Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 1 (Greek and Roman).djvu/122



ELASGOS.—The first man in Arkadia was Pelasgos, after whom the land was named Pelasgia, and a fragment of Asios says that "the black earth bore godlike Pelasgos on the wooded hills that there might be a race of men." Elsewhere he is called the son of Zeus and the Argive Niobe, and if Niobe was really an earth goddess, as we have reason to suspect, these two genealogies are in fact but one. Besides being the founder of human civilization, he was the first Arkadian king and temple builder. He was wedded to the sea-nymph Meliboia (or Kyllene, or Deianeira), by whom he begat a son Lykaon.

Lykaon.—Lykaon, too, was a founder who built the city of Lykosoura, established the worship of Zeus on Mount Lykaios, and erected the temple of Hermes of Kyllene. He married many wives, who bore him fifty sons, but they and their father manifested such impiety and arrogance before both gods and men that they became an offence in the eyes of Zeus. In order to make trial of them Zeus came to Lykaon's palace in the disguising garb of a poor day-labourer. The king received him kindly, but on the advice of one of his sons mingled the vitals of a boy with the meat of the sacrifices and set them on the table before the god. With divine intuition Zeus detected the trick. Rising in anger he overturned the table, destroyed the house of Lykaon with a thunderbolt, changed the king into a wolf, and proceeded to slay his sons. When one only, Nyktimos, was left, Ge (i. e. Gaia) stayed the hand of Zeus. This son