ATHAMANTIDS AT ALOS. 127 not called into practical working, except during periods of intense national suffering or apprehension, during which the religious sensibilities were always greatly aggravated. We cannot at all doubt, that during the alarm created by the presence of the Per- sian king with his immense and ill-disciplined host, the minds of the Thessalians must have been keenly alive to alt that was ter- rific in their national stories, and all that was expiatory in their religious solemnities. Moreover, the mind of Xerxes himself was so awe-struck by the tale, that he reverenced the dwelling-place consecrated to Athamas. The guides who recounted to him the romantic legend, gave it as the historical and generating cause of the existing rule and practice: a critical inquirer is forced (as has been remarked before) to reverse the order of precedence, and to treat the practice as having been the suggesting cause of its own explanatory legend. The family history of Athamas, and the worship of Zeus Laphystios, are expressly connected by Herodotus with Alos in Achaea Phthiotis one of the towns enumerated in the Iliad as under the command of Achilles. But there was also a mountain called Laphystion, and a temple and worship of Zeus Laphystios between Orchomenos and Koroneia, in the northern portion of the territory known in the historical ages as Bceotia. Here alsc the family story of Athamas is localized, and Athamas is pre- sented to us as king of the districts of Koroneia, Haliartus and Mount Laphystion : he is thus interwoven with the Orchomenian genealogy. 1 Andreas (we are told), son of the river Peneios, was the first person Avho settled in the region: from him it received the name Andreis. Athamas, coming subsequently to Andreus, received from him the territory of Koroneia and Haliar tus with Mount Laphystion : he gave in marriage to Andreus, Euippe, daughter of his son Leucon, and the issue of this mar- riage was Eteokles, said to be the son of the river Kephisos. Koronos and Haliartus, grandsons of the Corinthian Sisyphus, were adopted by Athamas, as he had lost all his children : but when his grandson Presbon, son of Phryxus, returned to him from Kolchis, he divided his territory in such manner that Koronos and Haliartus became the founders of the towns which 1 Pausan. ix. 34, 4.
