Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 1 (Greek and Roman).djvu/138

28

The land of Argolis was so situated in relation to the main highways of navigation in the Mediterranean as to invite a great variety of foreign connexions. In this one may find an explanation of the motley fabric of Argive myth, and a careful study of its composition makes it possible to state with some degree of assurance the sources of its sundry elements. Naturally, it is outside the scope of this work to tag each constituent tale of the narrative with its national origin. Suffice it to say that we find a nucleus of native Argive myth overlaid in an irregular fashion with legends of Cretan, Euboian, Boiotian, Milesian, Corinthian, Megarian, and Aitolian provenance, which, regardless of the question of their origin, are nearly all fraught with interest for the student of comparative religion and custom.

Inachos, Io.—The first figure in the purely Argive part of the complex of myths is that of Inachos, the principal river and river-god of the Argolid. In the developed genealogy he is the offspring of Okeanos and Tethys, and by a marriage with an Okeanid he begat two sons, Phoroneus and Aigialeus, the first of whom, also said to be an autochthon, we have already seen as one of the pioneers of human culture. Aigialeus, especially prominent among the people of Sikyon, was the personification of the southern shores of the Gulf of Corinth. Phoroneus had two children—Apis, after whom the Peloponnesos was called