ed to decide his claims by single combat, the
conditions being, that if he were victorious, he and his brothers should
obtain undisputed possession of their rights; but if defeated, the
Heraclidae were to desist for fifty years from attempting to press their
claim.

The challenge was accepted by Echemon, king of Tegea, and Hyllus lost his
life in the encounter, whereupon the sons of Heracles, in virtue of their
agreement, abandoned the Peloponnesus and retired to Marathon.

Hyllus was succeeded by his son Cleodaeus, who, at the expiration of the
appointed time, collected a large army and invaded the Peloponnesus; but he
was not more successful than his father had been, and perished there with
all his forces.

Twenty years later his son Aristomachus consulted an oracle, which promised
him victory if he went by way of the defile. The Heraclidae once more set
out, but were again defeated, and Aristomachus shared the fate of his
father and grandfather, and fell on the field of battle.

When, at the expiration of thirty years, the sons of Aristomachus, Temenus,
Cresphontes, and Aristodemus again consulted the oracle, the answer was
still the same; but this time the following explanation accompanied the
response: the third fruit signified the third generation, to which they
themselves belonged, and not the third fruit of the earth; and by the
defile was indicated, not the isthmus of Corinth, but the straits on the
right of the isthmus.

{283}

Temenus lost no time in collecting an army and building ships of war; but
just as all was ready and the fleet about to sail, Aristodemus, the
youngest of the brothers, was struck by lightning. To add to their
misfortunes, Hippolytes, a descendant of Heracles, who had joined in the
expedition, killed a soothsayer whom he mistook for a spy, and the gods, in
their displeasure, sent violent tempests, by means of which the entire
fleet was destroyed, whilst famine and pestilence decimated the ranks of
the army.

The oracle, on being again consulted, advised that Hippolytes, being the
offender, should be banished from the country for ten years, and that the
command of the troops should be delegated to a man having three eyes. A
search was at once instituted by the Heraclidae for a man answering to this
description, who was found at length in the person of Oxylus, a descendant
of the AEtolian race of kings. In obedience to the command of the oracle,
Hippolytes was banished, an army and