Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/311

 SECOND EXPEDITION. -THE EPIGONI. 279 mand of Laodamas to the Hlyrians, 1 upon which the Epigoiii entered Thebes, and established Thersander, son of Polynikes, on the throne. Adrastus, who in the former expedition had been the single survivor amongst so many fallen companions, now found himself the only exception to the general triumph and joy of the con- querors : he had lost his son JEgialeus, and the violent sorrow arising from the event prematurely cut short his life. His soft voice and persuasive eloquence were proverbial in the ancient epic.' 2 He was worshipped as a hero both at Argos and at Sik- yon, but with especial solemnity in the last-mentioned place, where his Heroum stood in the public agora, and where his ex- ploits as well as his sufferings were celebrated periodically in ly- ric tragedies. Melanippus, son of Astakus, the brave defender of Thebes, who had slain both Tydeus and Mekistheus, was wor- shipped with no less solemnity by the Thebans. 3 The enmity of these two heroes rendered it impossible for both of them to be worshipped close upon the same spot. Accordingly it came to pass during the historical period, about the time of the Solonian legislation at Athens, that Kleisthene"s, despot of Sikyon, wishing to banish the hero Adrastus and abolish the religious solemnities celebrated in honor of the latter by the Sikyonians, first applied to the Delphian oracle for permission to carry this banishment into effect directly and forcibly. That permission being refused, he next sent to Thebes an intimation that he was anxious to in- troduce their hero Melanippus into Sikyon. The Thebans will- ingly consented, and he assigned to the new hero a consecrated spot in the strongest and most commanding portion of the Sik- yonian prytaneium. He did this (says the historian) " knowing that Adrastus would forthwith go away of his own accord ; since 1 Apollodor. iii. 7, 4. Herodot. v. 57-61. Pausan. ix. 5, 7 ; 9, 2. Diodor. iv. 65-66. Pindar represents Adrastus as concerned in the second expedition against Thebes (Pyth. viii. 40-58). 3 TTiuaaav T' 'Adpfjarov pethixoyripuv ^ot (Tyrtseus, Elcg. 9, 7, Schneide- win); compare Plato, Phaedr. c. 118. "Adrasti pallentis imago" meets the eye of JEneas in the under-world (^Eneid, vi. 480). 3 About Melanippus, see Pindar, Nem. x. 36. His sepulchre was showB near the Pro3tid gates of Tnenes (Pausan. ix. 18, 1).