Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/144

 112 HISTORY OF GREECE. of his favorite son Antilochus, who had fallen, along with so many brave companions in arms, in the Trojan war.i After Nestor the line of the Neleids numbers undistinguished names, Borus, Penthilus, and Andropompus, three succes- sive generations down to Melanthus, who on the invasion of Pelo- ponnesus by the Herakleids, quitted Pylos and retired to Athens, where he became king, in a manner which 1 shall hereafter re- count. His son Kodrus was the last Athenian king ; and Neleus, one of the sons of Kodrus, is mentioned as the principal conduc- tor of what is called the Ionic emigration from Athens to Asia Minor. 2 It is certain that during the historical age, not merely the princely family of the Kodrids in Miletus, Ephesus, and other Ionic cities, but some of the greatest families even in Athens itself, traced their heroic lineage through the Neleids up to Po- seidon : and the legends respecting Nestor and Periklymenos would find especial favor amidst Greeks with such feelings and belief. The Kodrids at Ephesus, and probably some other Ionic towns, long retained the title and honorary precedence of kings, even after they had lost the substantial power belonging to the office. They stood in the same relation, embodying both religious worship and supposed ancestry, to the Neleids and Poseidon, as the chiefs of the JEolic colonies to Agamemnon and Orestes. The Athenian despot Peisistratus was named after the son of Nestor in the Odyssey ; and we may safely presume that the heroic worship of the Neleids was as carefully cherished at the Ionic Miletus as at the Italian Metapontum. 3 Having pursued the line of Salmoneus and Neleus to the end of its lengendary career, we may now turn back to that of another son of -35olus, Kretheus, a line hardly less celebrated in respect of the heroic names which it presents. Alkestis, the most beau- tiful of the daughters of Pelias, 4 was promised by her father in 1 About Nestor, Iliad, i. 260-275 ; ii. 370; xi. 670-770; Otlyss. iii. 5, 110, 409. Strabo, xiv. p. 633. Hellanikus, in giving the genealogy from Neleus t Melanthus, traces it through Periklymenos and not through Nestor : the words of Herodotus imply that he must have included Nestor. 4 Iliad, ii. 715.
 * Hellanik. Fragm. 10, cd. Didot; Pausan. vii. 2, 3; Hcrodot. v. 65;
 * Herodot. v. 67 ; Strabo, vi. p 264 ; Mimnermus, Fragm. 9, Schncidewin.