Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/167

 THEBES AND OECIIOMENU54. 135 menos. Moreover tbe savage mutilations inflicted by the hero on the tribute-seeking envoys, so faithfully portrayed in his sur- name Rhinokoloustes, infuse into the mythe a portion of that hitter feeling which so long prevailed between Thebes and Or- chomenos, and which led the Thebans, as soon as the battle of Leuctra had placed supremacy in their hands, to destroy and de- populate their rival. 1 The ensuing generation saw the same fate retorted upon Thebes, combined with the restoration of Orcho- menos. The legendary grandeur of this city continued, long after it had ceased to be distinguished for wealth and power, im- perishably recorded both in the minds of the nobler citizens and in the compositions of the poets ; the emphatic language of Pau- sanias shows how much he found concerning it in the old epic. 2 SECTION II. DAUGHTERS OF AEOLUS. With several of the daughters of JEolus memorable mythical pedigrees and narratives are connected. Alcyene married Keyx, the son of Eosphoros, but both she and her husband displayed in a high degree the overweening insolence common in the -ZEolic race. The wife called her husband Zeus, while he addressed her as Here, for which presumptuous act Zeus punished them by changing both into birds. 3 Canace had by the god Poseidon several children, amongst 1 Theocrit. xvi. 104. T i2 'Ereo/c^efOi ftvyarpei; deal, al MLVVEIOT 'Opxofievov (jtiheoiaai, u,Trex$6nev6v nona Ofjflaif. The scholiast gives a sense to these words much narrower than they really bear. See Diodor. xv. 79; Pausan. ix. 15. In the oration which Isokrates places in the mouth of a Platsean, complaining of the oppressions of Thebes, the ancient servitude and tribute to Orchomenos is cast in the teeth of the Thebans (Isokrat. Orat. Plataic. vol. iii. p. 32, Auger). 2 Pausan. ix. 34, 5. See also the fourteenth Olympic Ode of Pindar, ad- dressed to the Orchomenian Asopikus. The learned and instructive work of K. 0. Miiller, Orchomenos und die Minyer, embodies everything which can be known respecting this once-memorable city; indeed the contents of the work extends much farther than its title promises. 3 Apollodor. i. 7, 4. A. Keyx, king of Trachin, the friend of Herakles and protector of the HtVakleids to the extent of his power (Hesiod. Scut Hercul. 355-473 : Apollodor. ii. 7, 5 ; Hekatae. Fragm. 353, Didot.).