Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/221

ACHILLES AND AJAX. 189 born to him. He himself perishes in the full vigor of life at Delphi by the machinations of Orestes, son of Agamemnon. But his son Molossus like Fleance, the son of Banquo, in Macbeth becomes the father of the powerful race of Molossian kings, who played so conspicuous a part during the declining vigor of the Grecian cities, and to whom the title and parentage of -3Dakids was a source of peculiar pride, identifying them by community of heroic origin with genuine and undisputed Hellenes. 1 The glories of Ajax, the second grandson of JEakus, before Troy, are surpassed only by those of Achilles. He perishes by his own hand, the victim of an insupportable feeling of humilia- tion, because a less worthy claimant is allowed to carry oft' from him the arms of the departed Achilles. His son Philaeus receives the citizenship of Athens, and the gens or deme called Philaidae traced up fo him its name and its origin : moreover the distin guished Athenians, Militiades and Thucydides, were regarded as members of this heroic progeny. 2 Teukrus escaped from the perils of the siege of Troy as well as from those of the voyage homeward, and reached Salamis in safety. But his father Telamon, indignant at his having return- ed without Ajax, refused to receive him, and compelled him to expatriate. He conducted his followers to Cyprus, where he founded the city of Salamis : his descendant Evagoras was re- cognized as a Teukrid and as an JEakid even in the time of Isokrates. 3 1 Plutarch, Pyrrh. 1; Justin, xi. 3; Eurip. Androni. 1253; Arrian, Exp. Alcxand. i. 11. 2 Pherekydes and Hellanikus ap. Marcellin. Vit. Thucydid. init. ; Pausan. ii. 29, 4; Plutarch, Solon, 10. According to Apollodorus, however, Phcrc kydes said that Telamon was only the friend of Peleus, not his brother, not the son of JEakus ("iii. 12, 7) : this seems an inconsistency. There w**s however a warm dispute between the Athenians and the Megarians respect- ing the title to the hero Ajax, who was claimed by both (see Pausan. i. 42, 4 ; Plutarch, /. c.) : the Megarians accused Peisistratus of having interpolated a line into the Catalogue in the Iliad (Strabo, ix. p. 394). 3 Herodot. vii. 90; Isokrat. Enc. Evag. ut sup.; Sophokl. Ajax, 984-995; Vellei. Patercul. i. 1 ; ^schyl. Pers. 891, and Schol. The return from Troy of Teukrns, h/s banishment by Telamon, and his settlement in Cyprus, form- ed the subject of the Tevupof of Sophokles, and of a tragedy under a similar