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In doing this, to my thinking, this Cleisthenes was imitating his own mother's father, Cleisthenes the tyrant of Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon, 1 for Cleisthenes, after going to war with the Argives, made an end of minstrels' contests at Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon by reason of the Homeric poems, in which it is the Argives and Argos [22.7333,37.6417] (Perseus) Argos which are primarily the theme of the songs. Furthermore, he conceived the desire to cast out from the land Adrastus son of Talaus, the hero whose shrine stood then as now in the very marketplace of Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon because he was an Argive.
In doing this, to my thinking, this Cleisthenes was imitating his own mother's father, Cleisthenes the tyrant of Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon, 1 for Cleisthenes, after going to war with the Argives, made an end of minstrels' contests at Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon by reason of the Homeric poems, in which it is the Argives and Argos [22.7333,37.6417] (Perseus) Argos which are primarily the theme of the songs. Furthermore, he conceived the desire to cast out from the land Adrastus son of Talaus, the hero whose shrine stood then as now in the very marketplace of Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon because he was an Argive.
[2] He went then to
Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi, and asked the oracle if he should cast
Adrastus out, but the priestess said in response: “
Adrastus is king of
Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon, and you but a stone thrower.” When the god would not permit him to do as he wished in this matter, he returned home and attempted to devise some plan which might rid him of
Adrastus. When he thought he had found one, he sent to
Boeotian Thebes saying that he would gladly bring
Melanippus son of
Astacus into his country, and the
Thebans handed him over.
[3] When
Cleisthenes had brought him in, he consecrated a sanctuary for him in the government house itself, where he was established in the greatest possible security. Now the reason why
Cleisthenes brought in
Melanippus, a thing which I must relate, was that
Melanippus was
Adrastus' deadliest enemy, for
Adrastus had slain his brother
Mecisteus and his son-in-law
Tydeus.
[4] Having then designated the precinct for him,
Cleisthenes took away all
Adrastus' sacrifices and festivals and gave them to
Melanippus. The
Sicyonians had been accustomed to pay very great honor to
Adrastus because the country had once belonged to
Polybus, his maternal grandfather, who died without an heir and bequeathed the kingship to him.
[5] Besides other honors paid to
Adrastus by the
Sicyonians, they celebrated his lamentable fate with tragic choruses in honor not of
Dionysus but of
Adrastus.
Cleisthenes, however, gave the choruses back to
Dionysus and the rest of the worship to
Melanippus.
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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