Τλῆ μὲν Δημήτηρ, τλῆ δὲ κλυτὸς Ἀμφιγυήεις,
Τλῆ δὲ Ποσειδάων, τλῆ δ᾽ ἀργυρότοξος Ἀπολλὼν
Ἀνδρὶ παρὰ θνητῷ θητεύσεμεν εἰς ἐνιαυτόν·
Τλῆ δὲ καὶ ὀβριμόθυμος Ἄρης ὑπὸ πατρὸς ἀνάγκης.
The old legend followed out the fundamental idea with remarkable
consistency: Laômedôn, as the temporary master of Poseidôn and
Apollo, threatens to bind them hand and foot, to sell them in the
distant islands, and to cut off the ears of both, when they come
to ask for their stipulated wages (Iliad, xxi. 455). It was a
new turn given to the story by the Alexandrine poets, when they
introduced the motive of love, and made the servitude voluntary
on the part of Apollo (Kallimachus, Hymn. Apoll. 49; Tibullus,
Elegii. 3, 11-30).
[252] Eurip. Alkêstis, Arg.; Apollod. i. 9, 15. To bring this
beautiful legend more into the color of history, a new version
of it was subsequently framed: Hêraklês was eminently skilled in
medicine, and saved the life of Alkêstis when she was about to
perish from a desperate malady (Plutarch. Amator c. 17. vol. iv.
p. 53, Wytt.).
The son of Pelias, Akastus, had received and sheltered Pêleus when
obliged to fly his country in consequence of the involuntary murder of
Eurytiôn. Krêthêis, the wife of Akastus, becoming enamored of Pêleus,
made to him advances which he repudiated. Exasperated at his refusal,
and determined to procure his destruction, she persuaded her husband
that Pêleus had attempted her chastity: upon which Akastus conducted
Pêleus out upon a hunting excursion among the woody regions of Mount
Pêlion, contrived to steal from him the sword fabricated and given
by Hêphæstos, and then left him, alone and unarmed, to perish by the
hands of the Centaurs or by the wild beasts. By the friendly aid of the
Centaur Cheirôn, however, Pêleus was preserved, and his sword restored
to him: returning to the city, he avenged himself by putting to death
both Akastus and his perfidious wife.[253]
[253] The legend of Akastus and Pêleus was given in great detail
in the Catalogue of Hesiod (Catalog. Fragm. 20-21, Marktscheff.);
Schol. Pindar Nem. iv. 95. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 224; Apollod.
iii. 13, 2.
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