Aristodemus

Aristodemus, in Greek mythology, was one of the Heraclids (descendants and heirs of Heracles). Son of Aristomachus, brother of Cresfontes and Temenus, and great-great-grandson of Heracles, he initiated the fifth and final assault of his dynasty on Mycenae and the Peloponnese.

Aristodemus and his brothers complained to the oracle at Delphi that his instructions to the Heraclids to recapture the Peloponnese had proved fatal to those who followed them. Many years before, the oracle had ordered his great-grandfather Hilo to attack through the narrow pass at the arrival of the third harvest. Hilo then waited three years and attacked through the Isthmus of Corinto, but was defeated and killed. The oracle's reply was that the "third harvest" did not mean the third year, but the third generation; and that the “narrow pass” was not the Isthmus of Corinth, but the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, where the sea narrows the most.

Aristodemus, helped by his brothers, then built a fleet in Naupactus, but before setting sail he was struck down by Apollo, who also destroyed the fleet as punishment for the murder of a soothsayer at the hands of one of the Heraclids. Consulted the oracle again by Témeno, brother of Aristodemus, he demanded an expiatory sacrifice and the banishment of the murderer for ten years. He also ordered that a man with three eyes be found as a guide for the expedition. Back in Naupactus, Témeno ran into a one-eyed Aetolian named Óxilo, mounted on a mule (according to other versions it is the mule that is one-eyed), which gave a total of three eyes. He immediately took it to his service.

The Heraclids repaired the ships, sailed from Naupactus to the Gulf of Corinth and finally entered the Peloponnese. After defeating and killing Tisámeno, son of Orestes, who ruled the entire peninsula, they became virtual masters of the Peloponnese. The territory was then divided into lots: Argos fell to Temenus, Lacedaemon to Procles and Eurysthenes, twin sons of Aristodemus and his wife, Argia, (who founded the double Spartan royal dynasty of the Europontids and the Agiads), and Messenia to Cresfontes. The fertile district of Elis was reserved for Oxilo.

The presumed descendants of the Heraclids ruled Lacedaemon until 221 BC. C., but they had disappeared long before in the other regions. This conquest of the Peloponnese by the Dorians, commonly called the "Return of the Heraclids", was presented as the recovery of their legitimate rights to the inheritance of the ancestor hero by their descendants. The Dorians followed the custom of other Greek tribes to claim legendary heroes as ancestors of their ruling families, but this custom should not be seen as purely mythical. It recreates the joint invasion of the Peloponnese by the Aetolians and Dorians, the latter having been displaced from their northern settlements under pressure from the Thessalians. It should be noted that there is no mention of the Heraclids or their invasion in Homer or Hesiod. Herodotus (VI, 52) speaks of poets who have celebrated their exploits, but these are limited to events immediately after Heracles' death. The Greek tragedians were the first to expand the story, for which they were inspired, most likely, by local legends glorifying the services rendered by Athens to the rulers of the Peloponnese.

Fonts

• Apoldore: II, 8.
• Diodore Sculle: IV, 57-58.
• Pauses: I, 32, 41; II, 13, 18; III, 1; IV, 3; V, 3.
• Euripides: The Hierarchy.
• Píndaro: Policy IX, 137.
• Herodote: IX, 27.