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Achaea has been called a region in southern
Thessaly, and also the northern coast of the
Peloponnesus. Those who marched against
Troy were called Achaeans,
and sometimes Argives for
living in Argolis.
The Achaeans came originally from Thessaly, in
mainland Greece, and settled in
Argos and Lacedaemon
(southern Peloponnesus). Having mingled with the
Danaans (ruled by Danaus 1 and his descendants)
they lived there until the return of the
HERACLIDES. The
mingling of Achaeans and Danaans is described
through the marriages of two sons of Achaeus 1
(from whom the Achaeans derive their name) with two
daughters of Danaus 1, otherwise known as father of
the DANAIDS.
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Thessalian Achaea and the eponym of the Achaeans
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Thessalian Achaea is the land later known by the
names of Phthiotis and Hellas, and both this
territory and Peloponnesian Achaea own their names
to Achaeus 1, son of Xuthus 1, brother of
Aeolus 1 and son of
Hellen 1, son of
Deucalion 1, the man
who survived the Flood.
And yet some have said that Achaea was named after
Achaeus 2, son of
Poseidon and Larisa 1,
the woman after whom the citadel of
Argos and two cities in
Thessaly were named.
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Peloponnesian Achaea
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Peloponnesian Achaea is the narrow strip of land
which extends along the Gulf of
Corinth, bordering
Arcadia on the south and
Elis on the southwest.
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First ruler in the region
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The first to rule in this region was Aegialeus
2, son of the river god Inachus and the Oceanid
Melia; he became king in the adjacent district of
Sicyonia, founding a city and calling the land
Aegialus after himself.
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Xuthus 1 expelled twice
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In the meantime, Xuthus 1 was expelled from
Thessaly by his brothers. He first settled in
Athens, where he married
Creusa 1, daughter of King Erechtheus. When the
king died, Xuthus 1, who by then had become
influential in Athens,
was asked to decide who among the sons of
Erechtheus should succeed him in the throne. Xuthus
1 then appointed Cecrops 2 as the successor of
Erechtheus, and thereby he won the enmity of the
other sons of Erechtheus, being banished by them
from the city. That is how Xuthus 1 came as an
exile to Aegialus, where he made his home and died.
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Achaeus 1 recovers southern Tessaly
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Xuthus 1's son Achaeus 1 gathered troops from
both Aegialus and Athens
and with them he campaigned against the southern
Thessalians, recovering his father's rights and
becoming king in Phthiotis.
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Ion 1 inherits
Peloponnesian Achaea
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Xuthus 1's other son Ion
1 waged instead war against King Selinus, who
had inherited and enlarged the kingdom of Aegialeus
2. As this war was taking place, Selinus offered
Ion 1 his daughter Helice
2, proposing to adopt him as son and successor.
Ion 1 accepted this
proposal, married Helice 2; in time he succeeded
Selinus in the throne, founded a city Helice and
called the inhabitants of his realm Ionians. When
war between Athens and
Eleusis broke up,
Ion 1 was invited by the
Athenians to be their leader in the war and he died
in the battlefield. His descendants continued to
rule the territory (Achaea) and were called
Ionians.
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Achaeans in Argolis
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But then Achaeans were called those who lived in
Argolis. For the sons of Achaeus 1—Architeles
1 and Archander—came to
Argos and married the
daughters of Danaus 1, Automate and Scaea. And as
they and their descendants came to rule cities both
in Argos and Lacedaemon,
the inhabitants were named Achaeans because of
their common ancestor Achaeus 1.
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Achaeans expelled
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However, when after the
Trojan War the
HERACLIDES invaded
the Peloponnesus—claiming that their rulers,
being descended from Pelops
1, were usurpers—the Achaeans were forced
to leave Argolis.
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Achaean proposal to the Ionians
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The ruler of both Argives and Achaeans at the
time was Tisamenus 2, who inherited the throne of
Orestes 2, son
Agamemnon, son of
Atreus, son of
Pelops 1. Not being able
to resist the attack of the
HERACLIDES, Tisamenus
2 sent heralds to the Ionians asking for permission
to settle among them without warfare. The Ionians,
however, rejected the proposal, fearing that
Tisamenus 2, because of his lineage and power,
would become their king.
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War between Achaeans and Ionians
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For that reason, a war broke up between the
Achaeans, led by Tisamenus 2, and the Ionians. The
latter were defeated, but Tisamenus 2 was killed in
battle, though others say that he was killed on
another occasion by the
HERACLIDES.
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Achaeans settle in Achaea and Ionians in Attica
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This is how the Achaeans settled in Achaea, and
the Ionians, having been expelled from their
country, were forced to emigrate, coming first to
Attica, where they were allowed to settle by King
Melanthus 1 of Athens.
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The Ionians after
losing their land
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Melanthus 1
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Now Melanthus 1—son of Andropompus 1, son
of Borus 3, son of Penthilus 2, son of Periclymenus
1, son of Neleus—,
had himself, in these times of convulsion, been
expelled from Messenia
by the HERACLIDES
Temenus 2 and Cresphontes. He then came to
Athens and deposed King
Thymoetes 2, who is said to have been the last of
the Athenian kings descended from
Theseus; Thymoetes 2 was
son of Oxyntes.
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Ionians allowed to settle in Attica
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So, having thus conquered a new kingdom,
Melanthus 1 now allowed the Ionians to settle in
Attica, hoping that their presence would
strenghthen Athens'
defences against the
HERACLIDES. But
others have said that this was not the only reason,
for there had always been goodwill between the
Athenians and the Ionians, on account of the help
the former received from Ion
1 in the war Athens
fought against Eleusis.
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Codrus 1
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Melanthus 1 was succeeded as king of
Athens by his son Codrus
1, and while the latter was king, the
HERACLIDES did attack
Athens as Melanthus 1 had
feared, but they accomplished nothing, except that
Codrus 1 was killed in battle.
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Medon 11
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After the king's death his sons quarrelled for
the throne and the dispute had to be settled by the
oracle of Delphi, which
appointed Medon 11 as king.
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Ionians emigrate to Asia Minor
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When the throne succession was decided, Neileus
and the rest of the sons of Codrus 1 set out to
found a colony in Asia Minor, taking with them
anyone who wished to go. But the majority of those
who emigrated were the Ionians who had settled in
Attica during the rule of Melanthus 1 and who now
left Athens led by
Messenians, for that was the origin of Melanthus 1.
In this way the Ionians came to Caria in Asia
Minor, and led by the sons of Codrus 1 they founded
some cities and conquered others.
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[The story continues at
Ionia]
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