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

'
WHO WERE THE MAKERS ? '^ 169
We have seen that Andreus, the founder of the Orchomenus
dynasty, came from the Peneus, and so the Pelasgic origin of the
Minyans of Orchomenus might be assumed from that circumstance
alone. But there are other points. The name Minyan
itself linkirthem with the Minyans of lolcus, the name Orchomenus
with the Pelasgiiins of Orchomenus in Arcadia, who in
turn are closely connected with the Minyae of Thessaly.
For
Ancaeus, king of Tegea, is one of the crew of the Argo. Again
Orchomenus in Boeotia w^as a member of that ancient amphictyony
which met for the worship of Poseidon in the island
of Caiauria, of which Nauplia was also a member as well as
Athens. Finally Orchomenus was the scat of a most ancient
cult of the Charites.
Now Herodotus' believed that Hera, Hestia, Themis, the
(Jharites and Nereids were purely Pelasgian deities. The
existence then of an immemorial fane of the Charites at
Orchomenus stamps the Minyans as Pelasgian.
Thebes. This famous city has now yielded M\cenean
remains of importance. We have therefore to decide whether
these are to be ascribed to the Acheans, or to the older
occupants of the land, the Cadmeans, in reference to whose
ethnical affinities w^e shall have to speak in a subsecjuent chapter,
or to a still earlier settlement which according to the legend
long preceded the coming of the Phoenician (Vidmus, and his
marriage with Harmonia.
We have long since noted that the building of great walled
cities is one ui the chief chai'actei'istics of the Myceneaii people.
Hoiiiei', as we saw, refers to tin; great fortrt'ss of Tiryns, hut we
have to get from latei' writers tlie tradition who the builder
was. Now in tlu.' case of Thebes and its great fortress, which
was in after days called the ('adniea, we have Homei'ic testimony
not only for the existi'uce of its walls, but also for the
authorship of these fortifications. In that weird pi-ocession of
Fair Women which pa.^sed betore ( )(lyssciis he "saw Antiiij)i',
daughter of A.soj)us, l)ut she Itoasteil that she had slept in the
end)races of Zeus, and she bi'ought forth two sous. Aniphit)n
170 WHO WERE THE MAKERS ?
and Zethus, who first built the place of Thebe of the seven
gates, and walled it, since they could not dwell in wide Thebe
without walls, valiant though they were\"
Later legend also ascribed the building of these walls to
Amphion, but adding a miraculous element to Homer's simple
unvarnished tale related how
" Like some great landslip, tree by tree,
The country-side descended ;
And shepherds from the mountain-eaves
Looked down, half-pleased, half-frightened,
As dashed about the drunken leaves
"
The random sunshine lighten'd
!
The massive stones came spontaneously and fitted
themselves
together in order due to form the Theban fortress charmed by
the spell of Amphion's music.
Homer makes Antiope daughter of Asopus, but by another
form of the story she was daughter of Nye tens, king of Thebes,
and Polyxo. After the birth of Amphion and Zethus, whom
she exposed on Cithaeron, she fled to Epopeus, king of Sicyon,
who took her to wife. Pausanias says that Epopeus carried
her off forcibly, in revenge for which Nye tens warred against
Epopeus. On the death of Nycteus his brother Lycus succeeded
to the throne. Lycus recovered Antiope and married her. She
was persecuted by Dirce, the first wife of Lycus, but was
eventually restored to Thebes by her two sons who had overthrown
Lycus and Dirce.
Nycteus was a son of Poseidon by Celene, daughter of Atlas
king of Lesbos, or of Thebes according to others. He married
Polyxo of Crete, who bore him Antiope.
Either form of the story is equally good for us, since Antiope
is either daughter of the I'iver-god Asopus, ami is therefore
autochthonous, or she is
daughter of Nycteus, whose lineage is
not traced to Heilen or his sons but to Poseidon and a })nncess
eithei' of Thebes or Lesbos, an island called es|)ecially Pelasgian
by Strabo. Polyxo, the mother of is
Antiope, from Crete.
Again, Epo{)eus the king of Sicyon, who plays so prominent
a part in the tale of Antiope, is certainly of the prae-
II. .",().
1
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