Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/34

 18 HISTORY OF GREECE. The only fact which we make out, independent of these legends, is, that there existed certain homonymies and certain affinities of religious worship, between parts of Bceotia and parts of Thessaly, which appear to indicate a kindred race. A town named Arne, 1 similar in name to the Thessalian, was enumerated in the Boeo- tian Catalogue of Homer, and antiquaries identified it sometimes with the historical town Chzeroneia, 2 sometimes with Akraephium. Moreover, there was near the Boeotian Koroneia a river named Kuarius, or Koralius, and a venerable temple dedicated to the Itonian Athene, in the sacred ground of which the Pambceotia, or public council of the Boeotian name, was held ; there was also a temple and a river of similar denomination in Thessaly, near to a town called Iton, or Itnnus. 3 We may from these circum- stances presume a certain ancient kindred between the population of these regions, and such a circumstance is sufficient to explain the generation of legends describing migrations backward and forward, whether true or not in point of fact. war, in consequence of the absence of so many of their brave warriors at Troy ; they did not find their way back into Bceotia until the fourth generation. 1 Stephen. Byz. v. "Apvrj, makes the Thessalian Arne an drrojKOf of the Boeotian. a Homer, Iliad, ii.; Strabo, ix. p. 413; Pausan. ix. 40, 3. Some of tlio families at Chaeroneia, even during the time of the Roman dominion in Greece, traced their origin to Peripoltas the prophet, who was said to have accompanied Ophelias in his invading 'march out of Thessaly (Plutarch, Cimon, c. 1). 3 Strabo, ix. 411-435; Homer, Iliad, ii. 096 ; Hekatsens, Fr. 338, Didot. The fragment from Alkseus (cited by Strabo, but briefly, and with a muti- lated text,) serves only to identify" the river and the town. Itonus was said to be son of Amphiktyon, and Bceotus son of Itonus (Pausan. ix. 1, 1. 34, 1 : compare Stcph. Byz. v. BoLuria) by Melanippe. By another legendary genealogy (probably arising after the name JEollc had obtained footing as the class-name for a large section of Greeks, but as old as the poet Asius, Olympiad 30), the eponymous hero Bceotns was fastened on to the great lineage of JEolus, through the paternity of the god Poseidon, either with Melanippe or with Arne, daughter of -iEolus (Asius, Fr 8, ed. Diintzer; Strabo, vi. p. 265 ; Diodor. v. 67 ; Hellanikus ap. Schol. Iliad, ii. 494). Two lost plays of Euripides were founded on the misfortunes of Melanippe, and her twin children by Poseidon, Bceotus and yKolus (Hygin. Fab. 186; see the Fragments of MeTiav'nnrn 2o^ and "MeZaviirmi bea/jtiliTic in DindorPs edition, and the instructive comments of Welokeii Orieck. Tragol. vol.ii. pp. 840-860).