Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/411

 The European Sky-god. 381

Mygdonia, and many others. At length, when he was not so strong as he used to be, he changed his rule and ordained that in future the suitors should contend with each other, not with him, — the penalty and the prize to be as before. Hereupon two suitors presented themselves, Dryas^^ and Clitus. Pallene herself favoured Clitus; and an old servitor of hers induced the charioteer of Dryas to remove the linch- pins of his master's chariot before the fray. Consequently, when Dryas drove against Clitus, his wheels came off : he fell, and was run over and killed by Clitus. Sithon, on realising his daughter's deceit, built a huge funeral pyre for Dryas, and was minded to slay Pallene upon it. But, according to one account,^^ Aphrodite appeared by night to all the townsfolk, and so rescued the maiden ; according to another,^^ some portent and a sudden downfall of rain made Sithon change his mind. Anyhow, he prepared a wedding- feast for the Thracians who were present, and bestowed Pallene upon Clitus. At Sithon's death they succeeded to his kingdom. Nonnus^^ makes Dionysus demand Pallene of Sithon, who bids him wrestle wuth her. He is victorious and claims his prize ; but, shocked at the skulls of the suitors with which the palace is adorned, slays the impious Sithon with a blow of his thyrsus. This version of the myth is probably later than the other : but in any case the whole tale furnishes a doublet to that of Oenomaus. The latter is thus told in the Epitome of Apollodoriis?^ Oeno- maus, king of Pisa, had a daughter Hippodamia, for whose hand he instituted a contest on the following terms. The suitor was to take Hippodamia on his chariot and flee to the Isthmus of Corinth. Oenomaus, clad in armour and

'^ The name is appropriate : it was natural for the " Oak "-man {p^^vac) to claim the kingdom. See Class. Rev., xviii., 80 ff.

^ Conon narr., lO.

^^ Parthen. narr, am., 6.


 * ^ Nonn. Dion., 48. 90—237.

™ Apollod. epit. 2. 4 ff., cp. Diod., 4. 73, Eustath., 183, 15 ff., Myg.fab., 84, alib.