Note 37 — Chapter XVIII · CLOSING EVENTS OF LEGENDARY GREECE.—PERIOD OF INTERMEDIATE DARKNESS, BEFORE THE DAWN OF HISTORICAL GREECE.

Strabo, ix. 411-435; Homer, Iliad, ii. 696; Hekatæus, Fr. 338, Didot.

The fragment from Alkæus (cited by Strabo, but briefly, and with a mutilated text,) serves only to identify the river and the town.

Itônus was said to be son of Amphiktyôn, and Bœôtus son of Itônus (Pausan. ix. 1, 1. 34, 1: compare Steph. Byz. v. Βοιωτία) by Melanippê. By another legendary genealogy (probably arising after the name Æolic had obtained footing as the class-name for a large section of Greeks, but as old as the poet Asius, Olympiad 30), the eponymous hero Bœôtus was fastened on to the great lineage of Æolus, through the paternity of the god Poseidôn, either with Melanippê or with Arnê, daughter of Æolus (Asius, Fr. 8, ed. Düntzer; Strabo, vi. p. 265; Diodôr. v. 67; Hellanikus ap. Schol. Iliad. ii 494). Two lost plays of Euripidês were founded on the misfortunes of Melanippê, and her twin children by Poseidôn,—Bœôtus and Æolus (Hygin. Fab. 186; see the Fragments of Μελανίππη Σοφὴ and Μελανίππη Δεσμῶτις in Dindorf’s edition, and the instructive comments of Welcker; Griech. Tragöd. vol. ii. pp. 840-860).