II
A man named
Pheidon, who was striving to
make himself ruler of the Peloponnesians and wished
his own native city of Argos to be the leader of all
the other states, plotted first against the Corinthians. He sent and asked of them the thousand
young men who were the best in vigour and valour ;
and they sent the thousand, putting Dexander in
[p. 9]
command of them. Now
Pheidon intended to make
an onslaught upon these young men, that Corinth
might be weakened and he might have the city in
his power, for he considered that it would be the
most advantageous bulwark of the whole Peloponnesus, and he confided this matter to some of his
friends, among whom was Habron. Now he was a
friend of Dexander and told him of the plot, so before
the onslaught was made the thousand young men
escaped safely to Corinth ; but
Pheidon tried to
discover the betrayer of his plot and searched for him
with , great care. So Hatron was frightened and
fled to Corinth with his wife and his servants, settling
in Melissus, a village in Corinthian territory. There
he begot a son whom he called Melissus from the
name of the place. This Melissus had a son named
Actaeon, the handsomest and most modest youth
of his age, who had many lovers, chief of whom was
Archias, of the family of the Heracleidae, in wealth
and general influence the most outstanding man in
Corinth. Now when he could not gain the boy by
persuasion, he determined to carry him off by force.
So he got together a crowd of friends and servants,
went as in a drunken frolic to the house of Melissus,
and tried to take the boy away. But his father and
his friends resisted, the neighbours also ran out and
pulled against the assailants, and so Actaeon was
pulled to pieces and killed ; the assailants thereupon went away. But Melissus took his son's body
and exhibited it in the market-place of the Corinthians, demanding the punishment of the men who
had done the deed ; but the Corinthians merely pitied
him and did nothing further. So, being unsuccessful,
[p. 11]
he went away and waited for the Isthmian
festival,
1 when he went up upon the temple of
Poseidon, shouted accusations against the Bacchiadae,
2 and reminded the people of his father Habron's
benefactions, whereupon, calling upon the gods to
avenge him, he threw himself down from the rocks.
Not long afterwards the city was afflicted by drought
and pestilence, and when the Corinthians consulted
the oracle concerning relief, the god replied that the
wrath of Poseidon would not relax until they inflicted punishment for the death of Actaeon. Archias
knew of this, for he was himself one of those sent to
consult the oracle, and voluntarily rgfrained from
returning to Corinth. Instead he sailed to Sicily and
founded Syracuse. There he became the father of
two daughters, Ortygia and Syracusa, and was
treacherously murdered by Telephus, who had been
his beloved and had sailed with him to Sicily in
command of a ship.
