Poias: the Argonaut, p. 50, and father of Philoctetes, p. 121. Although it was more commonly said that Philoctetes lit the pyre and was given Heracles’ bow in return (e.g. Soph. Philoctetes801 ff., DS 4. 38. 4), this may well be the earlier tradition.
raised him up to heaven: the apotheosis of Heracles is a relatively late element in the tradition. He is clearly regarded as mortal in Il. 18. 117 ff; in the Odyssey, Odysseus meets Heracles in Hades, 11. 601–27 (although there is an awkward interpolation after the first line, stating that the Heracles in Hades was only a phantom, eidolon, and the real Heracles was in heaven with Hebe, 602–4; a similar passage in Theog., 950 ff, that refers to his marriage in Olympos is also regarded as a later interpolation). The evidence from the visual arts suggests that the story of his apotheosis originated at the end of the seventh century. Before this promotion he was worshipped solely as a hero.
married. . . Hebe: there is no myth associated with Heracles as a god beyond this marriage to Hebe, the personification of youth (cf. Pind. Nem. 1. 69 ff. and 10. 17 f., Isth. 4. 55 ff.). The names for their children, otherwise unattested, are derived from Heracles’ cultic titles as Alexikakos(Averter of Evil) and Kallinikos(the Noble Victor, see p. 86).
the daughters of Thespios: see p. 91.
the altar of Pity: or Mercy, in the marketplace, see P. 1. 17. 1; an unusual cult in Greece.
the Athenians. . . in a war with Eurystheus: under Theseus (P. 1. 32. 5) or Demophon, son of Theseus (AL 33, following Pherecydes, cf. Eur. Heraclidae111 ff.).
Hyllos. . . killed him: or Iolaos did, Pind. Pyth. 9. 79 ff, P. 1. 44. 14.
their return: a return, kathodos, because the Heraclids were Perseids from Argos, and were claiming their legitimate rights. After the death of Eurystheus, it was the will of the gods that the Pelopids should rule the main Peloponnesian centres, in Mycenae (see p. 145 and note) and Sparta (see pp. 122 and 146 and note), and that they should not be displaced until after the Trojan War (fifty years after, it was usually said, when Tisamenos was killed, see p. 94 with p. 164 and note; this was regarded as the last episode in mythological history).
Tlepolemos. . . killed Licymnios: cf. Il. 2. 653 ff, Pind. ol. 7. 27 ff., where the killing is not accidental as here; and see Strabo 14. 8. 6 ff. for the place of Tlepolemos in Rhodian mythology. On Licymnios, Alcmene’s brother, see p. 69; the incident took place at Argos, where his grave was shown (P. 2. 22. 8).
with his army: the narrative is now interrupted by a gap in the text. Hyllos must certainly have been defeated and killed. It was generally accepted that he challenged the Peloponnesians to settle the matter by single combat; and that when Echemos, king of Tegea, took up the challenge and killed Hyllos, the Heraclids withdrew in accordance with the agreed terms (Hdt. 9. 26. cf. DS 4. 58. 2–4, and P. 8. 5. 1; but we cannot be sure that Ap. told the story in this way, because he talks of a ‘further battle’ in the next invasion). And then, according to Eusebius (Prep. Evang. 5. 20), Aristomachos, the son of Cleodaios and grandson of Hyllos, consulted the oracle about how they should invade the Peloponnese, and was told that they would be victorious if they travelled by the narrow route. So he invaded by the Isthmus of Corinth, only to be defeated and killed (as Ap. reports when the text resumes). This oracle, so disastrously misinterpreted by Aristomachos, must have been mentioned in the missing passage because it is referred to without explanation shortly below.
Tisamenos. . . was king of the Peloponnesians: as the last Pelopid, ruling both Argos and Lacedaimon, Tisamenos was the most important king in the Peloponnese, but by no means the only king (cf. P. 2. 18. 7).
Aristomachos: in the manuscripts, Cleolaos, a mistake for Cleodaios, the son of Hyllos and father of Aristomachos, but Cleodaios was killed during Hyllos’ invasion and Aristomachos during the next, so the final return will be led by the sons of Aristomachos, Temenos and Cresphontes (Aristodemos, his other son, being killed beforehand), as we will see below. There must surely have been an account of the Heraclid line from Hyllos onwards in the missing passage just above.
by the narrows, the broad-bellied sea: this is not as perverse as it sounds. They had thought that the oracle meant a narrow stretch of land, the Isthmus of Corinth, but it really meant the Gulf of Corinth (which is to the right of the Isthmus from the perspective of Delphi, to the north of it), which stretches a great distance from east to west (and is in that sense broad-bellied) but is very narrow if one is crossing from its northern shore to the Peloponnese at the south.
Naupactos: the name is said to be derived from naus epexato(cf. P. 10. 38. 5). Naupactos lies in western Locris, where the Corinthian Gulf is at its narrowest before it widens again at the entrance.
Aristodemos: one of the three sons of Aristomachos; for another account of his death, see P. 3. 1. 6. According to the Lacedaimonian tradition he survived to lead the conquest of Sparta (Hdt. 6. 52, Xenophon Agesilaos8. 7).
because of the diviner: these disasters were caused by the anger of Apollo, who had inspired the seer (named by Pausanias as Carnos, an Acarnanian) with his gift of prophecy (P. 3. 13. 4).
Oxylos: compare P. 5. 3. 5 ff, where he is said to have been the son of Haimon, son of Thoas, son of Andraimon; he had accidentally killed his brother Thermios (or a certain Alcidocos, son of Scopios) when throwing a discus.
Pamphylos and Dymas, the sons of Aigimios: see pp. 89–90. The Heraclids were leading a Dorian army together with the descendants of their king Aigimios (himself the son of Doros, eponym of the Dorians). These sons of Aigimios (now allies of the great-great-grandsons of Heracles!) were the eponymous ancestors of the Pamphyloi and Dymanes, two of the three tribes into which the Dorians were divided in most of their communities, the third, the Hylleis, being named after Hyllos (regarded as an adopted son of Aigimios).
a clod of earth: cf. P. 4. 3. 4 f, essentially the same story, although the stratagem is slightly different. There was rich agricultural land in Messenia (which was conquered in the eighth to seventh centuries by the Spartans, who reduced its inhabitants to serfdom).
Temenos spurned. . . Deiphontes: see P. 2. 19. 1 and 2. 28. 3 ff.
some men from Titana: reading Titaniousfor titanas;Titana lay near Sicyon. Or perhaps simply tinas, ‘some men’.