LP0052 - The Kingdom of Elis - Herculean vengeance, from Pausanias' Description of Greece

Legendary Passages #0052 - The Kingdom of Elis - Herculean vengeance, from Pausanias' Description of Greece. Last time we reviewed some of Heracles' deeds after his labors. This time we focus on the Kingdom of Elis, where he was refused payment for cleansing the stables, and later launched a war of retribution. Firstly, the text reviews the origins of the people of Elis, known as the Eleans. Their first king was Aethilius, followed by his son Endymion, and then his son Epeius. Aetolus, his brother, ruled next, followed by Eleius, son of their sister Eurycyda and Poseidon, and then his son Augeas, and his son was Phyleus. After banishing Phyleus and Heracles to avoid payment, Augeas made many friends and alliances. Moline and her husband Actor were the parents of conjoined twins Eurytus and Cteatus, accomplished warriors, but killed by Heracles. For this, their mother Moline cursed the Argives, Heracles' countrymen. After a long aside about sports, eventually Heracles sacked Elis and put Phyleus on the throne. Next time, an overview of the deeds of Heracles, and his Thirteenth Labor. http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias5A.html The Kingdom of Elis, a Legendary Passage, from Pausanias' Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones. [5.1.1] - [5.3.4] ELIS, MYTHICAL HISTORY   The Greeks who say that the Peloponnesus has five, and only five, divisions must agree that Arcadia contains both Arcadians and Eleans, that the second division belongs to the Achaeans, and the remaining three to the Dorians. Of the races dwelling in Peloponnesus the Arcadians and Achaeans are aborigines. When the Achaeans were driven from their land by the Dorians, they did not retire from Peloponnesus, but they cast out the Ionians and occupied the land called of old Aegialus, but now called Achaea from these Achaeans. The Arcadians, on the other hand, have from the beginning to to the present time continued in possession of their own country. The rest of Peloponnesus belongs to immigrants. The modern Corinthians are the latest inhabitants of Peloponnesus, and from my time to the time when they received their land from the Roman Emperor is two hundred and seventeen years. The Dryopians reached the Peloponnesus from Parnassus, the Dorians from Oeta. The Eleans we know crossed over from Calydon and Aetolia generally. Their earlier history I found to be as follows. The first to rule in this land, they say, was Aethlius, who was the son of Zeus and of Protogeneia, the daughter of Deucalion, and the father of Endymion. The Moon, they say, fell in love with this Endymion and bore him fifty daughters. Others with greater probability say that Endymion took a wife Asterodia – others say she was Cromia, the daughter of Itonus, the son of Amphictyon; others again, Hyperippe, the daughter of Arcas – but all agree that Endymion begat Paeon, Epeius, Aetolus, and also a daughter Eurycyda. Endymion set his sons to run a race at Olympia for the throne; Epeius won, and obtained the kingdom, and his subjects were then named Epeans for the first time. Of his brothers they say that Aetolus remained at home, while Paeon, vexed at his defeat, went into the farthest exile possible, and that the region beyond the river Axius was named after him Paeonia. As to the death of Endymion, the people of Heracleia near Miletus do not agree with the Eleans for while the Eleans show a tomb of Endymion, the folk of Heracleia say that he retired to Mount Latmus and give him honor, there being a shrine of Endymion on Latmus. Epeius married Anaxiroe, the daughter of Coronus, and begat a daughter Hyrmina, but no male issue. In the reign of Epeius the following events also occurred. Oenomaus was the son of Alxion (though poets proclaimed his father to be Ares, and the common report agrees with them), but while lord of the land of Pisa he was put down by Pelops the Lydian, who crossed over from Asia. On the death of Oenomaus, Pelops took possession of the land of Pisa and its bordering coun