CHAPTER IV

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And after the death of Nyctimus Arcas the son of Callisto succeeded him in the kingdom. And he introduced sowing corn being taught by Triptolemus, and showed his people how to make bread, and to weave garments and other things, having learnt spinning from Adristas. And in his reign the country was called Arcadia instead of Pelasgia, and the inhabitants were called Arcadians instead of Pelasgi. And they say he mated with no mortal woman but with a Dryad Nymph. For the Nymphs used to be called Dryades, and Epimeliades, and sometimes Naiades, Homer in his poems mainly mentions them as Naiades.[22] The name of this Nymph was Erato, and they say Arcas had by her Azan and Aphidas and Elatus: he had had a bastard son Autolaus still earlier. And when they grew up Arcas divided the country among his 3 legitimate sons, Azania took its name from Azan, and they are said to be colonists from Azania who dwell near the cave in Phrygia called Steunos and by the river Pencala. And Aphidas got Tegea and the neighbouring country, and so the poets call Tegea the lot of Aphidas. And Elatus had Mount Cyllene, which had no name then, and afterwards he migrated into what is now called Phocis, and aided the Phocians who were pressed hard in war by the Phlegyes, and built the city Elatea. And Azan had a son Clitor, and Aphidas had a son called Aleus, and Elatus had five sons, Æpytus and Pereus and Cyllen and Ischys and Stymphelus. And when Azan died funeral games were first established, I don’t know whether any other but certainly horseraces. And Clitor the son of Azan lived at Lycosora, and was the most powerful of the kings, and built the city which he called Clitor after his own name. And Aleus inherited his father’s share. And Mount Cyllene got its name from Cyllen, and from Stymphelus the well and city by the well were both called Stymphelus. The circumstances attending the death of Ischys, the son of Elatus, I have already given in my account of Argolis. And Pereus had no male offspring but only a daughter Neæra, who married Autolycus, who dwelt on Mount Parnassus, and was reputed to be the son of Hermes, but was really the son of Dædalion.

And Clitor the son of Azan had no children, so the kingdom of Arcadia devolved upon Æpytus the son of Elatus. And as he was out hunting he was killed not by any wild animal but by a serpent, little expecting such an end. I have myself seen the particular kind of serpent. It is a very small ash-coloured worm, marked with irregular stripes, its head is broad and its neck narrow, it has a large belly and small tail, and, like the serpent they call the horned serpent, walks sideways like the crab. And Æpytus was succeeded in the kingdom by Aleus, for Agamedes and Gortys, the sons of Stymphelus, were great-grandsons of Arcas, but Aleus was his grandson, being the son of Aphidas. And Aleus built the old temple to Athene Alea at Tegea, which he made the seat of his kingdom. And Gortys, the son of Stymphelus, built the town Gortys by the river called Gortynius. And Aleus had three sons, Lycurgus and Amphidamas and Cepheus, and one daughter Auge. According to Hecatæus Hercules, when he came to Tegea, had an intrigue with this Auge, and at last she was discovered to be with child by him, and Aleus put her and the child in a chest and let it drift to sea. And she got safely to Teuthras, a man of substance in the plain of Caicus, and he fell in love with her and married her. And her tomb is at Pergamus beyond the Caicus, a mound of earth with a stone wall round it, and on the tomb a device in bronze, a naked woman. And after the death of Aleus Lycurgus his son succeeded to the kingdom by virtue of being the eldest. He did nothing very notable except that he slew by guile and not fairly Areithous a warrior. And of his sons Epochus died of some illness, but Ancæus sailed to Colchi with Jason, and afterwards, hunting with Meleager the wild boar in Calydon, was killed by it. Lycurgus lived to an advanced old age, having survived both his sons.

[22] _e.g._ Odyssey, xiii. 104.

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