Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/218

 186 HISTORY OF GREECE. ousy of their bastard brother, Phokus, in consequence of his eminent skill in gymnastic contests, conspired to put him to death. Telamon flung his quoit at him while they were playing together, and Peleus despatched him by a blow with his hatchet in the back. They then concealed the dead body in a wood, but JEakus, having discovered both the act and the agents, banished the brothers from the island. 1 For both of them eminent destinies were in store. While we notice the indifference to the moral quality of ac- tions implied in the old Hesiodic legend, when it imputes dis- tinctly and nakedly this proceeding to two of the most admired persons of the heroic world it is not less instructive to witness the change of feeling which had taken place in the age of Pindar. That warm eulogist of the great JEakid race hangs down his head with shame, and declines to recount, though he is obliged darkly to glance at the cause which forced the pious JEakus to banish his sons from JEgina. It appears that Kallimachus, if we may judge by a short fragment, manifested the same repug- nance to mention it. 2 Telamon retired to Salamis, then ruled by Kychreus, the sou of Poseidon and Salamis, who had recently rescued the island from the plague of a terrible serpent. This animal, expelled from Salamis, retired to Eleusis in Attica, where it was received and harbored by the goddess Demeter in her sacred domicile. 3 Kychreus dying childless left his dominion to Telamon, who, mar- 1 Apollod. iii. 12, 6, who relates the tale somewhat differently; but the old epic poem Alkmasonis gave the details (ap. SchoL Eurip. Andromach. 685) "Ev&a fj.ev uvri'dfof Te^a/iav Tpo^oeidsi diaK^t TDtfjl; Kapr] II^/let)f 6e $o<5f uvu %ipa ravvaaas 'A.i;ivT]v kvxah.K.ov ETreir'h.fiyei fjteru. vura. us Rhodius represents the fratricide as inadvertent and unintentional (i. 92) ; one instance amongst many of the tendency to soften down and moralize the ancient tales. Pindar, however, seems to forget this incident when he speaks in other places of the general character of Peleus (Olymp. ii. 75-86. Isthm. vii. 40). 3 Apollod. iii. 12, 7. Euphorion, Fragm. 5, Diintzer, p. 43, Epicc. Graec. There may have been a tutelary serpent in the temple at Eleusis, as there was in that of Athene Polias at Athens (Herodot viii. 41. Photius, v. O'tKovpov tyw. Aristophnn. Lysistr. 759, with the SchoL).
 * Pindar, Nem. v. 15, with Scholia, and Kallimach. Frag. 136. Apolloni-