Cephălus
（
Κέφαλος).
1.
The son of Deïon, and a grandson of Aeolus, married to Procris, the eldest
daughter of Erechtheus. They dwelt at Thoricos in Attica, and lived happily together till
curiosity to try the fidelity of his wife entered the mind of Cephalus. Feigning a
journey of eight years, he disguised himself and came to Procris with a splendid jewel, which
he offered to her on dishonourable terms. After much hesitation she yielded, when her husband
discovered himself and reproached her with her conduct. She fled from him in shame, but they
were soon after reconciled. Cephalus went constantly to the chase; and Procris growing
suspicious, as she had failed herself, fancied that he was attracted by the charms of some
other fair one. She questioned the slave who used to accompany him; and he told her that his
master used frequently to ascend the summit of a hill and cry out, “Come,
Nephelé, come!” Procris went to the designated hill and concealed
herself in a thicket; and on her husband's crying, “Come, Nephelé,
come!” (which was nothing more than an invocation for some cloud,
ϝεφέλη, to interpose itself between him and the scorching beams of
the sun), she rushed forward towards her husband, who, in his astonishment, threw his dart
and unwittingly killed her. (See Hyg. 189; cf. Ovid,
Met. vii. 661 foll.) This legend is told with great variations.
Cephalus, for his involuntary crime, was banished. He went to Thebes, which was at that time
ravaged by a fox which nothing could overtake, and he joined Amphitryon in the chase of it.
His dog Laelaps ran it down; but, just as he was catching it, Zeus turned them both to stone.
Cephalus then aided Amphitryon against the Teleboans, and on their conquest he settled in the
island named from him Cephallenia.
2.
An Athenian orator, who flourished towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, and was one of
those who contributed most to overthrow the rule of the
Thirty Tyrants (q.v.). Although he lived during a very stormy period,
and although no one ever proposed or caused to be passed more laws than he did, yet he never
had any accusation brought against him—a remarkable fact in the history of Athens.
We must not confound him with Cephalus, the father of Lysias, who came from Syracuse and
settled at Athens. Suidas makes Cephalus to have been the first orator that made use of an
exordium and peroration.
3.
The father of Lysias the orator. He was a native of Syracuse, but settled at Athens as a
resident sojourner, or one of the
μέτοικοι.
