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Pelops, the son of Tantalus and Euryanassa,
married Hippodameia and begat Atreus and Thyestes;
but by the nymph Danaïs he had Chrysippus, whom
lie loved more than his legitimate sons. But Laïus
the Theban conceived a desire for him and carried
him off; and, although he was arrested by Thyestes
and Atreus, he obtained mercy from Pelops because
of his love. But Hippodameia tried to persuade
Atreus and Thyestes to do away with Chrysippus,
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since she knew that he would be a contestant for the
kingship ; but when they refused, she stained her
hands with the pollution. For at dead of night, when
Laïus was asleep, she drew his sword, wounded
Chrysippus, and fixed the sword in his body. Laïus
was suspected because of the sword, but was saved
by Chrysippus who, though half-dead, acknowledged
the truth. Pelops buried Chrysippus and banished
Hippodameia.1 So Dositheüs in his Descendants of
Pelops.
Ebius Tolieix married Nuceria and had from her
two sons ; and he had also, from a freedwoman,
Firmus, conspicuous for his beauty, whom he loved
more than his legitimate sons. Nuceria was disposed
to hate her stepson and tried to persuade her sons to
kill him ; but when they righteously refused, she
herself effected the murder. By night she drew the
sword of Firmus's body-guard and mortally wounded
the boy as he slept, leaving the sword behind in his
body. The guard was suspected, but the boy told
the truth. Ebius buried his son and banished his
wife. So Dositheüs in the third book of his Italian
History.
1 Cf. Pausanias, vi. 20. 7; Apollodorus, iii. 5. 5; Athenaeus, 602 f; scholium on Euripides, Phoenissae, 1760; Aelian, Varia Historia, xiii. 5.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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