Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/123

 PERSEIDS AT MYKENJL 91 like those of Tiryns, of which remains are yet to be seen, were built for him by the Lykian Cyclopes. 1 We here reach the commencement of the Perseid dynasty of Mykenae. It should be noticed, however, that there were among the ancient legends contradictory accounts of the foundation of this city. Both the Odyssey and the Great Eoiai enumerated, among the heroines, Mykene, the Eponyma of the city; the former poem classifying her with Tyro and Alkmene, the latter describing her as the daughter of Inachus and wife of Arestor. And Akusilaus mentioned an Eponymus Mykeneus, the son of Sparton and grandson of Phoroneus. 2 The prophetic family of Melampus maintained itself in one of the three parts of the divided Argeian kingdom for five gene- rations, down to Amphiaraos and his sons Alkmjeon and Amphi lochos. The dynasty of his brother Bias, and that of Megapen- thes, son of Prostos, continued each for four generations : a list of barren names fills up the interval. 3 The Perseids of Mykenae boasted a descent long and glorious, heroic as well as historical, continuing down to the last sovereigns of Sparta. 4 The issue of Perseus was numerous : his son Alkceos was father of Amphi- tryon ; another of his sons, Elektryon, was father of Alkme"ne ; 5 a third, Sthenelos, father of Eurystheus. After the death of Perseus, Alkoeos and Amphitryon dwelt at Tiryns. The latter became engaged in a quarrel with Elektryon 1 Pans. ii. 15, 4 ; ii. 16, 5. Apollod. ii. 2. Pherekyd. Fragm. 26, Dind. 16. Pausan. ii. 16, 4. Hekatajus derived the name of the town from the (LVKTjs of the sword of Perseus (Fragm. 360, Dind.). The Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 1247, mentions Mykeneus as son of Sparton, but grandson of Phegeus the brother of Phoroneus. 3 Pausan. ii. 18, 4. 4 Herodot. vi. 53. daughter of Elektryon ; the genealogical poet, Asios, called her the daugh- ter of Amphiaraos and Eriphyle (Asii Fragm. 4, ed. Markt. p. 412). The date of Asios cannot be precisely fixed; but he may be probably assigned to an epoch between the 30th and 40th Olympiad. Asios must have adopted a totally different legend respecting the birth of H6rr.kles and the circumstances preceding it, among which the deaths of her father and brothers are highly influential. Nor could he have accepted the received chronology of the sieges of Thebes and Troy.
 * Odyss. ii. 120. Hesiod. Fragment. 154. Marktscheff. Akusil. Fragm.
 * In the Hesiodic Shield of Herakles, Alkmene is distinctly mentioned as