2. The further extension of the Doric power is, however, attributed not to Temenus, but to his sons; for such the Doric tradition calls Ceisus, Cerynes, Phalces, and Agræus or Agæus.(291) Of these, Ceisus is represented to have governed at Argos, and Phalces to have gone to SICYON. The ancient Meconè or Sicyon had in early times been in the power of the Ionians, and afterwards subject to the Achæans of Argos. The very copious mythology of this ancient city contains symbolical and historical elements of the most various nature: we will only touch upon a part of the story immediately preceding the Doric invasion. Phæstus, a son of Hercules, is stated to have been king of Argos before that event; and having gone to Crete, where he founded the town of his name,(292) to have been succeeded by his descendants Rhopalus, Hippolytus, and Lacestades, the last of whom lived on terms of friendship with Phalces. Between them, however, Zeuxippus, a son of Apollo and of the nymph Hyllis,(293) is placed. We here perceive the traces of a connexion between Phæstus in Crete, and the introduction of the worship of Apollo and Hercules; this tradition, however, cannot authorise us to draw any chronological inferences.
3. Whether PHLIUS (situated in a corner of Arcadia, in a beautiful valley, whence arise the four sources of the Asopus(294)) was founded from Sicyon or Argos, was a matter of contention between these two towns: the latter simply called Phlias the son of Ceisus.(295) This _Phlias_, however, is nothing else than the country personified; the name being derived from φλέω or φλιδάω, and signifying “damp,” or “abounding in springs,” which appellation was fully merited by the nature of the spot. Hence Phlias was with more reason called the son of Dionysus (Φλεὺς, Φλεὼν), who loved to dwell in such valleys. There is, therefore, greater probability in the account of the Sicyonians, that Phalces and Rhegnidas were the founders of the Doric dominion;(296) it being moreover easier to force a way to Phliasia from Sicyon along the Asopus, than from Argos. It is known, that Pythagoras the Samian derived his origin from a certain Hippasus, who had quitted Phlius on that occasion; and the Ionic town of Clazomenæ is said to have been partly founded by some inhabitants of Cleonæ and Phliasia, who had been expelled by the Dorians;(297) from which two facts we are justified in inferring the existence of a connexion between the early inhabitants of these places and the Ionians. CLEONÆ, situated in a narrow valley, where the mountains open towards Corinth, and bordering upon Phlius, appears from this account to have been colonised at the same time with that town, but probably from Argos. For we find that the ruling power was there in the hands of the same Heraclide family, of which a branch went from Argos to Epidaurus.(298)