4. After what has been said, we will forbear to apologize for merely offering a few remarks on the origin and meaning of the traditions which concern the Doric migration, instead of endeavouring to give a history of that event. And, indeed, we might bring forward some most marvellous legends, but on that very account the better fitted to convince every one what is the nature of the ground on which we stand.
In the Ἠοῖαι attributed to Hesiod, it was stated that Polycaon the son of Butes, whose name represents the ancient (_i.e._ Lelegean) population of Messene, married Euæchme (Εὐαίχμη, viz. _celebrated for the spear_) the daughter of Hyllus, and grand-daughter of Hercules. In this simple and unpretending manner the early tradition conveyed the idea that the Hylleans and Dorians had, by the power of the spear, made themselves masters of Messene, and united themselves with the original inhabitants.(196)
In the Laconian village of Abia, there was a temple of Hercules, which was said to have been built by Abia the nurse of Glenus, the brother of Hyllus.(197) It was, therefore, supposed that Hyllus and Glenus themselves came to Laconia. Pausanias endeavours to reconcile the local tradition with the received history, and assumes that Abia had fled hither after the death of Hyllus; which, however, is inconsistent with the common account that Peloponnesus was in the hands of the enemy, and that the battle in which Hyllus fell was at the Isthmus. We come now to the common relation of the order of events.
5. According to this account, the Heraclidæ, after the death of their father, were in Trachis with their host Ceyx, who generously protected them for a time, but was afterwards forced, by the threats of Eurystheus, to refuse them any longer refuge; Ceyx, according to Hecatæus,(198) was compelled to say to them, “I have not the power to assist you; withdraw therefore to another nation;” and upon this they sought an asylum in Attica. Those early historians, however, who stated that Hercules died as king in Mycenæ, gave an entirely different account of this circumstance, viz., that Eurystheus, after the death of Hercules, expelled his sons, and again usurped the dominion,(199) and they fled in consequence to Attica.