Description of Greece

​After the Herms, the territory to the west is already Laconia. As the Lacedaemonians themselves say, Lelex, who was an autochthon, was the first to rule as king in this land, and from him the people whom he ruled were named Leleges. To Lelex was born Myles, and a younger son, Polycaon. Where Polycaon departed to and for what reason, I will make clear elsewhere; but when Myles died, his son Eurotas succeeded to the rule. He led the water that was stagnating in the plain down to the sea by means of a trench, and when it had drained away—for what was left was indeed the current of a river—he named it Eurotas.

​Since he had no male children, he left Lacedaemon to rule, who was the son of Taygete as mother, after whom also the mountain was named, but according to rumor traced his father to Zeus; and Lacedaemon lived with Sparta, the daughter of Eurotas. At that time, when he obtained the rule, he first changed the names of the land and the people after himself, and after this he founded and named after his wife a city, which is called Sparta even to our day.

​Amyclas, the son of Lacedaemon, wishing to leave something of himself also for remembrance, founded a small town in Laconia. When children were born to him, Hyacinthus, who was the youngest and most beautiful in appearance, was overtaken by fate before his father, and there is a tomb of Hyacinthus in Amyclae under the statue of Apollo. When Amyclas died, the rule came to Argalus, the eldest of the sons of Amyclas, and later, when Argalus died, to Cynortas.

​To Cynortas was born Oebalus. He took Gorgophone, the daughter of Perseus, as wife from Argos, and had a son Tyndareus, with whom Hippocoon disputed over the kingship, claiming he had the right to the rule according to seniority. Having allied himself with Icarius and his faction, Hippocoon far surpassed Tyndareus in power and forced him to withdraw in fear—as the Lacedaemonians say, to Pellana, but there is a story of the Messenians regarding him that Tyndareus fled and came to Aphareus in Messenia, and that Aphareus, the son of Perieres, was Tyndareus’ brother on his mother’s side; and they say that he dwelt in Thalamae in Messenia, and that his children were born to him while he was dwelling there.

​Some time later, Tyndareus was restored by Heracles and renewed his rule; and the children of Tyndareus also ruled, as did Menelaus, the son of Atreus, who was the son-in-law of Tyndareus, and Orestes, who lived with Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus. When the Heracleidae returned during the reign of Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, Messene and Argos each had Temenus as ruler, and the other portion had Cresphontes; but in Lacedaemon, since the children of Aristodemus were twins, two royal houses came into being;

​for they say that this pleased the Pythia. They say that death came to Aristodemus himself in Delphi before the Dorians returned to the Peloponnese. Those who glorify what concerns him say that Aristodemus was shot by Apollo because he did not come to the oracle, having previously learned from Heracles, whom he had met, how this return would happen for the Dorians to the Peloponnese; but the truer story is that the children of Pylades and Electra, who were cousins to Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, slew Aristodemus.

​Now, the names Procles and Eurysthenes were given to his children, and though they were twins, they were at greatest variance. Having advanced to a great height of hatred, they nevertheless jointly helped Theras, the son of Autesion, who was the brother of their mother Argeia and had also been their guardian, in establishing a colony. Theras was sending the colony to the island then called Calliste, hoping that the descendants of Membliarus would yield the kingship to him voluntarily, which indeed they did, ​taking into consideration that the lineage of Theras went back to Cadmus himself, whereas they were descendants of Membliarus; and Cadmus had left Membliarus, who was a man of the common people, on the island to be a leader of the settlers. And Theras changed the name of the island after himself, and even now the Therans still make annual offerings to him as founder; but as for Procles and Eurysthenes, up to the point of their eagerness toward Theras their opinions came together, but in all other matters their designs were at variance.

​Indeed, even if they had agreed, they would not have brought their descendants into a common catalog; for they did not at all come together in the same degree of age, so that cousin to cousin, and children of cousins, and likewise those further down should happen to be born in equal number to one another. I will therefore go through each of their houses individually, and not mix them both together at the same time.