Heraclīdae
（
Ἡρακλεῖδαι). A name given in ancient legend to a
powerful Achaean race or family, the fabled descendants of Heracles. According to the account
of the ancient writers, the children of Heracles, after the death of that hero, being
persecuted by Eurystheus, took refuge in Attica, and there defeated and slew the tyrant at the
Scironian Rock, near the Saronic Gulf. When their enemy had fallen, they resumed possession of
their birthright in the Peloponnesus; but they had not long enjoyed the fruits of their
victory before a pestilence, in which they recognized the finger of heaven, drove them again
into exile. Attica again afforded them a retreat. When their hopes had revived, an ambiguous
oracle encouraged them to believe that, after they had reaped their third harvest, they should
find a prosperous passage through the Isthmus into the land of their fathers. But, at the
entrance of the Peloponnesus, they were met by the united forces of the Achaeans, Ionians, and
Arcadians. Their leader Hyllus, the eldest son of Heracles, proposed to decide the quarrel by
single combat; and Echemus, king of Tegea, was selected by the Peloponnesian confederates as
their champion. Hyllus fell; and the Heraclidae were bound by the terms of the agreement to
abandon their enterprise for a hundred, or, according to some accounts, for fifty, years. Yet
both Cleodaeus, son of Hyllus, and his grandson Aristomachus, renewed the attempt with no
better fortune. After Aristomachus had fallen in battle, the ambiguous oracle was explained to
his sons Aristodemus, Temenus, and Cresphontes; and they were assured that the time, the third
generation, had now come, when they should accomplish their return; not, however, as they had
expected, over the guarded Isthmus, but across the mouth of the western gulf from Naupactus,
where the opposite shores are parted by a channel only a few furlongs broad. Thus encouraged,
with the aid of the Dorians, Aetolians, and Locrians, they crossed the strait, vanquished
Tisamenus, son of Orestes, and divided the fairest portion of the Peloponnesus among
them. (See
Doris.) For the historical significance of
this legend, see
Hellas. For the play of Euripides on
the subject of the Heraclidae, see
Euripides, p.
639.
