4. The rest of this fable, however, entirely loses its symbolical character; viz., the manner in which the birth of several Doric heroes is connected with the taking of Ephyra; who, though out of the confines of history, are nevertheless to be considered as real individuals. In the first place, Hercules is stated to have begotten Tlepolemus on Astyocheia, whom, according to Homer, he carried away from Ephyra, on the river Sellecis, after having destroyed many cities;(1760) Antiphus and Pheidippus also were said to have come from Ephyra in Thesprotia, the sons of Thessalus, and grandsons of Hercules, to whom the noblest families of Thessaly, as well as the Heraclidæ of Cos, referred their origin;(1761) the latter, however, according to another and later tradition, sprang from the union of Hercules and the daughter of Eurypylus in Cos itself.(1762) The origin of this intricate fable appears to be as follows: There were in the ancient country of the Dorians some noble families which referred their origin to the conquest of Ephyra; and these were designated by the names of Tlepolemus, Antiphus, and Pheidippus; those families went with the other Dorians to Peloponnesus, and passed through Argos and Epidaurus to Rhodes and Cos, where they partly new-modelled their original family legends. Now it was always admitted that the Thessalian people came also from Ephyra and Thesprotia; and when it settled among the Greeks, and sought to participate in their traditions, it was natural that Hercules, the conqueror of Ephyra, should be placed at the head of its genealogies.
5. To the combat of Hercules and Pluto at Ephyra we will now annex the legend of Geryoneus. The cattle of Geryoneus and Pluto grazed together in the island of Erytheia;(1763) but they were supposed to belong to the Sun,(1764) and therefore were of a bright red colour. Now Erytheia was anciently believed to be near the kingdom of Hades. For the statement of Hecatæus, that Erytheia and Geryoneus belonged to Epirus and the region of Ambracia,(1765) could not have been owing to an attempt to give to mythology an appearance of reality: but he seems to have availed himself of some real tradition. This is certain, from the datum of Scylax, who would never have laid down Erytheia in his Periplus(1766) on the authority of a logographer. According to this writer it is situated between the territory of the Atintanes and the Ceraunian mountains, north of Epirus, on the borders of Greece, at no great distance from the earliest seats of the Dorians. Now it is a remarkable fact, that, even in historical times, there were in the same country, viz., near the Aous, a river running from mount Lacmon, herds sacred to the Sun, which were guarded in the daytime on the banks of that river, and in the night in a cave of the mountain, by men whom the inhabitants of the Greek city of Apollonia intrusted with this office as a particular honour.(1767) It is not probable that the Corinthians, who founded Apollonia, should have been the first to introduce this usage, although there are traces of an ancient worship of the Sun in the territory of Corinth;(1768) but we may fairly assume that the colonists merely retained a native custom. This hypothesis clears away all difficulty. The empire of Hades on this earth was conterminous with a district in which the worship of the Sun prevailed, and which contained innumerable herds of cattle, under the protection of the god; but the Greek hero, little caring for their sanctity, had driven them away, and devoted them to _his own_ gods. Epirus was always distinguished for its excellent breed of cattle, which were said to have sprung from the herds of Geryoneus, which Hercules offered to the Dodonæan Zeus.(1769)