of that labyrinth, and sailed with his deliverer to the isle of Naxos, where he had the ingratitude to leave her. Theseus afterwards overcame the Centaurs, subdued the Thebans, and defeated the Amazons. He established the Isthmean games, in honour of Neptune; united the twelve cities of Attica, and founded a republic there, B. C. 1236. Some time after, taking a voyage into Epirus, he was seized by Aidenius, king of the Molossians, meanwhile Menestheus rendered himself master of Athens. He excited a general discontent against Theseus. Overpowered by faction, and finding his affairs irretrievable, Theseus dismissed his children privately into Eubœa, to Elphenor, taking refuge himself in the court of king Lycomedes, in the isle of Scyros. In this state of voluntary exile he died, whether by accident or by treachery is not ascertained; some affirming that he fell down a precipice; others, that Lycomedes threw him down in order to acquire the friendship of Menestheus. Theseus had seven wives; the first of whom was the beautiful Helen; the second Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons, by whom he had Hippolytus; and the last, Phædra, sister to Ariadne, who punished him for his infidelity to her sister, by her incestuous passion for his son Hippolytus.

"The actions of Theseus," remarks the Abbé Barthelemy, "and the impressions they made on the minds of men during his youth, at the commencement of his reign, and at the end of his life, present to us successively the image of an hero, a king, and an adventurer; and under these different points of view, he merited the admiration, the love, and the contempt of the Athenians."

ATREUS, king of Mycenae and Argos, about B. C. 1228. He was the son of Pelops by Hippodamia, and brother of Pittheus, Trozen, Thyestes, and Chrysippus; the latter being an illegitimate son, and a favourite with his father, Hippodamia resolved to remove him, and for this purpose she endeavoured to persuade Thyestes and Atreus to murder him; but her arguments proving vain, she executed it herself. Pelops was grieved at his son's death, and the brothers being suspected, they fled from his presence. Atreus retired to the court of his nephew, Eurystheus king of Argos, on whose death he succeeded to that throne. Some writers say he married Ærope, his predecessor's daughter, by whom he had Plisthenes, Menelaus, and Agamemnon; but according to others, Ærope was the wife of Plisthenes, by whom she had Agamemnon and Menelaus, who are the reputed sons of Atreus, because he took care of their education, and brought them up as his own. Thyestes had followed his brother to Argos, where he lived with him, and seduced his wife, by whom he had some children. When Atreus discovered this incestuous commerce, he

banished his brother from his court; but resolving to have more ample revenge for the violence offered to his bed, he soon after recalled him, and invited him to a sumptuous feast. Thyestes was served up with the flesh of the children he had by his sister-in-law the queen; and when the entertainment was over, to convince him of what he had feasted upon, the arms and the heads of the murdered children were shown him. This action appeared so horrid that the sun is said to have withdrawn his light. Thyestes fled directly to the court of Thesprotus, and thence to Sicyon, where he violated his own daughter Pelopea, in a grove sacred to Minerva, not knowing who she was; though some say he committed this incest intentionally to revenge himself on his brother Atreus, as the oracle had promised him satisfaction for the cruelties he had suffered, only by the hand of a son who should be born of himself, and his own daughter. Pelopea brought forth a son, whom she named Ægisthus, and soon after she married Atreus, who had lost his wife. Atreus adopted Ægisthus, and sent him to murder Thyestes, who had been made prisoner. Thyestes knew his son, and made himself known to him, when instead of murdering his father, he espoused his cause and avenged his. wrongs, by returning to Atreus and assassinating him.

PLISTHENES, a son of Atreus, king of Argos, father of Menelaus and Agamemnon, according to Hesiod and others. Homer, however, calls Menelaus and Agamemnon sons of Atreus, though they were in reality the children of Plisthenes. The father died very young, and the two children were left in the house of their grandfather, who took care of them, and instructed them. From his attention to them, therefore, it seems probable that Atreus was universally acknowledged their protector and father, and thence their sirname of Atrida.

ADRASTUS, king of Argos, son of Talaus and Lysianissa, daughter of Polybius king of Sicyon, acquired great honour in the famous war of Thebes, in support of Polynices his son-inlaw, who had been excluded the sovereignty of Thebes by Eteocles his brother, notwithstanding their reciprocal agreement. Adrastus, followed by Polynices and Tydeus his other son-in-law, by Capaneus and Hippomedon his sister's sons, by Amphiaraus his brother-in-law, and by Parthenopaus, marched against the city of Thebes; and this is the expedition of the Seven Worthies, which the poets have so often sung. They all lost their lives in this war except Adrastus, who was saved by his horse called Arrian. This war was revived ten years after, by the sons of those deceased warriors, and was called the war of the Epigones, and ended with the taking of Thebes. None of them lost their lives except Egialeus, son of Adrastus; which afflicted the father so much, that he died of grief in Megara, as he was leading back his victorious army.

MNESTHEUS, a son of Pereus, who so insinuated himself into the favour of the people of Athens, that, during the long absence of Theseus, he was elected king. The lawful monarch at his return home was expelled, and Mnestheus established his usurpation by his popularity and great moderation. As he had been one of Helen's suitors, he went to the Trojan war at the head of the people of Athens, and died, on his return, in the island of Melos. He reigned 23 years, B. C. 1205, and was succeeded by Demophoon the son of Theseus.

DEMOPHOON, son of Theseus and Phædra, was king of Athens, B. C. 1182, and reigned 33 years. At his return from the Trojan war, he visited Thrace, where he was tenderly received and treated by Phyllis. He retired to Athens, and forgot the kindness and love of Phyllis, who hanged herself in despair.

HERCULES, a famous Theban hero, to whom the heathens paid divine honours. He was born about the time when Gideon was judge of Israel. Who this Hercules was it is difficult to say; and we shall not enter at large into his history, as it may be found in any common book of mythology. Several circumstances in the life of Joshua, Samson, and Moses, have been confounded with that of Hercules; and the heathens related much the same thing of this hero as we do of Jonah. There are certainly many particulars in the history of Hercules which show some resemblance between him and Samson. Hercules was of a very advantageous stature, and of an almost incredible strength. He gave himself up to the love of women, and we know that story tells us of his amours with Omphale, who domineered over him, and obliged him, it is said, to take the distaff. All this agrees but too clearly with Samson, who resigned himself entirely to Delilah, and was treated in so injurious a manner by her. Hercules fought for the gods against the giants. Samson defended the people of God against the Philistines who oppressed them, and among whom there were men of a gigantic stature. To exaggerate the strength of Hercules, they tell us, that he fought against the Pygmies, and inclosed them in his lions' skin; this may describe the enemies wherewith Samson defeated the Philistines, who came to bind and take him. Hercules killed several lions, one of Cithera, another of Citheron, and another of Nemæa; one he strangled, and tore off his jaws; all which we find in the history of Samson, who strangled a lion that fell upon him with dreadful roarings.

Samson delivered to the Philistines after discovering the secret of his strength to Delilah, and set to hard and mean labours, is a figure of Hercules abandoned to Eurystheus, by the hatred of Juno, and obliged to undergo the severest trials, in order to deliver himself from servitude. The two pillars of

Hercules are admirably represented by those which Samson grasped and pulled down in the temple of Gaza.

ANDROCLEA, celebrated for her love to her country, was of Thebes, in Boeotia. That state was at war with the Orchomenians, they consulted the oracle, which answered, they would be victors, if the most noble amongst them would incur a voluntary death. Antiopanus, the father of Androclea, was then most illustrious by birth amongst the Thebans, but did not feel disposed to make that sacrifice for their welfare. Androclea, and her sister Alcis, more courageous or more generous than their father, fulfilled this duty in his stead; and the Thebans, in gratitude, erected the statue of a lion to their honour in the temple of Diana.

JASON, the Greek hero who undertook the Argonautic expedition, the history of which is obscured in fabulous traditions. He was the son of Eson and Alcimede, and was educated by Chiron the Centaur. His uncle Pelias having usurp ed his father's kingdom, Jason boldly demanded it of him, but was advised by him first to go to Colchis, and recover the golden fleece previous to the restoration of it. He accomplished the arduous enterprise by the assistance of Medea, daughter of Etes, king of Colchis. Jason married Medea, but afterwards divorced her, and married Glauce, daughter of the king of Corinth. After this, he lived an unsettled and melancholy life. As he was one day reposing himself by the side of the ship which had carried him to Colchis, a beam fell upon his head, and he was crushed to death.

CAPANEUS, a captain at the siege of Thebes, and the first who put a ladder to scale the walls of the town, On this account poets have feigned, that he made war against Jupiter.

ABSYRTUS, the son of Eta and Hypsea, and brother of Medea. When Medea ran away with Jason, whom she assisted in carrying off the golden fleece, she was pursued by her father; but in order to retard his progress, she tore Absyrtas in pieces, and strewed his limbs in the way.

ANGITIA, the sister of Medea, who taught antidotes against poison and serpents, according to Sil. Italicus; though Servius on Virgil says that Medea herself got this name for the same

reason.

LELEX, an Egyptian, who came with a colony to Megara, where he reigned before the Trojan war. His subjects were called from him Leleges, and the place Lelegeia Mania.

SCIRON, a celebrated thief in Attica, who plundered the inhabitants of the country, and threw them down from the highest rocks into the sea, after he had obliged them to wait upon him and to wash his feet. Theseus attacked him, and treated him as he had done others. Sciron had married the

daughter of Cychreus a king of Salamis. He was brother-inlaw to Telamon the son of Eacus.

POLYPEMON, a famous thief, who plundered all the travellers about the Cephisus, and near Eleusis in Attica. He was killed by Theseus. Ovid calls him father of Procrustes, and Apollodorus of Sinis.

PROCRUSTES, a famous robber of Attica, killed by Theseus, near the Cephisus. He tied travellers on a bed, and if their length exceeded that of the bed, he used to cut it off, but if they were shorter, he had them stretched to make their length equal to it. He is called by some Damastes, and by others Polypemon.

LATINUS I. king of the Latins, in Italy, was the son of Faunus and Marica. Lavinia, his only daughter, married Eneas, after that Trojan prince had killed Turnus king of the Rutuli.

MELANTHUS, MELANTHES, or MELANTHIUS, a son of Andropompus, whose ancestors were kings of Pylas. He was driven from his paternal kingdom by the Hebrachida and came to Athens, where king Thymotes promised to resign the crown to him, provided he fought a battle against Xanthus, a general of the Boeotians, who made war against him. He fought and conquered, and his family, sirnamed the Neleidæ, sat on the throne of Athens, till the age of Codrus.

EURYSTHENES, a son of Aristodemus, who lived in perpetual dissention with his twin brother Procles, while they both sat on the Spartan throne. It was unknown which of the two was born first; the mother, who wished to see both her sons sit on the throne, refused to declare it, and they were both appointed kings of Sparta by order of the oracle of Delphi. After the death of the two brothers, the Lacedæmonians, who knew not to what family the right of seniority and succession belonged, permitted two kings to sit on the throne, one of each family. The descendants of Eurysthenes were called Eurysthenidæ, and those of Procles, Proclidæ; it #as inconsistent with the laws of Sparta for two kings of the same family to ascend the throne together, yet that law was sometimes violated by oppression and tyranny. Eurysthenes had a son called Agis who succeeded him. His descendants were called Agidæ. There sat on the throne of Sparta 31 kings of the family of Eurysthenes, and only 24 of the Proclide; the former were the more illustrious.

PROCLES, a king of Sparta, the son of Aristodemus and Argia, and the twin brother of Eurysthenes, who reigned jointly along with him, and gave rise to the two royal families of Proclide and Eurysthenida, who governed Sparta for several centuries, exhibiting the singular political phænomenon of a Binarchy, or two hereditary kings governing with equal, but. limited power.