Prevod

1. Lynceus, who ruled over Argos after Danaus, had a son, Abas, by Hypermnestra. Abas and Aglaia, daughter of Mantineus, had twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus. These two quarreled with each other even while still in the womb, and when they grew up, they fought over the kingdom. In the course of their warfare, they were the first to invent shields. Acrisius prevailed and drove Proetus out of Argos. Proetus went to Lycia, to Iobates—or, as some say, to Amphianax—and married his daughter, whom Homer calls Antia, but the tragic poets Stheneboea. His father-in-law brought him back with an army of Lycians, and he took possession of Tiryns, which the Cyclopes fortified for him. Thus the brothers divided the whole of Argive territory between them and settled there, Acrisius reigning over Argos and Proetus over Tiryns.

2. Acrisius had a daughter, Danae, by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon; Proetus had three daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboea. When these girls came of age, they went mad: according to Hesiod, because they refused to accept the rites of Dionysus; according to Acusilaus, because they treated Hera’s wooden image with contempt. In their madness they wandered throughout Argive territory, then passed through Arcadia and the Peloponnese, running through the wilderness in utter disorder. Melampus, son of Amythaon and Idomene, daughter of Abas, was a seer and the first to discover how to heal with drugs and purifications. He promised to cure the maidens if he received a third of the kingdom. But Proetus refused to let him treat them for so great a reward, and the maidens’ madness grew worse; the other women, too, went mad along with them. They abandoned their homes, killed their own children, and roamed the wilderness. As the calamity spread ever further, Proetus agreed to pay the reward demanded. But Melampus now promised to cure them only if his brother Bias received an equal share of the land. Fearing that any further delay in the treatment might bring still greater demands, Proetus agreed to these terms. Melampus took the strongest of the young men and, with shouting and a kind of divinely inspired dance, drove the women from the mountains to Sicyon. During the pursuit Iphinoe, the eldest of the daughters, died; the others were purified and recovered their sanity. Proetus gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias, and later had a son, Megapenthes.