Classical Mythology

(^608) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
her. Another of the lovers of Helius, the Oceanid Clytië, jealous because Helius
preferred Leucothoë to her, told Leucothoë's father of the affair. Orchamus
buried Leucothoë and Helius was too late to save her. He shed drops of nectar
on her corpse, which grew into a frankincense tree. Clytië could not persuade
Helius to forgive her nor could she recover his love. She sat, following the Sun's
progress with her eyes until she turned into a sunflower, which forever turns
its face toward the sun.
TROPHONIUS
The famous oracle of Trophonius was situated at Lebadeia in northern Boeotia.
He is a chthonic hero (his name means "he who fosters growth") and he was
therefore consulted in a subterranean setting with an awesome ritual. His leg-
end is similar to the story of the Egyptian Pharaoh Rhampsinitus (Rameses),
which Herodotus tells (2. 121). Trophonius and his brother Agamedes were
skilled builders, sons of Erginus of Orchomenus. They built for King Augeas of
Elis (or, as some say, the Boeotian king Hyrieus) a treasury with a movable stone,
which they used to steal the king's treasure. In time the king set a trap for the
unknown thief, and Agamedes was caught. At his own suggestion his head was
cut off by Trophonius, who then escaped carrying the head. He fled to Lebadeia,
where he was swallowed up by the earth and thereafter worshiped as a god.
Pindar (frags. 2-3), however, has a different story of the brothers' death, one
very similar to Herodotus' story of the Argives Cleobis and Biton (see pp. 136-
137). In this version, Trophonius and Agamedes built the temple of Apollo at
Delphi.^8 When they asked the god for their wages, he said he would pay them
on the seventh day. On that day they fell asleep, never to wake.
AETOLIA
THE CALYDONIAN BOAR HUNT
Among the descendants of Aeolus was Oeneus, king of Calydon and father of
Heracles' wife De'ianira; his son was Meleager. Shortly after the birth of Melea-
ger, the Fates (Moirai) appeared before his mother, Althaea, and told her that Me-
leager would die when a log, which was burning on the hearth, had burned out.
Althaea snatched up the log, extinguished it, and kept it in a chest. Years later,
when Meleager was a young man, Oeneus offended Artemis by failing to sacri-
fice her share of the first fruits, and she sent a huge boar to ravage Calydon.
Meleager gathered many of the noblest Greek heroes to hunt the boar, and
with them came Atalanta, daughter of the Boeotian king Schoeneus. In the hunt,
after several heroes had been killed, Atalanta was the first to wound the boar.
Meleager gave it the coup de grâce and therefore received the boar's skin, which
he presented to Atalanta. His uncles, the brothers of Althaea, were insulted at