Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/39

 THE THESEID KINGS IN ATTICA.- MEL AKTHUS. 28 Pylus. The refugees found shelter at Athens, -where a fortunate adventure soon raised Melanthus to the throne. A war breaking out between the Athenians and Boeotians, respecting the boundary tract of QEnoe, the Boeotian king Xanthus challenged Thymoe- tes to single combat : the latter declining to accept it, Melanthus not only stood forward in his place, but practised a cunning stratagem with such success as to kill his adversary. He was forthwith chosen king, Thymcetes being constrained to resign. 1 Melanthus and his son Kodrus reigned for nearly sixty years, during which time large bodies of fugitives, escaping from the recent invaders throughout Greece, were harbored by the Athen- ians : so that Attica became populous enough to excite the alarm and jealousy of the Peloponnesian Dorians. A powerful Dorian force, under the command of Aletes from Corinth and Althas- menes from Argos, were accordingly despatched to invade the Athenian territory, in which the Delphian oracle promised them success, provided they abstained from injuring the person of Ko- drus. Strict orders were given to the Dorian army that Kodrus should be preserved unhurt ; but the oracle had become known among the Athenians, 2 and the generous prince determined to bring death upon himself as a means of salvation to his country. Assuming the disguise of a peasant, he intentionally provoked a quarrel with some of the Dorian troops, who slew him without suspecting his real character. No sooner was this event known, than the Dorian leaders, despairing of success, abandoned their 1 Ephorus ap. Harpocration. v. ' Airarovpia : "E^opof iv devrcp^, u$ Aid rijv v/rtp -Civ opiuv unarrjv yEvopevtjv, on irofofwiivTuv 'Adrivaiuv irpdf HOIUTOVI; vTrcp r;?f TUV tAehaiviJv wpaf, Me/lav$of 6 rtiv 'A&qvaiuv Baot- ?.ei)f "S-uvftov rbv Qrjfialov fj.ovofj.axuv UTTEKTEIVV. Compare Strabo, ix. p. 393. Ephorus derives the terra 'ATrarovpia from the words signifying a trick with reference to the boundaries, and assumes the name of this great Ionic festival to have been derived from the stratagem of Melanthus, described in Conon (Narrat. 39) and Polysenus (i. 19). The whole derivation is fanciful and erroneous, and the story is a curious specimen of legend growing oat of etymology. citizen named Kleomantis, who secretly communicated the oracle to the Athenians, and was rewarded by them foi doing so with GITT]GIS vti (Lycurg. cont. Leocrat. c. 20).
 * The orator Lykurgus, in his euloginm on Kodrus, mentions a Delphian