Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/439

 MYTHICAL KOTICES IN THUCDIDES. 4Q7 Amphilochus son of Amphiaraus, in his return from the same enterprise. The remorse and mental derangement of the matri- cidal Alkmaeon, son of Amphiaraus, is also mentioned by Thucy- dides, 1 as well as the settlement of his son Akarnan in the country called after him Akarnania. 2 Such are the special allusions made by this illustrious author in the course of his history to mythical events. From the tenor of his language we may see that he accounted all that could be known about them to be uncertain and unsatisfactory; but he has it much at heart to show, that even the greatest were inferior in 1 Thucyd. ii. 68-102 ; iv. 120; vi. 2. Antiochos of Syracuse, the contem porary of Thucydides, also mentioned Italus as the eponymous king of Italy. he farther named Sikelus, who came to Morgos, son of Italus, after having been banished from Rome. He talks about Italus, just as Thucydides talks about Theseus, as a wise and powerful king, who first acquired a great dominion (Dionys. H. A. R. i. 12, 35, 73). Aristotle also mentioned Italus in the same general terms (Polit. vii. 9, 2). 2 We may here notice some particulars respecting Isokrates. He mani fests entire confidence in the authenticity of the mythical genealogies and chronology ; but while he treats the mythical personages as historically real, he regards them at the same time not as human, but as half-gods, superior to humanity. About Helena, Theseus, Sarpedon, Cycnus, Memnon, Achil- les, etc., see Encom. Helen. Or. x. pp. 282, 292, 295. Bek. Helena was wor- shipped in his time as a goddess at Therapn (ib. p. 295). He recites the settlements of Danaus, Kadmns, and Pelops in Greece, as undoubted histori- cal facts (p. 297). In his discourse called Busiris, he accuses Polykrates, tho sophist, of a gross anachronism, in having placed Busiris subsequent in poin* of date to Orpheus and JEolus (Or. xi. p. 301, Bek.), and he adds that th tale of Busiris having been slain by Herakles was chronologically impossible (p. 309). Of the long Athenian genealogy from Kekrops to Theseus, h* speaks with perfect historical confidence (Tanathenaic. p. 349, Bek.) ; no' less so of the adventures of Herakles and his mythical contemporaries, whicl he places in the mouth of Archidamus as a justification of the Spartan till* to Messenia (Or. vi. Archidamus, p. 156, Bek. ; compare Or. v. Philippus, pp 114, 138), (j>affiv, olf Kept TUV Kahaiuv iriarevouev, etc. He condemns th* poets in strong language for the wicked and dissolute tales which they cir- culated respecting the gods : many of them (he says) had been punished fo> such blasphemies by blindness, poverty, exile, and other misfortunes (Or. x> p. 309, Bek.). In general, it may be said that Isokrates applies no principles of historica' criticism to the mythes ; he rejects such as appear to him discreditable o unworthy, and believes the rest.