CHAPTER XXXVI

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On the death of Eteocles the succession devolved upon the posterity of Almus. Almus had two daughters Chrysogenia and Chryse: and the story goes that Chryse had a son by Ares called Phlegyas, who succeeded to the kingdom when Eteocles died without any male progeny. So they changed the name of the whole country from Andreis to Phlegyantis, and to the city Andreis, which was very early inhabited, the king gave his own name Phlegyas, and gathered into it the most warlike of the Greeks. And the people of Phlegyas in their folly and audacity stood aloof as time went on from the other Orchomenians, and attracted to themselves the neighbouring people: and eventually led an army against Delphi to plunder the temple, and when Philammon with some picked Argives came against them he and they were slain in the battle that ensued. That the people of Phlegyas more than the other Greeks delighted in war is shewn by the lines in the Iliad about Ares and Panic the son of Ares,

“They two armed themselves for battle with the Ephyri and the warriors of Phlegyas.”[74]

By the Ephyri here Homer means I think those of Thesprotia in Epirus. But the inhabitants of Phlegyas were entirely overthrown by frequent lightning and violent earthquakes: and the residue were carried off by an epidemic, all but a few who escaped to Phocis.

And as Phlegyas died childless, Chryses the son of Chrysogenia (the daughter of Almus) by Poseidon succeeded him. And he had a son Minyas, from whom his subjects the Minyæ took the name they still keep. So great were his revenues that he excelled all his predecessors in wealth, and he was the first we know of that built a Treasury for the reception of his money. The Greeks are it seems more apt to admire things out of their own country than things in it, since several of their notable historians have described in great detail the Pyramids of Egypt, but have not mentioned at all the Treasury of Minyas and the walls at Tiryns, though they are no less remarkable. The son of Minyas was Orchomenus, and in his reign the town was called Orchomenus and its inhabitants Orchomenians: but none the less they also continued to be called Minyæ to distinguish them from the Orchomenians in Arcadia. It was during the reign of this Orchomenus that Hyettus came from Argos, fleeing after his slaying Molurus (the son of Arisbas) whom he had caught with his wife, and Orchomenus gave him all the land now round the village of Hyettus and the neighbouring district. Hyettus is mentioned by the author of the Poem which the Greeks call the Great Eœæ.

“Hyettus having slain Molurus (the dear son of Arisbas) in the chamber of his wedded wife, left his house and fled from Argos fertile-in-horses, and went to the court of Orchomenus of Minyæ, and the hero received him, and gave him part of his possessions in a noble spirit.”

This Hyettus seems clearly the first that took vengeance on adultery. And in after times Draco the Athenian legislator in the beginning of his laws assigned a severe penalty for adultery, though he condoned some offences. And the fame of the Minyæ reached such a height, that Neleus, the son of Cretheus, who was king at Pylos married the Orchomenian Chloris the daughter of Amphion the son of Iasius.

[74] Iliad, xiii. 301, 302. The reading in the former line is however a little different.

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