Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/152

 120 HISTORY OF GREECE. thian post Eumelus either found or framed an heroic genealogy for his native city independent both of -ZEolus and Sisyphus. According to this genealogy, Ephyre, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, was the primitive tenant of the Corinthian territory, Asopus of the Sikyonian : both were assigned to the god Helios, in adjusting a dispute between him and Poseidon, by Briareus. Helios divided the territory between his two sons .<Eetes and Aloeus : to the former he assigned Corinth, to the latter Sikyon. -ZEetes, obeying the admonition of an oracle, emigrated to Kolchis, leaving his territory under the rule of Bunos, the son of Hermes, with the stipulation that it should be restored whenever either he or any of his descendants returned. After the death of Bunos, both Corinth and Sikyon were possessed by Epopeus, son of Aloeus, a wicked man. His son Marathon left him in disgust and retired into Attica, but returned after his death and succeeded to his territory, which he in turn divided between his two sons Corinthos and Sikyon, from whom the names of the two districts were first derived. Corinthos died without issue, and the Corin- thians then invited Medea from lolkos as the representative of ./Eetes : she with her husband Jason thus obtained the sovereignty of Corinth. 1 This legend of Eumelus, one of the earliest of the genealogical poets, so different from the story adopted by Neo- phron or Euripides, was followed certainly by Simonides and seemingly by Theopompus. 2 The incidents in it are imagined and arranged with a view to the supremacy of Medea; the emigration of JEetes and the conditions under which he transfer- red his sceptre, being so laid out as to confer upon Medea an hereditary title to the throne. The Corinthians paid to Medea and to her children solemn worship, either divine or heroic, in conjunction with Here Akraa, 3 and this was sufficient to give to 1 Pausan. ii. 1, 1 ; 3, 10. Schol. ad Pindar. Olymp. xiii. 74. Schol. Lycoph. 174-1024. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 1212. 2 Simonid. ap. Schol. ad Eurip. Mod. 10-20; Theopompus, Fragm. 340, Didot ; though Welckcr CDer Episch. Cycl. p. 29) thinks that this docs not belong to the historian Theopompus. Epimenides also followed the story of Eame'las in making ./Eetes a Corinthian (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. iii. 242 j. 1 Hepl <5 T?/f dg Kopiv&ov /zeToiKqaeuf, 'Imrve EKTI^FTOI Kal 'EA/ldrtKOf Ir* KS ftejSaai^EVKe ri/f Kopivdov 17 Mr/ctaa, Ety^Aof laropel Kal 'Sifiuvidij^' rtiv 7% ' Ap.ii'af "Hf of eoprtiv i*Ti$f!.(. (Schol. Eurip. Med, 10)
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