THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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WHO WERE THE MAKERS ? 121
who sailed to Colchis in the Argo, and was afterwards killed by
the Calydonian boar. Lycurgus was succeeded by Echemus,
son of Aeoropus, son of Cepheiis, son of Aleus. Agapenor, son
of Ancaeus, son of Lycurgus, succeeded Echemus, and led
Arcadians to Troy. Later on he settled at Paphos in Cyprus'.
In this pedigree there is not a trace of any Achean con-
furnished the
quest. In spite too of the fact that Agamemnon
Arcadians with ships, Agapenor went to Troy as the leader of
an independent contingent, and not as a mere vassal of the
king of Mycenae, as were the Corinthians and Sicyonians.
But nearly seven centuries prior to Pausanias we can tind
some very important evidence touching Aepytus, which is of
great weight for
the
the early history and archaeology of not only
Arcadia, but also all Pelopomiesus.
Pindar in the sixth Olympic ode eelebi-ates the praises of
Agesias of tSyracuse, who had gained a victory with the nnilecar
at the Olympic games of 4()8 B.C. The poet recites the
lineage of the victor, from which we know that he was a
member of the famous familv of the lamidae, who held the
office of Treasurers of the oracle of Zeus at Olympia, and the
hereditai'V priesthood at Stymphalus 'the mother city
of tht;
Ai'cadians.'
When Archias the Heracleid set f(jrth finm Corinth to
found Syi-acuse (7o2 B.C.), he took with him tlie foi'etather of
Agesias to be a jojnt-foun ler iavrotKiar/js-). ISut wherever
tliev might be,
it would seem that this I'ace of seers alwa\s
retain('(l theii' connection with Arcadia, foi- we tind that Agesias
was a citizen of St \ (
niphahis
u liere Piudai s ode was first to be
sung)
as well as of S\racuse, whither, as we learn ti-om its
Concluding vei'ses, thi' ode was to be sent across the sea
later on.
" '' tl"' far be'^inmni;' of this race.' So sinsjs the i)oetand
SOI .11 he adds. to I'ltaiie hy I'Jirotas' st icaiu must be gone
1
bet imes to-day. .\ow I'itaiie. t
luy say, la\ with I'oseidon the
son of Kroiios, and bare the child i-Jiadne with l lesses iris-dai'k.
122 WHO WERE THE MAKERS ?
And her maiden travail she hid by her robes' folds, and in the
month of her delivery she sent her handmaids and bade them
give the child to the hero son of Elatos to rear, who was lord
of the men of Arcady, who dwelt at Phaisane, and had for his
lot Alpheos to dwell beside.
There was the child Eiiadne nurtured,
and by Apollo's side she first knew the joys of Aphrodite.
But she might not always hide from Aipytos the seed of
the god within her: and he in his heart struggling with bitter
strain against a grief too great for speech l)etook him to Pytho
that he might ask of the oracle concerning the intolerable woe.
Then Euadne beneath a thicket's shade brought forth a boy in
whom was the spirit of God." The " golden-haired god " sent
kindly Eleutho, and by easy travail lamos came forth to the
light.
She deserted the child, but Apollo made two brighteyed
serpents feed him " with the harmless venom of the bee."
The child was found in
the brake of rushes, " his tender body
all suft'nscd with golden and deep purple gleams of the flowers
of the Ton ;
wiierefore his mother prophesied that by this holy
name (lamos) of immortality he should be called throughout
all time." But when he reached the ripeness of " youth, he
went down into the middle of Al])heos, and called (m wideruling
Poseidon his grandsire, and on the guardian of wellbuilt
])el()s,"and pra\-ed, "and he stood beneath the heavens and
it was night." Then Apollo took him to the Cronian hill at
Olynipia and gave "a twofold treasure of prophecy, that for the
tiuK^ then being he should hearken to this voice that cannot
lie " :
but when Heracles should come " and should have founded
a multitudinous feast and the chief ordinance of games, then
again on the summit of the altar of Zeus he l)ade him establish
anothci- oracle, that thenceforth the race of lamidae should be
gloi'ious among Hellenes. With this family good luck abode'."
This is no mere vaunting of a 'silver-faced' Muse, for that
the lann'dae exercised a great inHnence at Elis, Corinth, and
Sparta
prose wi'iters.
as well as in Arcadia can be demonstrated fi'om the
"^I'hus it was Tisamenus the Janiide who accompanied the
(ireek host in the capacity of soothsayer
I]. Myers' tiiuislatioii.
and offered the sacri-