Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/141

 NELEUS. - MELAMPUS. J f, Thessaly. Pelias got possession of it, and dwelt there in plenty and prosperity ; but he had offended the goddess Here by killing Sidero upon her altar, and the effects of her wrath were manifest- ed in his relations with his nephew Jason. 1 Neleus quitted Thessaly, went into Peloponnesus, and there founded the kingdom of Pylos. He purchased by immense marriaja presents, the privilege of wedding the beautiful Chloris, daughter of Amphion, king of Orchomenos, by whom lie had twelve sons and but one daughter 2 the fair and captivating Pero, whom suitors from all the neighborhood courted in mar. riage. But Neleus, " the haughtiest of living men," 3 refused to entertain the pretensions of any of them: he would grant his daughter only to that man who should bring to him the oxen of Iphiklos, from Phylake in Thessaly. These piccious animals were carefully guarded, as well by herdsmen as by a dog whom neither man nor animal could approach. Nevertheless, Bias, the son of Amythaon, nephew of Neleus, being desperately enamored of Pero, prevailed upon his brother Melampus to undertake for his sake the perilous adventure, in spite of the prophetic knowl- edge of the latter, which forewarned him that though he would ultimately succeed, the prize must be purchased by severe cap- tivity and suffering. Melampus, in attempting to steal the oxen, was seized and put in prison ; from whence nothing but his prophetic powers rescued him. Being acquainted with the lan- guage of worms, he heard these animals communicating to each other, in the roof over his head, that the beams were nearly eaten through and about to fall in. He communicated this intelligence to his guards, and demanded to be conveyed to another place of confinement, announcing that the roof would presently fall in and bury them. The prediction was fulfilled, and Phylakos, father of marks its ancient date : the final circumstance of that tale was, that the city and its inhabitants were annihilated. Ephorus makes Salmoneus king of the Epeians and of the Pisatte (Fragm- 15, ed. Didot). The lost drama of Sophokles, called Safy/wvei)f, was a dpafia aarvoiKiv See Dindorf s Fragm. 483. 1 Horn. Od. xi. 280. Apollod. i. 9, 9. icparepu depaTror-re Atdf, etc. J NgXfa re /eya$xyzoi>, ayauo'rarov &OVTUV ("Horn. OdjS3. xv. 228).
 * Diodor. iv. 68.