[IID]

Cadmos and the foundation of Thebes

Semele and Dionysos; the death of Actaion

Successors and usurpers at Thebes

Amphion, Niobe, and their children

Laios and Oedipus

[IID]

7. The Theban Wars

Eteocles and the exile of Polyneices to Argos

Prelude in Argos: Amphiaraos and Eriphyle

The advance against Thebes and stationing of the champions

Excursus: the earlier history of Teiresias

The Theban victory and its aftermath

The Epigoni and the Second Theban War

The later history of Alcmaion

[IID]

8. Arcadian mythology (the Pelasgids)

Lycaon and his sons

Callisto and the birth of Areas; early Arcadian genealogies

Atalante

9. Laconian and Trojan mythology (the Atlantids)

The Pleiades

The birth and early exploits of Hermes

Early Lacedaimonian genealogies; the story of Asclepios

Tyndareus, Leda, and their children

Helen and her suitors

The fate of the Dioscuri

[IIIA]

Early Trojan mythology

Priam, Hecuba, and their children

[IIIB]

10. The Asopids

Aiacos in Aegina

The exile of Peleus and Telamon

Peleus in Phthia, Calydon, and Iolcos

The marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and early life of Achilles

[IV]

11. The kings of Athens

Cecrops and his descendants; the story of Adonis

Three early kings: Cranaos, Amphictyon, and Erichthonios

Pandion I and his children; Icarios and Erigone; Tereus, Procne, and Philomele

Procris and Cephalos; Oreithuia and her children

Eumolpos, and the war with Eleusis; the exile of Pandion II

Aigeus and the conception of Theseus

The war with Minos and the origin of the tribute to the Minotaur

The labours of Theseus, and his arrival at Athens

Epitome

Theseus, Ariadne, and the killing of the Minotaur

Excursus: Daidalos and Icaros, and the death of Minos

Theseus and the Amazons; Phaedra and Hippolytos

Theseus and Peirithoos

[V]

12. The Pelopids

Tantalos

Pelops and Hippodameia

Atreus and Thyestes

Agamemnon and Menelaos

[VI]

13. The Trojan War

The judgement of Paris and abduction of Helen

Agamemnon assembles the Greek army

The attack on Mysia; the Greeks assemble for a second time

The Greeks call in at Tenedos

The landing at Troy, and the first nine years of the war

The wrath of Achilles (a summary of the Iliad)

Penthesileia the Amazon; Memnon and the death of Achilles; the suicide of Aias

Philoctetes and the death of Paris; conditions for the fall of Troy

The wooden horse

The sack of Troy

14. The. Returns

Menelaos and Agamemnon quarrel; Calchas and Mopsos

Agamemnon sails with the main fleet; the storm at Tenos, and Nauplios the wrecker

The fate of Neoptolemos; various wanderings and returns

The later history of the Pelopids

The return of Odysseus (a summary of the Odyssey)

The later history of Odysseus

GENEALOGICAL TABLES

The following tables cover the six main families, as follows:

I    The Deucalionids

     A The early Deucalionids

     B The Aetolian line

     C The sons of Aiolos and their descendants

II   The Inachids

     A The early Inachids in Argos and the east

     B The Belid line in Argos

     C The Agenorid line: the descendants of Europa in Crete

     D The Agenorid line: the descendants of Cadmos in Thebes

III   The Atlantids

      A The Laconian royal line, and the usurpers at Thebes

      B The Trojan royal line

IV   The Asopids (the family of Achilles and Aias)

V    The Athenian royal line

VI   The Pelopids (the family of Agamemnon and Menelaos)

Most of these tables depict the mythical royal line in one of the main centres in Greece. Only one of the six families covered by the tables, namely the Athenian, conforms to the simplest possible pattern, in which a single family provides the ruling line in a single city. Generally the genealogical system is more economical, and the ruling lines in two or more cities are traced to a common ancestor and so united within the same family. Thus separate branches of the Inachid family provide the royal families of both Argos and Thebes, the two greatest centres in mythical Greece, and also of Crete. Accordingly, the family trees of the first three families, which are the largest and are divided in this way between different centres, have been subdivided in the tables.

Although the adventures of various members of these families take them to many different parts of the Mediterranean world, it is natural that the main centres of rule associated with the great families should be located in the heartland of Greece. There are two major exceptions, namely, Crete, as would be expected since it was a very ancient centre of civilization which had connections with Mycenaean Greece, and Troy, in north-western Asia Minor, for its connection with the Trojan War, the culminating adventure in the mythical history of Greece. Although the Trojans themselves were usually regarded as a non-Hellenic people, the ruling family was traced back to Greek origins through an Atlantid ancestor. Otherwise the places associated with these various families can be located on the accompanying map.

The mainland of Greece is divided into two by the Gulf of Corinth, which separates the Peloponnese from the rest of Greece, being joined to it only by the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. Starting immediately north of the Gulf, the swathe of land extending from Aetolia across to Thessaly in the northeast is the area primarily associated with the first family, the Deucalionids. Although this was an important area in early myth, there were many separate centres, and these tended to be associated with major heroic myths for only a generation or two. Furthermore, many members of this family moved to fresh areas at various stages and established new dynasties, whether in the north, or in the western Peloponnese and the south. As a result, the structure of this family is rather complex, and we do not find extensive lines within individual centres as in most of the following families. The Aetolian royal line covered in the second table (IB) was descended from a daughter of Aiolos; the most important town in Aetolia was Calydon, the site of the first great adventure which drew heroes from all parts of Greece, the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. The descendants of the sons of Aiolos covered in the third table (IC) were primarily associated with Thessaly (but also with the western Peloponnese and elsewhere); here Iolcos, the home of Pelias and Jason, and Pherae, the home of Admetos and Alcestis, are the most significant towns.

South of the Gulf of Corinth, in the Peloponnese, the most important region was not Laconia (Sparta) as in historical times, but Argos with its great Mycenaean cities, Mycenae, Argos, and Tiryns. Here the second family, the Inachids, provided the main ruling line. Although it was of Argive origin (the Inachos was the largest river in Argos), other branches of this family ruled in Crete and in Thebes. Passing north from Argos and then across the Isthmus of Corinth, Boeotia, with Thebes as its main city, lies to the left, and Attica to the right. In mythical history Thebes ranked with Argos as the most important centre.

Of the Atlantids, two main lines are covered in the following tables, the earliest royal line in the second main centre in the Peloponnese, Laconia, and the Trojan royal line.

The Asopid family tree is exceptional, as it was developed to account for the common descent of the two greatest heroes of the Trojan War, Achilles and Aias (who came from different areas) as grandsons of Aiacos (who reigned in a different area again). This was a relatively late development; in the Iliadthe pair are not related. Aiacos was the first king of Aegina, a small island in the Saronic Gulf, which lies between Attica and the Peloponnese. Both of his sons were exiled. Telamon, father of Aias, went to the island of Salamis, not far to the north; Peleus eventually arrived in Thessaly where he became the father of Achilles by the goddess Thetis.