²Later, through the wrath of Hera,* Athamas was also deprived of his children by Ino; for he himself, in a fit of madness, killed Learchos with an arrow, and Ino threw herself into the sea with Melicertes. Exiled from Boeotia, he asked the gods where he should settle, and was told by the oracle to settle at the place where he was offered hospitality by wild beasts. After he had crossed large expanses of land, he chanced upon some wolves as they were sharing out morsels of sheep; and when they caught sight of him, they fled, leaving behind the food that they were sharing. So Athamas founded a colony there, calling the land Athamantia* after himself, and married Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, who bore him four sons, Leucon, Erythrios, Schoineus, and Ptoos.

Sisyphos, Salmoneus, and other sons of Aiolos

³Sisyphos, son of Aiolos, founded Ephyra, now known as Corinth,* and married Merope, daughter of Atlas. A son, Glaucos, was born to them, and by Eurymede, Glaucos had a son, Bellerophon, who killed the fire-breathing Chimaera.* Sisyphos undergoes the punishment in Hades* of rolling a rock with his hands and head in an attempt to roll it over the top of a hill; but however hard he pushes it, it forces its way back down again. He suffers this punishment because of Aegina, daughter of Asopos; for Zeus had carried her off in secret, and Siyphos is said to have revealed this to Asopos, who went in search of her.

⁴Deion, who reigned over Phocis, married Diomede, daughter of Xouthos, who bore him a daughter, Asterodia, and four sons, Ainetos, Actor, Phylacos, and Cephalos, who married Procris, daughter of Erechtheus. But afterwards Dawn fell in love with him and carried him off*

⁵Perieres took possession of Messene, and married Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, who bore him several sons, Aphareus, and Leucippos and Tyndareus, and also Icarios. But many say that Perieres was a son not of Aiolos, but of Cynortas,* son of Amyclas; and for that reason, we will tell the story of his descendants in our account of the family of Atlas.

⁶Magnes married a naiad nymph, and had two sons, Polydectes and Dictys, who colonized Seriphos.*

⁷Salmoneus lived in Thessaly at first, but later went to Elis and founded a city* there. A man of great arrogance, he wanted to put himself on a level with Zeus and suffered punishment for his impiety. For he claimed that he himself was Zeus, and depriving the god of his sacrifices, he ordered that they should be offered to himself instead. And he dragged dried animal skins and bronze kettles behind his chariot, saying that he was making thunder; and he hurled flaming torches into the sky, saying that he was making lightning. Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt, and destroyed the city that he had founded, with all its inhabitants.

Pelias and Neleus

⁸Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus and Alcidice, was raised by Cretheus, the brother of Salmoneus, and she fell in love with the River Enipeus. She would constantly wander down to its flowing waters and tell them of her sorrows. Taking on the appearance of Enipeus, Poseidon had intercourse with her,* and she gave birth in secret to twin sons, whom she exposed. As the babies lay abandoned on the ground, a mare belonging to some passing horse-trainers knocked one of them with its hoof, leaving a black and blue patch on its face. The horse-trainer recovered the two children and brought them up, calling the one with the black-and-bluepatch Pelias*and the other Neleus. When they were grown up, they found their mother and killed her stepmother, Sidero.* For learning that their mother had been ill-treated by Sidero, they set out against her, but she forestalled them by taking refuge at the sanctuary of Hera, only to be killed on the very altars by Pelias, who refused ever afterwards to pay due honour to Hera.

⁹Later the brothers quarrelled, and Neleus was driven into exile. Arriving in Messene, he founded Pylos,* and married Chloris, daughter of Amphion, who bore him a daughter, Pero, and twelve sons, Tauros, Asterios, Pylaon, Deimachos, Eurybios, Epilaos, Phrasios, Eurymenes, Evagoras, Alastor, Nestor, and Periclymenos. Poseidon granted the last of these the power to change his form; and when Pylos was sacked by Heracles, he transformed himself as he fought, now into a lion, now into a snake, now into a bee, but he was killed by Heracles* along with the other sons of Neleus. Nestor alone survived because he was brought up amongst the Gerenians; and he married Anaxibia, daughter of Cratieus, who bore him two daughters, Peisidice and Polycaste, and seven sons, Perseus, Stratichos, Aretos, Echephron, Peisistratos, Antilochos, and Thrasymedes.

¹⁰Pelias settled in Thessaly and married Anaxibia, daughter of Bias (or according to some, Phylomache, daughter of Amphion), and fathered a son, Acastos, and four daughters, Peisidice, Pelopeia, Hippothoe, and Alcestis.

The earlier history of Bias and Melampous

¹¹Cretheus founded Iolcos and married Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he had three sons, Aison, Amythaon, and Pheres.

Amythaon, who lived in Pylos, married Eidomene, daughter of Pheres, who bore him two sons, Bias and Melampous. Now Melampous lived in the country, and in front of his house there was an oak tree which housed a nest of snakes. After these snakes had been killed by his servants, Melampous gathered some wood and burned the reptiles, and then reared their young. When they were fully grown, they came up to him while he was asleep, and placing themselves at either shoulder, purified his ears* with their tongues. Melampous rose up in great alarm, to find that he could understand the cries of the birds* flying overhead; and making use of what he discovered from them, he began to predict the future to mankind. He also learned how the victims at sacrifices can be used for divination, and after he had met with Apollo on the banks of the Alpheios, he was the best of diviners from that day forth.

¹²Bias sought to marry Pero, the daughter of Neleus; but since his daughter had many suitors, Neleus said that he would give her to the one who brought him the cattle of Phylacos.* These cattle were kept at Phylace, and were guarded by a dog which neither man nor beast could approach without being detected. Finding himself unable to steal the cattle, Bias sought his brother’s help. Melampous promised his assistance,* and predicted that he would be caught in the act as he tried to steal the cattle, but would finally acquire them after he had been imprisoned for a year. After offering this promise, he departed for Phylace and, as he had predicted, he was caught in the act when he attempted the theft, and was then put in chains and kept under guard in a cell. When the year had almost elapsed, he heard the woodworms talking in the hidden part of the roof: one of them was asking how much of the beam had already been consumed, and the other replied that hardly any of it remained. Without delay, Melampous asked to be moved to a different cell, and not long afterwards, the first cell collapsed. Phylacos was astonished, and realizing that Melampous was an excellent diviner, he released him and asked him to say how his son Iphiclos could come to have children. Melampous promised to tell him if he were given the cattle in return; and then, after sacrificing two bulls and cutting them up, he summoned the birds. When a vulture arrived, he learned from it that Phylacos, as he was gelding lambs one day, had laid down the knife, still covered with blood, next to Iphiclos; and when the child took fright* and ran away, Phylacos had stuck the knife into the sacred oak, and its bark had grown around it and covered it over. The bird went on to say that if the knife were found, and Melampous scraped off the rust and gave it to Iphiclos to take in a drink* for ten days, he would father a son. Discovering all this from the vulture, Melampous found the knife, scraped off the rust, and gave it to Iphiclos for ten days in a drink; and a son, Podarces, was duly born to him. So Melampous drove the cattle to Pylos, and when he was given the daughter of Neleus, passed her on to his brother. He remained in Messene for a time, but when Dionysos drove the women of Argos mad,* he cured them in return for a share of the kingdom and settled there with Bias.