buried by his father-in-law Ceyx,[1] the human Zeus.[2] But Apollo caused the river Anaurus to swell with much rain and sweep away the tomb, because Cycnus used to rob men who brought hecatombs to Delphi.[3] Ares, angered at his death, attacked Heracles, and Zeus parted the combatants by hurling a thunderbolt between them.[4] Cercyon of Eleusis was another example of a king whose rule rested on personal prowess. He forced all strangers to wrestle with him and slew them, when they were thrown, till at last he was himself thrown by Theseus.[5] Antæus, a gigantic Libyan king, likewise forced all strangers to wrestle with him, and killed them when thrown. With their skulls he, like Cycnus, built a temple to his father Poseidon. In the end Heracles met him on his own ground and slew him.[6] His grave was shown at Tingis in Mauretania; and we are told that, whenever a hole was made in it, rain fell till the hole was filled up again.[7] Amycus king of the Bebryces compelled all strangers to box with him, and thus killed many of them before he was himself beaten and killed by Polydeuces:[8] so pugnacious was he that whoever held a branch of the great laurel-tree called the Mad Laurel, which grew on his grave, broke out at once into abusive language.[9] Another test of physical endurance
- ↑ Hes. sc., 354 ff., 472.
- ↑ Folk-Lore xv., 300.
- ↑ Hes. sc., 477 ff.
- ↑ Apollod., 2. 5. 11, Hyg. fab., 31.
- ↑ Paus., 1. 39. 3, Plut. vit. Thes., 11, Diod., 4. 59, Suid. s. v. (
Greek characters). On Greek vases his name is sometimes (Greek characters) (P. Kretschmer, die griechischen Vaseninschriften, pp. 203, 238); this, compared with Corp. inscrr. Att., 3. 1203, (Greek characters), suggests that Cercyon was a priestly king. Evidence of an oak-cult at Eleusis is given in Class. Rev., xviii., 84.
- ↑ Pind. Isthm., 3 (4). 70 ff., Plat. Theœt. 169 B, Apollod. 2. 5. 11, Diod., 4. 7, 27, Hyg. fab., 31
- ↑ Mela, 3. 106. This tradition points to the Libyan king as rain-maker.
- ↑ Ap. Rhod. 2. 1 ff., Apollod. 1. 9. 20, alib.
- ↑ Apollodorus ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. 2. 159, Plin. nat. hist., 16. 239: see further C. Müller, frag. hist. Gr., iv., 304, and Oberhummer in Pauly-Wissowa, iii., 753.
