2.
Tantalus is punished in Hades by having a stone impending over him, by being perpetually
in a lake and seeing at his shoulders on either side trees with fruit growing beside the
lake. The water touches his jaws, but when he would take a draught of it, the water dries
up; and when he would partake of the fruits, the trees with the fruits are lifted by winds
as high as the clouds. Some say that he is thus punished because he blabbed to men the
mysteries of the gods, and because he attempted to share ambrosia with his fellows.1
[2]
Broteas, a hunter, did not honor Artemis, and said that even fire could not
hurt him. So he went mad and threw himself into fire.2
[3]
Pelops, after being slaughtered and boiled at the banquet of the gods, was fairer than
ever when he came to life again,3 and on account
of his surpassing beauty he became a minion of Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot,
such that even when it ran through the sea the axles were not wet.4
[4]
Now Oenomaus, the king of Pisa, had a daughter Hippodamia,5 and whether it was that he loved her, as some say, or that
he was warned by an oracle that he must die by the man that married her, no man got her to
wife; for her father could not persuade her to cohabit with him, and her suitors were put
by him to death.
[5]
For he had arms and horses given him by Ares, and he
offered as a prize to the suitors the hand of his daughter, and each suitor was bound to
take up Hippodamia on his own chariot and flee as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and Oenomaus straightway pursued him, in full
armour, and if he overtook him he slew him; but if the suitor were not overtaken, he was
to have Hippodamia to wife. And in this way he slew many suitors, some say twelve;6 and he cut off the heads of the suitors and nailed them to his
house.7
[6]
So Pelops also came a-wooing; and when Hippodamia saw his beauty, she conceived a passion
for him, and persuaded Myrtilus, son of Hermes, to help him; for Myrtilus was charioteer
to Oenomaus.
[7]
Accordingly Myrtilus, being in love with her
and wishing to gratify her, did not insert the linchpins in the boxes of the wheels,8 and thus caused Oenomaus to lose the race and
to be entangled in the reins and dragged to death; but according to some, he was killed by
Pelops. And in dying he cursed Myrtilus, whose treachery he had discovered,
praying that he might perish by the hand of Pelops.
[8]
Pelops, therefore, got Hippodamia; and on his journey, in which he was accompanied by
Myrtilus, he came to a certain place, and withdrew a little to fetch water for his wife,
who was athirst; and in the meantime Myrtilus tried to rape her.9 But when Pelops learned that from
her, he threw Myrtilus into the sea, called after him the Myrtoan Sea, at Cape
Geraestus10; and Myrtilus, as he was being thrown, uttered curses against the
house of Pelops.
[9]
When Pelops had reached the Ocean and
been cleansed by Hephaestus,11 he
returned to Pisa in Elis and succeeded to the kingdom of Oenomaus, but not
till he had subjugated what was formerly called Apia and Pelasgiotis, which he called Peloponnesus after himself.12
[10]
The sons of Pelops were Pittheus, Atreus, Thyestes, and others.13 Now the wife of
Atreus was Aerope, daughter of Catreus, and she loved Thyestes. And Atreus
once vowed to sacrifice to Artemis the finest of his flocks; but when a golden lamb
appeared, they say that he neglected to perform his vow,
[11]
and having choked the lamb, he deposited it in a box and kept it there, and Aerope gave
it to Thyestes, by whom she had been debauched. For the Mycenaeans had received an oracle
which bade them choose a Pelopid for their king, and they had sent for Atreus and
Thyestes. And when a discussion took place concerning the kingdom, Thyestes declared to
the multitude that the kingdom ought to belong to him who owned the golden lamb, and when
Atreus agreed, Thyestes produced the lamb and was made king.
[12]
But Zeus sent Hermes to Atreus and told him to stipulate with Thyestes
that Atreus should be king if the sun should go backward; and when Thyestes agreed, the
sun set in the east; hence the deity having plainly attested the usurpation of Thyestes,
Atreus got the kingdom and banished Thyestes.14
[13]
But afterwards being apprized of the
adultery, he sent a herald to Thyestes with a proposal of accommodation; and when he had
lured Thyestes by a pretence of friendship, he slaughtered the sons, Aglaus, Callileon,
and Orchomenus, whom Thyestes had by a Naiad nymph, though they had sat down as suppliants
on the altar of Zeus. And having cut them limb from limb and boiled them, he served them
up to Thyestes without the extremities; and when Thyestes had eaten heartily of them, he
showed him the extremities, and cast him out of the country.15
[14]
But seeking by all means to pay Atreus out,
Thyestes inquired of the oracle on the subject, and received an answer that it could be
done if he were to beget a son by intercourse with his own daughter. He did so
accordingly, and begot Aegisthus by his daughter. And Aegisthus, when he was grown to
manhood and had learned that he was a son of Thyestes, killed Atreus, and restored the
kingdom to Thyestes.16
[15]
“
But17 the nurse took Agamemnon and Menelaus
to Polyphides, lord of Sicyon,18
who again sent them to Oeneus, the Aetolian.
Not long afterwards Tyndareus brought them back again,
and they drove away Thyestes to dwell in Cytheria,
after that they had taken an oath of him at the altar of Hera, to which he had fled.
And they became the sons-in-law of Tyndareus by marrying his daughters,
Agamemnon getting Clytaemnestra to wife,
after he had slain her spouse Tantalus, the son of Thyestes,
together with his newborn babe, while Menelaus got Helen.
” [16] And Agamemnon reigned over the Mycenaeans and married Clytaemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus, after slaying her former husband Tantalus, son of Thyestes, with his child.19 And there were born to Agamemnon a son Orestes, and daughters, Chrysothemis, Electra, and Iphigenia.20 And Menelaus married Helen and reigned over Sparta, Tyndareus having ceded the kingdom to him.21
to Polyphides, lord of Sicyon,18
who again sent them to Oeneus, the Aetolian.
Not long afterwards Tyndareus brought them back again,
and they drove away Thyestes to dwell in Cytheria,
after that they had taken an oath of him at the altar of Hera, to which he had fled.
And they became the sons-in-law of Tyndareus by marrying his daughters,
Agamemnon getting Clytaemnestra to wife,
after he had slain her spouse Tantalus, the son of Thyestes,
together with his newborn babe, while Menelaus got Helen.
” [16] And Agamemnon reigned over the Mycenaeans and married Clytaemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus, after slaying her former husband Tantalus, son of Thyestes, with his child.19 And there were born to Agamemnon a son Orestes, and daughters, Chrysothemis, Electra, and Iphigenia.20 And Menelaus married Helen and reigned over Sparta, Tyndareus having ceded the kingdom to him.21