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

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WHO WERE THE MAKERS? 171
Achean stock. He built at Sicyon a great temple of Athena,
which was completely destroyed by thunderbolts save the altar,
in front of which was the barrow erected to Epopeus himself.
He ruled over the districts of Argolis which were called
Ephyraea and Asopia.
He had ousted the aboriginal Sicyonic dynasty, having
come to Peloponnesus from Thessaly\ His father was that
famous autochthonous Aloeus, husband of Iphimedea, who
bare to Poseidon the twin giants commonly known as the '
sons
of Aloeus.' Indeed another version represented Epopeus also
as a son of Poseidon.
According to Herodotus'* the Greeks who dwelt in Boeotia
at the time of the coming of Cadmus were chiefly lonians. By
this he means Pelasgians, for we have seen already that he
held the lonians to be Pelasgians.
We may therefore without hesitation conclude that Amphion
and Zethus, the builders of the walls of Thebes, belonged to a
stock that long preceded the advent of either Achean or Dorian
into Boeotia.
Amphion and Zethns are fathered on Zeus, as were Pela.sgus
and Corintlms, but as their ancestry
is from Poseidon, it is
probable that it was only in Achean times that they were
affiliated to the god from whom the great Achean families
traced their descent.
The Argo and her voyage are well known to Homer. She
alone of all ships had escaped from Scylla and Charybdisl
Evenus, whom Hypsipyle bore to Jason when the Argonauts
touched at Lenmos, is reicrninpf in that island at the time of
the siege of Troy and is a wealthy trader, trafficking with the
Phoenicians, with the Acheans, whom he su])plie(l with wine,
and with the Trojans.
From other sources we hear that the Argona\its went up the
Black Sea to its castL'rn end in their seaix'h for the (loldcn
Fleece. Strabo has widl ex])lain('(l
this story as arising from
the practice in that region of collecting gold dust by placing
fl(ieces across thv. beds of mountain torrents, to catch the
particles of gold brought
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Pans. II. (), 1.
down In' the stream.
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V. r>H.
"
()(l. XII. tilt, 70.
172 WHO WERE THE MAKERS?
The Argonauts mounted even the Caucasus, and heard the
groans of Prometheus agonized in his adamantine bondage
by the gnawings of the vulture. That voyages were made in
Mycenean times to that region gets a curious piece of confirmation
from the fact that the only gem of lapis
lazuli (of known
provenance) as yet found in Mycenean graves is that discovered
in the beehive tomb at Dimini in Thessaly. If such gems had
been found in Crete, Mycenae, or Vaphio, we could say that
they came from Egypt, but the fact of their absence in
southern Hellas, and the presence of one in Thessaly, points
rather to direct trade with the only region which furnished the
stone. For Persia supplied
it all, until in modern times South
America and Siberia have also furnished it.
Pelasgian Argos is mentioned by Homer and Strabo, as we
have already seen
;
the latter tells us that it was the territory
extending from the mouths of the river Peneus to Thermopylae
(on the Malian Gulf). This region was also known as Pelasgiotis\
It of course comprised within it the Pagasaean Gulf,
and lolcus, so associated with the sailing of the Argo, and
Mount Pelion, Jason's home, with timber from which the Argo
was built.
On the Peneus lay the city of Larissa, the old Pelasgic
capital, which still retains its name and pre-eminence. In
Homer- the Pelasgi had been but recently driven out from it, for
among the allies of the Trojans are " the tribes of the Pelasgians
who used to dwell in Larissa and those who dwelt in Pelasgic
Argos." The Minyae may then be regarded as one of the
Pelasgic tribes. They are certainly not Achean, for the
pedigree of Jason shows no connection with Hellen and his
sons. Jason was son of Aeson, who was the son of Cretheus
and Tyi'o,
who boi'e to Poseidon Pelias and Neleus. Once more
Poseidon and not Zeus is the divine ancestor of the family.
Down to the time of Perseus the Pelasgians are still in
possession of this region, for he and his mother went there,
when it was still known as Pelasgiotis''.
.\p()llotl. II. 4, 4. -
II. II. 2H7.
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Apollod., I.e.