APPENDIX 16

PHEIDON(S) OF ARGOS, §127.3

1 Each statement about Pheidon in §127.3 is controversial: his date, his introduction of measures, and his interference with the Olympics. We can say with fair certainty that his son Lacedas was not a suitor for Agariste, though when he did rule is not agreed (infra). From Plut De Cap 89e and Paus 2.19.2 we infer that Pheidon was suc- ceeded by his son Lacedas and then grandson Meltas, the last king.1 Meltas’ rule must have ended by the mid sixth century, because inscriptions show that an aristocratic government was in post by then.2 It is thus unrealistic to have Pheidon still alive even in 575, Lacedas unwed, but able to father Meltas on some other lady shortly afterwards, and then for him and then an adult Meltas both to rule before the end of the monarchy by c550; irrespective of the possi- ble need to accommodate the other two kings in n. 1.3 Although is our earliest source, on this point he is reporting a story, not history, and is not to be followed.

2 Almost every reference to Pheidon speaks of him as a strong king with expansionist aims, but we are offered a wide spread of dates. Apart from the floruit of c575 of §127.3, we are offered 895 in Mar Par FGrH 239 A30; the 8th Olympiad, 748, by Paus 6.22.2; Nic Dam FGrH 90 F35 says that Pheidon was killed while supporting one side in a stasis at Corinth, arguably connected with

1 Plutarch spells the name “Lacydas”, but he is identified with Herodotus’ Leocedes (the Ionian spelling) and Lacedas, father of Meltas in Pausanias. Paus 2.36.4 and 4.35.2 names two other apparently late kings, Eratos and Damocratidas, not oth- erwise attested; it is hard to know if they are historical or how they fit into any reconstructed royal line. 2 See Appx 15 n. 19. 3 Despite the valiant efforts of Kelly (1976) chap 6 to make the Pheidon of §127.3 the king. Nor can we save Herodotus by making Lacedas a posthumous son of Pheidon (in which case he would be king, not the son of the king); at all events if we accept Caranos as his younger brother (infra). We might just save him by mak- ing Lacedas a middle aged widower, Meltas his son by his deceased wife, and giv- ing both him and Meltas short reigns between c570 and c550. 590 appendix 16 establishing himself as c657. Argive kings were said to be descended from Temenos, and therefore (Appx 15 n. 7 for the Argive claim to the lot of Temenos; cf Appx 23). Ephoros FGrH 70 F115 = Strabo 8.3.33 made him tenth generation from Temenos, with no intermediate names. The Byzantine Syncellus accessed a complete stemma for his son Caranos, said to be ancestor of Macedonian kings, who were therefore entitled to compete in the Olympic games; cf Paus 9.40.8. We have it as DS 7.17 and Theopomp FGrH 115 F393. Curiously, it makes Pheidon tenth from Heracles on inclusive reckoning; perhaps Ephoros confused Heracles and Temenos.4 If historical, Caranos would be a younger son of Pheidon; his elder son was Lacedas (para 1).

3 Placing a historical Pheidon in archaic Argos depends on how we reconstruct her early history, and also decide what he actually did. For the first see Appx 15 n. 33. No solution to what Pheidon did is completely satisfactory, but there is a good deal to be said for the mid sixth century because (a) the seventh century is early on in the recovery of Greece in general from the Dark Ages, and Argos in particular, for a strong expansionist king: on that see the discus- sion in Kelly (1976) 73–93, including his reasons for rejecting an early date at 94–111; (b) while the specific date of the Mar Par, supra, is unrealistic, it makes him junior to Hesiod and Homer; and (c) his death as reported by Nic Dam is plausible; (d) a tyranny is more consistent with the sixth century; Arist Pol 1310b26–8 says that he started as king and became tyrant, perhaps a rationalisation of the traditions. The interference at Olympia is also in Ephoros F115, supra, who says that he united the lot of Temenos and took over Olympia. As Ephoros has just spoken of the games being founded as a joint enterprise by Heraclids and Oxylos, he was possibly jus- tifying Pheidon’s actions because he was a Heraclid.5 Paus 6.22.2

4 The stemma from Heracles to Temenos is the same as the non-Herodotean stemma for his brother Aristodemos: see on §52.1. Mar Par FGrH 239 A30 makes him 11th from Heracles, which would add another generation before or after Temenos. Beware Shaw (2003) 129 n. 276, who has Theopompos make Pheidon 10th generation from Temenos (correct at 92). Herodotus knows that the Macedonian kings are Temenids, but does not know Caranos: 8.137. 5 It suggests that Ephoros’ source was an early Argolika, which gave Pheidon credit for recovering the whole lot of Temenos, and justified his Olympic coup because he was a Heraclid (as if to meet the negative perception of other Greeks reflected in