ. The unhappy babes were exposed on the mountain; but a neatherd having found them, reared them, calling the one Zethos, the other Amphiôn. The former devoted himself to the care of cattle; the latter passed his time in the practice of music, having been presented with a lyre and taught to play on it by Hermes.

Meantime Lycos had put Antiope in bonds, and she was treated with the utmost cruelty by him and his wife Dirce. But her chains loosed of themselves, and she fled to the dwelling of her sons in search of shelter and protection. Having recognised her, they resolved to avenge her wrongs: they attacked and slew Lycos, and tying Dirce by the hair to a bull let him drag her till she was dead: they then cast her body into the fount which was named from her. They expelled Laïos, seized on the government, and walled-in the town; for which purpose the stones are said to have moved in obedience to the lyre of Amphiôn.

Zethos married Thebe, from whom he named the town. Amphiôn espoused Niobe the daughter of Tantalos, who bore