T

refrain of many caught by the poet

from the far-echoing chorus of classical verse.

"Listen and appear to us

In name of great Oceanus.

By th' earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
And Tethys' grave, majestic pace,
By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
And the Carpathian wizard's hook,
By scaly Triton's winding shell,
And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell,
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet,
And the songs of Sirens sweet,
By dead Parthenope's1 dear tomb
And fair Ligea's 1 golden comb,
Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks,
Sleeking her soft, alluring locks,
By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams with wily glance;
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle in thy headlong wave,
Till thou our summons answered have,
Listen and save." 2

1 See Commentary.

2 Milton's Comus, 859-889.

s the

CHAPTER XVII.

MYTHS OF THE OLDER HEROES.

THE HOUSE OF DANAUS.

§ 132. The Older and the Younger Heroes. We have already narrated the adventures of certain demigods and heroes, such as Prometheus, Deucalion, Cadmus, Amphion, Orpheus. Others of importance were Perseus, Hercules, Minos, Edipus, Theseus, Jason, Meleager, Peleus, Pelops, Castor and Pollux. These and their contemporaries may be called the Older Heroes. They are renowned either for individual exploits or for the part played by them in one or more of three great expeditions, the War against Laomedon of Troy,' the Voyage for the Golden Fleece,2 and the Hunt of the Calydonian Boar.3

The Younger Heroes were of a later generation, which was concerned in four important enterprises, the War of the Seven against Thebes, the Trojan War, the Wanderings of Ulysses, and the Adventures of Æneas.?

The exploits of the Older Heroes may be arranged in respect of their probable sequence in time, and of their grouping according to families of heroes. If we observe the principle of genealogy, one race, that of Inachus of Argos, attracts our notice in the heroes descended from Pelasgus, Belus, and Agenor. The family of Belus gives us the famous House of Danaüs; the family of Agenor, the Houses of Minos and Labdacus. Another race, that of Deucalion, gives us heroes of the Hellenic

the

branch, most notably those descended from Eolus. With these families most of the Older Heroes are, by blood or by adventure, to some extent connected. Bearing this fact in mind, and at the same time observing the chronological sequence of adventures, we obtain an arrangement of myths as illustrating the races, families, or houses: (1) of Danaüs of Argos, (2) of Æolus of Thessaly, (3) of Etolus, (4) of Minos of Crete, (5) of Cecrops and of Erichthonius of Attica, (6) of Labdacus of Thebes.1

$133. The Genealogy of Danaüs. As the Hellenes, in the north, traced their descent from Deucalion and Pyrrha of Thessaly, so the Pelasgic races of the south from the river-god Inachus, son of Oceanus. The son of Inachus, Phoroneus, lived in the Peloponnesus and founded the town of Argos. This Phoroneus conferred upon the Argives the benefits attributed by other Greeks to Prometheus. He was succeeded by his son Pelasgus, from whom a division of the Greek people derive their name. With the love of Jupiter for the sister of Phoroneus, the fair Io, we are already acquainted. Her son was Epaphus, king of Egypt, from whom were descended (1) Agenor of Phoenicia, father of Europa and Cadmus, and (2) Belus of Egypt, father of Ægyptus and Danaus. To the family of Agenor we shall return in the history of Minos, son of Europa, and of Edipus,3 descendant

between the sons of Ægyptus and the Danaïds. But in accordance with a treacherous command of Danaüs, all his daughters,

1 For references to genealogical tables, see Commentary, § 132.

4 Apollod. 2. 1. § 5, etc.; Pausanias; Ovid, Heroides 14; Horace, Odes 3: 11, 23.