Again, there is the story of Phoenix,[24] which opens up the question of parricide. Phoenix did not kill his father, but it occurred to him to do so, because his father cursed him with sterility, for having had amorous relations with one of his father’s concubines. Fearing to commit the dread deed of parricide, he decided to leave his home. His relatives and comrades endeavoured to dissuade him, holding a feast in his house for nine days, but on the tenth he fled. He went from Hellas to Phthia, to King Peleus, who made him king over the Dolopians. A portion of this passage[25] has been considered spurious by many editors, as it is not found in any Homeric manuscript, and Aristarchus is said by Plutarch to have omitted it, as being unsuitable to the character of Phoenix[26]; Glotz[27] holds that the feast in question was a kind of gathering of the clan. The father, he thinks, wished to banish the son, but could not do so without the solemn and formal ratification of the assembled clan. He says of Amyntor,[28] the father of Phoenix: ‘Comme Thésée, il a maudit son fils: s’il ne le bannit pas, comme Thésée, c’est qu’il a besoin d’obtenir le consentement du γένος.’ Now Euripides[29] in describing the curse which Theseus pronounced against his son, Hippolytus, whom he believed to be the real though not the actual cause of the death of his wife Phaedra the step-mother of Hippolytus, tells us also that Theseus commanded Hippolytus to depart from Troizen and forbade him ever to reside at Athens.[30] This sentence was pronounced without any consultation with the clans of tribal Attica, because Theseus, in the legends, is erroneously presented as an autocratic ruler, like Peisistratus, rather than as a tribal chieftain. But Amyntor was an Achaean, and we have argued that the Achaeans did not acknowledge or recognise clan-jurisdiction. Hence, a comparison of Amyntor with the legendary Theseus is logically valid but does not justify Glotz’s conclusions. Moreover, if it had been the desire of Amyntor to secure a formal decree from the clan for the expulsion of his son, why should the ‘clan’ have guarded Phoenix as if he were a prisoner? Surely it would have been sufficient to obtain a decree of banishment after the offender had fled. On this point, Glotz does not seem quite clear. ‘Sans doute,’ he says, ‘tous ses parents montent la garde autour de Phoenix de peur qu’il ne s’échappe. Mais ce n’est pas pour cela qu’ils sont venus. Ils sont venus sur convocation.’ But we can find no suggestion, in Homer, that the kinsmen were summoned by Amyntor to agree to a sentence of banishment for his son. We are told quite plainly that Amyntor and his son were exceedingly angry with each other, so much so that Phoenix contemplated parricide, and would have killed his father had not some of the immortals reminded him of the unpleasant reputation which the act would bring him.[31] Owing to his father’s curse, he looked forward to a childless old age.