We may now proceed to consider the sale and servitude of Hercules; a point of primary importance in the various forms which the legends concerning this hero assume. In the present instance this degradation originated from the killing of Iphitus. Here also the parallel with the servitude of Apollo at Pheræ cannot fail to strike every one. The god and the hero were chosen, as examples, to impress the people in early times with a strong sense of the sacred character, and necessity of expiation for homicide.(1742) By whom Hercules was supposed to have been purchased in the original legend of northern Thessaly we know not; at a later period Omphale was called his mistress, who (according to Pherecydes)(1743) bought him for three talents. 3. We will now proceed to the second settlements of the Dorians, which comprehend the towns between the ridges of Œta and Parnassus; viz., Erineus, Cytinium, Bœum, and Pindus.(1744) The neighbours of the Dorians in these settlements were, as has been already stated, the Dryopes, the Melians of Trachis, and the Ætolians. The first were hostile to the Dorians; the other two were for the most part friendly to them. These facts again are expressed with much clearness in the mythology of Hercules. Of the relation between the Dorians and Dryopians, and the manner in which it is expressed in the fables of Hercules, we have already given an account.(1745) Ceyx, the Trachinian, was a faithful friend of Hercules, and of his descendants; in one account, indeed, he is called the nephew of Hercules,(1746) who is said to have founded for him his town of Trachis.(1747) In this place was shown a grave of Deianira,(1748) the daughter of Œneus, whose marriage with Hercules is evidently a mythological expression for the league which existed between the Ætolian and Dorian nations before the invasion of Peloponnesus.(1749) For Deianira was an inhabitant of Calydon;(1750) and the Calydonians had the principal share in this expedition. To this marriage is annexed a series of connected Ætolian fables concerning Hercules. For the peculiarity of this part of the heroic mythology is, that they readily passed from one nation to another; and wherever they obtained a firm ground, formed a large mass of traditions. Among these is the conquest of the bull Achelous,(1751) and the adventure at the ford of the Euenus,(1752) which afterwards occasioned the death of Hercules. It is also probable that the residence of Hercules at Olenus, in the house of Dexamenus, was connected with the Ætolian adventures; although even Hesiod does not in this legend mention the ancient Ætolian town Olenus in the neighbourhood of Calydon, but the Achæan city of the same name on the banks of the Pirus.(1753) Now Dexamenus is frequently placed in connexion with the Calydonian family of Œneus;(1754) the wife of Œneus came from Olenus, and was of the same family. The ancient legend represented him as