impressed on the minds of men. Sisyphos is then the representative of the restless desire of knowledge, which aspires to attain a height it is denied to man to reach, and exhausted in the effort falls suddenly back into the depths of earthly weakness. This is expressed in the fine picture of the Odyssey, where every word is significant, and where we may observe Sisyphos is spoken of in indefinite terms, and not assigned any earthly locality or parentagea.

In the legendary history however we find him placed at Corinth, and apparently the representative of the trading spirit of that city. He is a son of Æolos, probably on account of his name (in conformity with a very usual practice in antiquity); or it may be that the crafty trader is the son of the Windman, as the wind enables him to import and export his merchandise. He is married to a daughter of the symbol of navigation, Atlas, and her name would seem to indicate that he is engaged with men in the active business of lifed. His children are Glaucos, a name of the sea-god, Ornytiôn (Quickmover), Thersandros (Warm-man) and Halmos (Seaman), who apparently denote the fervour and bustle of commerce".

The legends above narrated probably have their sole origin in the name of Sisyphos.

Βελλεροφόντης. Bellerophon.

The adventures of this hero, the son of Glaucos the son of Sisyphos, form a pleasing episode of the Iliasf, where they are related to Diomedes by Glaucos the grandson of Bellerophontes.

The gods had endowed Bellerophontes with manly vigour and beauty. Anteia, the wife of Protos king of Argos, fixed her love upon him, and sought a corresponding return. But

a See Welcker, Tril. 550.

b Aióλos, cunning.

See Od. x. 1. seq.

Hesiod calls Sisyphos aiolóμntis.

The primary meaning of aióλos is swift.

4 Méρones, mortals, from pópos death; of is a mere adjectival ending.

* For all the subjects here touched on see Welcker in Schwenk, 320. seq. Tril. 550. seq. Völcker, Myth. der Jap. 118. seq.

Il. vi. 144. seq. The genuineness of this episode is doubted of by Böttiger. See Völcker, Myth. der Jap. 118. note.

the virtuous youth rejecting all her amorous advances, hate occupied the place of love in the bosom of the disappointed queen. She accused him to Protos of an attempt on her honour. The credulous king gave ear to her falsehood, but would not incur the reproach of putting him to death, as she desired. He therefore sent Bellerophontes to Lycia, to his father-in-law the king of that country, giving him 'deadly characters' written in a sealed tableta, which he was to present to the king of Lycia, and which were to cause his death.

Beneath the potent guidance of the gods Bellerophontes came to Lycia and the flowing Xanthos. Nine days the king entertained him, and slew nine oxen; but when the tenth rose-fingered Dawn appeared,' he asked to see the token (σîμa) which he had brought from his son-in-law. When he had received it, he resolved to comply with the desire of Protos; and he first sent his guest to slay the Chimæra, a monster with the upper part a lion, the lower a serpent, the middle a goat (xipaipa), and which breathed forth flaming fire. Depending on the signs of the gods, Bellerophontes slew this monster, and then was ordered to go and fight the Solymians; and this he said was the severest combat he ever fought. He lastly slew the man-like Amazons; and as he was returning the king laid an ambush for him, composed of the bravest men of Lycia; of whom not one returned home, for Bellerophontes slew them all. The king now perceiving him to be of the race of the gods, kept him in Lycia, giving him his daughter and half the royal dignity, and the people bestowed on him an ample temenos of arable and plantation land. By this princess Bellerophontes had three children, Isandros, Hippolochos, and Laodameia; which last was by Zeus the mother of Sarpedôn. Falling at length under the displeasure of all the gods, 'he wandered alone in the Plain of Wandering' (Tedíov àλýïov), consuming his soul, shunning the path of men.'

6

Later authorities tell usb that Bellerophontes was at first named Hipponoös: but having accidentally killed one of his

a It is a disputed point whether these characters were letters, or of the same kind with the Mexican picture-writing. See Wolf's Prolegomena to Homer. Apollod. ii. 3. Pind. Isth. vii. 63. seq. Hygin. 57. Id. P. A. ii. 18. Sch. Il. vi. 155. Tzetz. Lyc. 17.

relatives named Belleros, he thence derived his second name. He was purified of the bloodshed by Protos, whose wife is also called Sthenoboa, and the king of Lycia is named Iobates. By the aid of the winged steed Pegasos Bellerophontes gained the victory over all whom Iobates sent him to encounter. Sthenoboa, hearing of his success, hung herself. Bellerophontes at last attempted by means of Pegasos to ascend to heaven: Zeus, incensed at his boldness, sent an insect to sting the steed; and he flung his rider to the earth, where he wandered in solitude and melancholy till his death.

Though Homer makes no mention of Pegasos, this steed forms an essential part of the mythe of Bellerophontes. In the Theogony it is said of the Chimæra that she was killed by Pegasos and the 'good (éσλòs) Bellerophontes'a. But though all seem agreed in giving the winged steed to the hero, none tell us how he obtained him. Here however Pindar comes to our aid with a very remarkable legend, which connects Bellerophontes with Corinth (and it is the only account that really does so), and furnishes us with a key to his mythe.

According to this poet, Bellerophontes, who reigned at Corinth, being about to undertake the three adventures above mentioned, wished to possess the winged steed Pegasos, who used to come to drink at the fount of Peirene on the Acrocorinth. After many fruitless efforts to catch him he applied for advice to the soothsayer Polyeidos, and was directed by him to go and sleep at the altar of Athena. He obeyed the prophet, and in the dead of the night the goddess appeared in a dream to him, and giving him a bridle bade him sacrifice a bull to his sire Poseidon-Damæos (Tamer), and present the bridle to the steed. On awaking, Bellerophontes found the bridle lying beside him. He obeyed the injunctions of the goddess, and raised an altar to herself as Hippeia (Of-theHorse). Pegasos at once yielded his mouth to the magic bit, and the hero mounting him achieved his adventures.

a

We do not well see how this narrative can be made to ac

Theog. 325. 'Eσ¤λòs and åɣa¤òs in the old Greek poets answer exactly to the good of the romances of chivalry, where the good knight is the brave knight.

b Ol. xiii. 85. seq.

cord with the Homeric tale, which was however known to Pindar; for there is not the slightest allusion in it to Protos and Anteia, or to Lycia, and the hero apparently sets out on his adventures from Corinth. It would not surprise us if the ancient form of the legend was that a prince of Corinth had, by the aid of a winged horse, ridden through the air, and achieved adventures in various parts of the world.

But in reality the foundation of this mythe lies still deeper. In Bellerophontes we have only one of the forms of Poseidon, namely as Hippios. This god is his fathera; and he is also the sire of Pegasos; and in the two combined we have a Poseidon-Hippios, the rider of the waves,-a symbol of the navigation of the ancient Ephyra. The adventures of the hero may have signified the real or imaginary perils to be encountered in voyages to distant countries; and when the original sense of the mythe was lost, the King (Prætos, πρŵτоs), and his wife Foe (Anteia, from άvra), and the common lovetale were introduced to assign a cause for the adventures.

In this mythe too we find that mysterious connexion between Poseidon and Pallas-Athene and the horse more fully revealed than elsewhere. They are the parents of Pegasos (for Athena and Medusa are the same), that is, probably of the ship; and he is worshiped as the Breaker (Aaμaîos), she as the Bridler (Xaλivitis)e. Whether the legend viewed the goddess in her physical or in her moral character, it is difficult to determine.

Bellerophontes is a name, if possible, more enigmatic than Argeiphontes and Persephone. It is probably derived from some word of which no traces are now to be foundf.

a Pind. ut sup. ver. 99. Sch. Il. vi. 155. Glaucos is, like Ægeus, an epithet of the sea-god.

See above, p. 253.

In the Theogony, ver. 282, it is said,

e Or Entreater, from ávriáw.

Τῳ μὲν ἐπώνυμον ἦν ὅτ ̓ ἄρ ̓ Ὠκεανοῦ περὶ πηγὰς

Γενθ'.

It may also be derived from IIHгQ, πηуvõμɩ, to construct or build. There are other instances of legends founded on different derivations of the same name. eThere was a temple of Athena under this name at Corinth, Paus. ii. 4, 1,5; and Poseidon was there named Damæos. Sch. Pind. Ol, xiii. 98.

f According to Eustathius and others τὰ ἔλλερα are τὰ κακά.

CHAPTER VII.

MYTHES OF ARGOLIS.

THE chief seat of the legendary lore of the Peloponnese was the Argolic peninsula; and here we meet a mythic cycle totally distinct from those of Hellas Proper. The great patriarch of the latter was Deucaliôn, whose posterity were brought into connexion with the Cadmeians of Thebes and the Erechtheids of Attica, and to whom the principal legends of the north and west of the Peloponnese also refer. The Argive mythic history commences with the river Inachos and his son Phoroneus. It is, moreover, in this cycle alone that we find an attempt at connecting Greece and Egypt in the mythic period; for, as we have shown above, the Egyptian origin of the Attic Cecrops is a historic sophism, and not a mythic tradition.

Ίναχος καὶ Φορωνεύς. Inachus et Phoroneus.

Inachos, a son of Oceanos and Tethys, married his sister the Oceanis Melia, by whom he had a son named Phoroneusa, the first man according to one tradition, while another makes him collect the rude inhabitants into society and give them fire and social institutions. He also decided a dispute for the land between Hera and Poseidôn in favour of the former, who thence became the tutelar deity of Argos. By the nymph Laodice Phoroneus had a son named Apis, from whom the peninsula was named Apia; and a daughter Niobe, the first mortal woman who enjoyed the love of Zeus. Her offspring by the god were Argos and Pelasgos, and the country was named from the former, the people from the latter.

Nothing can be more simple than this genealogy. The

a Apollod. ii. 1.

b Paus. ii. 15, 5.

Id. ib. The river-gods Inachos, Cephisos, and Asteriôn were his assessors; and Poseidon in revenge caused them all to fail in dry weather.