EXILE OF THE HERAKLEIDS. 95 recover the possessions from which they had been expelled. The united forces of lonians, Achseans, and Arcadians, then inhabit- ing Peloponnesus, met the invaders at the isthmus, when Hyllos, the eldest of the sons of Herakles, proposed that the contest should be determined by a single combat between himself and any champion of the opposing army. It was agreed, that if Hyllos were victorious, the Herakleids should be restored to their possessions if he were vanquished, that they should forego all claim for the space of a hundred years, or fifty years, or three generations, for in the specification of the time, accounts differ. Echemos, the hero of Tegea in Arcadia, ac- cepted the challenge, and Hyllos was slain in the encounter ; iu consequence of which the Herakleids retired, and resided along with the Dorians under the protection of JEgimios, son of Dorus. 1 As soon as the stipulated period of truce had expired, they renewed their attempt upon Peloponnesus conjointly with the Dorians, and with complete success : the great Dorian establish- ments of Argos, Sparta, and Messenia were the result. The details of this victorious invasion will be hereafter recounted. Sikyon, Phlios, Epidauros, and Trrezen 2 all boasted of respected eponyms arid a genealogy of dignified length, not exempt from the usual discrepancies but all just as much entitled to a place on the tablet of history as the more renowned JEolids or Herakleids. I omit them here because I wish to impress upon the reader's mind the salient features and character of the legendary world, not to load his memory with a full list of legendary names. 1 Herodot. ix. 26 ; Diodor. iv. 58.
- Pausan. ii. 5, 5 ; 12, 5 ; 26, 3. His statements indicate how much the
predominance of a powerful neighbor like Argos tended < alter the genea.1 ogies of these inferior towns.
