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Megara is a city in Greece proper, northeast of
the Isthmus of Corinth.
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First king
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Phoroneus, king of
what later was named the Peloponnesus, and said to
be the first man, had a son Car, who built the
citadel of Megara, calling it Caria. Car ruled the
country, and was at his death buried on the road
between Megara and
Corinth. Some say that
Car's mother was Cerdo, others say Teledice, and
still others say Cinna. The Megarians themselves
affirm that it was during Car's times that the city
got its name, and that in those times the
sanctuaries of Demeter
were first made by them. However, the Boeotians
claim that the city was called after Megareus 2,
who came from the Boeotian city of Onchestus with
an army to help Nisus 1 in his war against King
Minos 2 of
Crete.
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Lelex 2
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Twelve generations after Car, Lelex 2 arrived
from Egypt and made himself the ruler of vast
territories both in Megara and Peloponnesus. Some
have called Lelex 2 an autochthon (a "son of the
soil" see
AUTOCHTHONOUS),
but others call him a son of
Poseidon and Libya.
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His daughters find a corpse
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Lelex 2 had, by the naiad Cleocharia, several
sons, among which Cleson. The latter was father of
Pylas, Cleso and Tauropolis. According to the
Megarians, the corpse of Ino was cast up on their
coast, and Cleso and Tauropolis, the daughters of
Cleson, found it and buried it. They also claim
that they were the first to name her Leucothea, and
to offer her sacrifice every year.
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The story of Ino
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Ino, a daughter of
Cadmus, the founder of
Thebes, was originally a
mortal woman, but now lives in the depths of the
sea, being called Leucothea or Leucothoe 3. While
still a mortal, she plotted against the children of
her husband's first wife, attempting to arrange
their death. These, however, could escape to
Colchis borne through the sky by the Ram with the
Golden Fleece. Ino was married to
Athamas 1, son of
Aeolus 1; her husband's
first wife was Nephele 2, and the children who were
saved by the Ram with the Golden Fleece were
Phrixus 1 and Helle [see also
ARGONAUTS].
Athamas 1 and Ino were
in charge of taking care of the child
Dionysus 2, but
Hera, who, out of jealousy,
hated this son of Zeus and
Semele, drove both
Athamas 1 and Ino mad.
So Athamas 1 hunted his
son Learchus as if he were a deer and killed him,
and Ino killed her son Melicertes: she threw him
into a boiling cauldron, and carrying it with the
dead child, cast herself into the sea. Melicertes
became a new god, Palaemon 3, and his mother Ino
was called Leucothea.
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Conflict solved through murder
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A conflict aroused between Pylas and his
father's brother Bias 6 concerning the kingdom,
which resulted in Bias 6 being killed by Pylas.
Because of this crime, Pylas left Megara, and
having come to the Peloponnesus, founded the city
of Pylos. But some affirm
that the city was built by
Neleus, father of
Nestor.
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King Pandion 4
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When Pylas left, Pandion 4 married his daughter
Pylia and became king of Megara. Pandion 4, son of
Cecrops 2 and Metiadusa, had reigned in
Athens after his father,
but was later expelled by the sons of Metion 1.
According to some, Pandion 4 is father of
Aegeus 1, father of
Theseus, both kings of
Athens. He is also the
father of Pallas 5, Lycus 7, Nisus 1, and a
daughter who married Sciron, son of Pylas.
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Conflict solved through negotiation
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After Pandion 4 there was a conflict between his
son Nisus 1 and Sciron concerning the kingdom. This
conflict was settled by King
Aeacus of Aegina, who
gave the kingship to Nisus 1, and to Sciron the
command in war.
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War against Crete
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Nisus 1 married Habrote, a Boeotian woman,
daughter of Onchestus 2 and sister of Megareus 2,
and had by her three daughters: Scylla 2, Iphinoe 3
and Eurynome 6. During the reign of Nisus 1 there
took place the war between
Crete and
Athens. So in one of his
military expeditions King
Minos 2 of
Crete attacked Megara, and
besieged the city. Now, when a city is under siege,
not seldom some of the besieged find good reasons
to help the assailants. And such a reason was found
by the princess Scylla 2, who fell in love with the
leader of the invaders, and for the sake of her
passion betrayed both father and city. As it is
told, King Nisus 1 had a purple hair in the middle
of his head, and an oracle told that when it was
pulled out he should die. So Scylla 2, who was
aware of the prophecy, pulled out the hair and
Nisus 1 died when he lost his vital lock, and was
turned into an osprey. But since treason gives no
room for reliability, when
Minos 2 had made himself
master of Megara, he tied Scylla 2 by the feet to
the stern of a ship and drowned her. Some say she
was changed into a bird, while others say that she
turned into a fish. But still others assert that
her body was just cast ashore by the waves, and
later buried.
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Scylla 2
cuts her father's purple hair
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Similar cases
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Something similar happened to King Pterelaus of
Taphos, whom Poseidon
had made immortal by implanting a golden hair in
his head. For when
Amphitryon ravaged
the islands of the Taphians or Teleboans,
Pterelaus' daughter Comaetho 1 fell in love with
him, betraying his father, and was killed by
Amphitryon once he
had won victory.
Also Pisidice 4, princess of Methymna in Lesbos,
fell in love with
Achilles when he was
besieging the city, and promised to put the town
into his possession if he would take her to wife.
At first he agreed, but when the town was in his
power, he bade his soldiers stone her to death.
And Leucophrye, when her father's town was
besieged, fell in love with the assailant, the
Lycian Leucippus 8, a descendant of
Bellerophon, and
betrayed the town to her father's enemies.
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Ally becomes king
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During the Cretan war, Megareus 2 came from
Boeotia with an army in order to help Nisus 1 and
was killed in battle. However, some affirm that he
married Nisus 1's daughter Iphinoe 3, had children
by her, Evippus 3, Timalcus and Evaechme 1, and
succeeded Nisus 1 as king of Megara. Some say
Megareus 2 was son of
Poseidon and Oenope,
others call him son of Hippomenes 1, and still
others son of Onchestus 2, after whom the city
Onchestus was named in Boeotia. The Megarians say
Megareus 2 became king of the city because they
ignore altogether the war against the Cretans and
the capture of the city by
Minos 2 during the reign
of Nisus 1.
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Descent of Megareus 2
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Of the sons of Megareus 2, Evippus 3 was killed
by the Cithaeronian Lion, and Timalcus, they say,
was killed by Theseus
during the campaign of the
DIOSCURI against
Aphidnae, but this seems unlikely, since
Theseus is reported to
have been in the
Underworld at that
time. Megareus 2 promised to give his daughter
Evaechme 1 and his kingdom to him who killed the
Cithaeronian Lion, which was done by Alcathous 3,
son of Pelops 1 and
Hippodamia 3, who already had been married to Pyrgo
1. So Evaechme 1 became the second wife of
Alcathous 3, and he became, through that marriage,
king of Megara after Megareus 2.
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Restoration of the city
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Alcathous 3 is said to have restored (with
Apollo's help, who placed
his lyre on a stone), the walls of Megara which had
been destroyed during the Cretan invasion. They say
that if the stone is hit with a pebble it sounds
just as a lyre does when struck.
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Death of two princes
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Ischepolis, son of Alcathous 3, is counted among
the CALYDONIAN
HUNTERS, and was killed by the wild beast
during the hunt. His brother Callipolis was the
first to hear of his death. So he came running to
meet Alcathous 3 and tell him the bad news when
Alcathous 3 was preparing a fire to sacrifice to
Apollo. Judging this was
no time for sacrifices when his brother had died,
Callipolis flung the logs from the altar, but
Alcathous 3, who had not yet heard of the death of
Ischepolis, thought Callipolis acted as an impious
man, and out of anger, killed his son by striking
his head with one of the logs that had been flung
from the altar. In order to purify Alcathous 3 for
having killed his son, Astycratea and Manto 2 came
to Megara. These were daughters of the seer
Polyidus 1, son of Coeranus 1, son of Abas 3, son
of the seer and king of
Argos Melampus 1, son of
Amythaon 1, son of Cretheus 1, son of
Aeolus 1, son of the
eponym of the Hellenes
Hellen 1, son of
Deucalion 1, who
survived the Flood.
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Famous citizen and last king
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The seer Calchas is
said to have dwelt in Megara, and
Agamemnon came to the
city to pay him a visit and convince him to join
the expedition against
Troy. A son of
Agamemnon, the greedy
and violent Hyperion 3, is said to have been the
last king of Megara. After him the Megarians
decided to abandon monarchy, and be ruled by
elected magistrates.
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The Art of understanding oracles
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The Megarians are also said to have asked the
oracle at Delphi in what
way they could be prosperous. The oracle then
replied that they would fare well if they took
counsel with the majority. They thought that by
'majority' the oracle meant the dead, so they built
a council chamber so that the grave of their heroes
was within it.
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