Idas
（
Ἴδας) and
Lynceus (
Λυγκεύς). The sons of Aphareus of Messenia and of Arené;
two brothers as heroic and inseparable as their cousins Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces). The
nymph Marpessa, daughter of the Acarnanian river-god Euenus, was wooed by Apollo, when Idas
carried her off in a winged chariot given him by Poseidon. When Apollo overtook the fugitives
in Messenia, Idas, who was then the strongest of living men (
Hom.
Il. ix. 556), stretched his bow against Apollo. Zeus interposed and
gave the girl her choice of suitors; she decided in favour of the mortal, as she feared that
Apollo would desert her. After that the god detested her; and both she and her beautiful
daughter Cleopatra or Alcyoné, wife of Meléager, and also their
daughter, all died young, and brought misfortune on those that loved them. Idas and Lynceus,
who could see even into the heart of the earth, joined in the Calydonian hunt and the
Argonautic expedition. They met their deaths fighting Castor and Pollux, with whom they had
been brought up. As they were all returning from a raid into Arcadia, Idas was appointed to
divide the cattle they had captured; he divided an ox into four portions and decided
that whosoever devoured his portion first was to have the first half of the spoil, and he who
finished his next, the second half. He finished his own and his brother's share first, and
then drove the cattle away. The Dioscuri were enraged and hid themselves from the brothers in
a hollow oak-tree; but the keen sight of Lynceus detected their lurking-place, and Idas
stabbed Castor in the tree. Thereupon Pollux pierced Lynceus through, while Idas was slain by
the lightning of Zeus. For another account of the origin of the quarrel, see
Dioscuri.
