CHAPTER II

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And not many years afterwards Medon and Nileus, the eldest sons of Codrus, quarrelled as to who should be king over the Athenians, and Nileus said he would not submit to the rule of Medon, because Medon was lame in one of his feet. But as they decided to submit the matter to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess assigned the kingdom to Medon. So Nileus and the other sons of Codrus were sent on a colony, and took with them whatever Athenians wished, and the Ionians formed the largest part of the contingent. This was the third expedition that had started from Greece under different kings and with different peoples. The oldest expedition was that of Iolaus the Theban, the nephew of Hercules, who led the Athenians and people of Thespiæ to Sardinia. And, one generation before the Ionians sailed from Athens, the Lacedæmonians and Minyæ who had been expelled by the Pelasgi from Lemnos were led by Theras the Theban, the son of Autesion, to the island henceforward called Theras after him, but formerly called Calliste. And now thirdly the sons of Codrus were put at the head of the Ionians, though they had no connection with them by race, being as they were Messenians from Pylos as far as Codrus and Melanthus were concerned, and Athenians only on their mother’s side. And the following Greeks took part in this expedition of the Ionians, the Thebans under Philotas, who was a descendant of Peneleus, and the Minyæ from Orchomenus, who were kinsmen of the sons of Codrus. All the Phocians also took part in it (except the people of Delphi), and the Abantes from Eubœa. And to the Phocians the Athenians Philogenes and Damon, the sons of Euctemon, gave ships to sail in, and themselves led them to the colony. And when they had crossed over to Asia Minor, different detachments went to different maritime towns, but Nileus and his contingent to Miletus. The Milesians give the following account of their early history. They say their country was for two generations called Anactoria, during the reigns of Anax the Autochthon and Asterius his son, and that, when Miletus put in there with an expedition of Cretans, then the town and country changed its name to Miletus from him. And Miletus and the force with him came from Crete fleeing from Minos the son of Europa. And the Carians, who had settled earlier in the neighbourhood of Miletus, admitted the Cretans to a joint share with them. But now when the Ionians conquered the old inhabitants of Miletus, they slew all the males except those that ran away from the captured city, and married their wives and daughters. And the tomb of Nileus is as you approach Didymi, not far from the gates on the left of the road. And the temple and oracle of Apollo at Didymi are of earlier date than the migration of the Ionians: as also is the worship of the Ephesian Artemis. Not that Pindar in my opinion understood all about the goddess, for he says that the Amazons who fought against Theseus and Athens built the temple to her. Those women from Thermodon did indeed sacrifice to the Ephesian Artemis, as having known her temple of old, when they fled from Hercules and earlier still from Dionysus, and sought refuge there: it was not however built by them, but by Coresus, an Autochthon, and by Ephesus (who was they think the son of the river Cayster, and gave his name to the city of Ephesus). And the Leleges (who form part of Caria) and most of the Lydians inhabited the district. And several people lived near the temple for the purpose of supplication, and some women of the Amazonian race. And Androclus the son of Codrus, who was appointed king of the Ionians that sailed to Ephesus, drove the Leleges and Lydians who dwelt in the upper part of the city out of the district; but of those who lived near the temple no apprehensions were entertained, but they mutually gave and received pledges with the Ionians without any hostilities. Androclus also took Samos from the Samians, and for some time the Ephesians were masters of Samos and the adjacent islands. And after the Samians returned to their own possessions, Androclus assisted the people of Priene against the Carians and, though the Greeks were victorious, fell in the battle. And the Ephesians took up his corpse, and buried it in their own country where the tomb is shewn to this day, on the way from the temple by the Olympiæum to the Magnesian gates. The device on the tomb is a man in full armour.

And the Ionians, when they inhabited Myus and Priene, drove the Carians out from those cities. Cyaretus the son of Codrus colonized Myus, and Priene was colonized by Thebans and Ionians mixed under Philotas, the descendant of Peneleus, and Æpytus the son of Nileus. So Priene, which had been ravaged by Tabalus the Persian, and afterwards by Hiero one of its own citizens, at last became an Ionian city. But the dwellers in Myus left their town in consequence of the following circumstance. In the neighbourhood of Myus is a small bay: this was converted into a marsh by the Mæander filling up the mouth of the bay with mud. And as the water became foul and no longer sea, mosquitoes in endless quantities bred in the marsh, till they compelled the poor people of Myus to leave the place. And they went to Miletus and carried off with them everything they could take and the statues of the gods: and in my time there was at Myus only a temple of Dionysus in white marble. A similar disaster fell upon the Atarnitæ near Pergamum.

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