VII. took the principal share in it, though it included CHAP. many others. Its fortunes will be related hereafter. Many families also sought refuge in Attica and Pelo- B.C. 1124. ponnesus. The Pelasgians who fortified a part of the citadel of Athens, and afterwards took possession of Lemnos, are said to have migrated from Boeotia. Their allies, the Thracians, retired westward, and settled for a time in the neighbourhood of Parnassus, where they entirely disappear from the view of history. migration. It is not clear how far, or in what manner, these Dorian events were connected with another still more important- the migration of the Dorians from their seats at the northern foot of Parnassus, to Peloponnesus — which Thucydides fixes twenty years later than the expulsion of the Boeotians from Thessaly. It is not certain whether the Dorians were driven out of Thessaly by the same shock to which the Baotians gave way, or whether they had previously settled at the head of the vale of the Cephisus, and in the adjacent region. Causes enough may be imagined, which in this period of general convulsion might induce them to quit Doris, though the little tract which afterwards bore that name does not seem to have been infested by any hostile inroads. But as it probably formed only a part of their territory, the rest may now have been torn from them, and thus have compelled them to seek new seats. The ancient writers however assign a motive of a different kind for their migration. They unanimously relate, that Connection after the death of Hercules, his children, persecuted between the by Eurystheus, took refuge in Attica, and there de- the Herafeated and slew the tyrant. When their enemy had fallen, they resumed possession of their birthright in Peloponnesus; but had not long enjoyed the fruits of their victory, before a pestilence, in which they recognised the finger of Heaven, drove them again Dorians and cleids. CHAP. into exile. Attica again afforded them a retreat. When their hopes had revived, an ambiguous oracle B. C. 1104. encouraged them to believe that, after they had reaped their third harvest, they should find a prosperous passage through the Isthmus into the land of their fathers. But at the entrance of Peloponnesus they were met by the united forces of the Achæans, Ionians, and Arcadians. Their leader, Hyllus, the eldest son of Hercules, proposed to decide the quarrel by single combat; and Echemus, king of Tegea, was selected by the Peloponnesian confederates as their champion. Hyllus fell; and the Heracleids were bound by the terms of the agreement to abandon their enterprise for a hundred years. Yet both Cleodæus, son of Hyllus, and his grandson Aristomachus, renewed his attempt with no better fortune. After Aristomachus had fallen in battle, the ambiguous oracle was explained to his sons, Aristodemus, Temenus, and Cresphontes; and they were assured that the time-the third generation — had now come, when they should accomplish their return; not however as they had expected, over the guarded Isthmus, but across the mouth of the western gulf, where the opposite shores are parted by a channel only a few furlongs broad. Thus encouraged, with the aid of the Dorians, Etolians, and Locrians1, they crossed the straits, vanquished Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, and divided the fairest portion of Peloponnesus among them. Inquiry into the The belief that the Dorians were led to the contruth of the quest of Peloponnesus by princes of Achæan blood, the rightful heirs of its ancient kings, has the authority of all antiquity on its side. It had become legend. 1 The Locrians are said to have deceived the Peloponnesians, having engaged to give notice by signals, if the Dorians should attempt to cross the straits. They broke their promise, and the Peloponnesians were taken by surprise. Polybius in Mai, Scr. Vet. ii. p. 386. CHAP. VII. current so early as the days of Hesiod; and it was received not only among the Dorians themselves, but among foreign nations. The protection afforded by B.c. 1104. the Athenians to the Heracleids against Eurystheus continued to the latest times to be one of the most favourite themes of the Attic poets and orators; and the precise district that had been assigned for the abode of the exiles was pointed out by tradition. In the Persian war the victory gained by Echemus over Hyllus was pleaded by the Tegeans as the ground of their title to an honourable post in the Greek army. Few traditions can boast of higher authority; and the fact is in itself by no means incredible, and admits of various explanations, which would remove its principal apparent difficulties. Though the difference between the Dorians and Achæans was undoubtedly very wide in almost all points, still it might be expected entirely to disappear in a few generations after a small body of one nation had been incorporated in the other. The weak and unsettled state of the Dorians, in the earliest period of their history, renders it probable that they were then always willing to receive foreigners among them, who came recommended by illustrious birth, wealth, or merit; and that they might either have formed the Heracleids into a new tribe, or, if they were not numerous enough for this, have admitted them into one which was afterwards called by a new name. Nevertheless, possible as this is, the truth of the story has been questioned, on grounds which are certainly not light or arbitrary, if they do not outweigh all that have been alleged in its support. What is said to have happened might have been invented, and the occasion and motives for the fabrication may be conceived still more easily than the truth of the fact; for such facts in the early history of Greece were undoubtedly much less common than such fictions. It is much CHAP. less probable that the origin of the Dorian tribes, as of all similar political forms which a nation has B. C. 1104. assumed in the earliest period of its existence, should have been distinctly remembered, than that it should have been forgotten, and have been then attributed to imaginary persons. This is so usual a process, that it might have been fairly assumed with regard to the two tribes which are said to have been named after the sons of Ægimius, though, by a singular anachronism, one legend relates, that Pamphylus and Dymas fell in the last expedition by which their countrymen made themselves masters of Peloponnesus, and another represents Pamphylus as still living in the second generation after the conquest.1 That the royal family should claim Hercules for its ancestor, though it was in truth of Dorian blood, can only be thought surprising by those who believe the exploits ascribed to that hero to have been the actions of one Apollod. ii. 8. 3. 5. Paus. ii. 28. 6. Paus. i. 15. 3. CHAP. VII. into Pelo The invaders bent their course westward, and descended upon the coast of the Corinthian gulf near Naupactus, manifestly with a view to strengthen B.C. 1104. themselves with the aid of the Etolians of Calydon, The Dowith whom they had perhaps before entered into rians break amicable relations, as Hyllus was said to be the son ponnesus. of the Etolian princess Dejanira. The progress of the fierce inland tribes, which finally extinguished the old Hellenic race of Calydon, may have been the principal motive of the migration with both nations. According to the received legend, the Heracleids were guided into Peloponnesus by Oxylus, an Etolian chief, and their kinsman; for he belonged to the line of Eneus, the father of Dejanira, who, like Ægimius, had been protected by the arm of Hercules from a formidable enemy, the Thesprotians of Ephyra.1 Oxylus alleged a title to Elis, like that under which his allies claimed the kingdoms of the Pelopids. The base of his statue in the public place of Elis bore an inscription, importing that Ætolus, his ancestor in the tenth generation, had quitted Elis, the original seat of his people, the Epeans, and had conquered that part of the land of the Curetes which afterwards bore the name of Ætolia; and the truth of this memorial was confirmed by a corresponding inscription on the statue of Etolus in the Etolian town of Thermi. Etolus had migrated because he had chanced to incur the stain of bloodshed; and a like misfortune had driven Oxylus into exile, when he met with the sons of Aristomachus, and stipulated with them for his hereditary kingdom of Elis, as the price of his guidance, which an oracle had declared to be indispensable to their success. He was put into posses- Conquest sion of it by the fortunate issue of a single combat, between one of his Etolian followers and an Epean of Elis. 1 Apollod. ii. 7. 6. 1. 2 Apollod. ii. 8. 3. 3. |