Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 1 (Greek and Roman).djvu/220

74 Boreas and Oreithyia also had two daughters, Kleopatra and Chione ("Snow-White"). The former married Phineus, to whom she bore two sons, but her husband grew tired of her and formed an alliance with Idaia of Troy, by whose heartless wiles he was persuaded to put out his children's eyes. This crime was never forgotten throughout Hellas, and with the help of Boreas the Argonauts visited on Phineus a dreadful punishment. Chione became closely associated with Attike through her descendants. After a clandestine amour with Poseidon she gave birth to a son Eumolpos ("Sweet Singer"), whom she cast into the sea in fear of her father; but Poseidon rescued him and had him cared for in Aithiopia until he had attained manhood. For a foul crime against hospitality Eumolpos was forced to leave this country and with his son, Ismaros, was received into the home of a Thracian king, where, too, he showed himself ungrateful for kindness, and plotted against his host. Leaving Thrace, he came at last to Eleusis, and in the war against Athens he led the Eleusinian army and fell by the sword of Erechtheus. This latter myth contains several features which incline one to believe that Eumolpos was a figure deliberately created by the Eumolpidai, the priestly order of Eleusis, for the purpose of winning the respect which would readily come to religious orders of admittedly ancient descent. The Thracian connexion of Eumolpos linked him geographically with Dionysos and increased his prestige at Eleusis.