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IDAS

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 280 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IDAS , in See also:

Greek See also:legend, son of Aphareus of the royal See also:house of See also:Messene, See also:brother of Lynceus. He is only mentioned in a single passage in See also:Homer (Iliad, ix. 556 sqq.), where he is called the strongest of men on See also:earth. He carried off Marpessa, daughter of Evenus, as his wife and dared to See also:bend his See also:bow against See also:Apollo, who was also her suitor. See also:Zeus intervened, and See also:left the choice to Marpessa, who declared in favour of Idas, fearing that the See also:god might See also:desert her when she See also:grew old (See also:Apollodorus i. 7). The Apharetidae are best known for their fight with the Dioscuri. 1 See also:Governor Shoup resigned in See also:December to take his seat in the U.S. See also:Senate. A See also:quarrel had arisen about the See also:division of a See also:herd of See also:cattle which the four had stolen. Idas claimed the whole of the See also:booty as the See also:victor in a contest of eating, and drove the cattle off to Messene. The Dioscuri overtook him and See also:lay in wait in a hollow See also:oak.

But Lynceus, whose keenness of sight was proverbial, saw See also:

Castor through the See also:trunk and warned his brother, who thereupon slew the mortal Castor; finally, See also:Pollux slew Lynceus, and Idas was struck by See also:lightning (Apollodorus iii. I1; See also:Pindar, Nem., x. 6o; See also:Pausanias iv. 3. 1). According to others, the Dioscuri had carried off the daughters of Leucippus, who had been betrothed to the Apharetidae (See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, v. 699; See also:Theocritus xxii. 137). The See also:scene of the combat is placed near the See also:grave of Aphareus at Messene, at Aphidna in See also:Attica, or in See also:Laconia; and there are other See also:variations of detail in the accounts (see also See also:Hyginus, Fab. 8o). Idas and Lynceus were originally gods of See also:light, probably the See also:sun and See also:moon, the herd of cattle (for the See also:possession of which they strove with the Dioscuri) representing the heavenly bodies. The annihilation of the Apharetidae in the legend indicates the subordinate position held by the Messenians after the loss of their See also:independence and subjugation by See also:Sparta, the Dioscuri being distinctly Spartan, as the Apharetidae were Messenian heroes.

The grave of Idas and Lynceus was shown at Sparta, according to Pausanias (iii. 13. 1), whose own See also:

opinion, however, is that they were buried in See also:Messenia. On the See also:chest of Cypselus, Marpessa is represented as following Idas from the See also:temple of Apollo (by whom, according to some, she had been carried off), and there was a See also:painting by See also:Polygnotus of the See also:rape of the Leucippidae in the temple of the Dioscuri at See also:Athens, In the See also:article GREEK See also:ART, fig. 66 (Pl. iv.) represents Idas and the Dioscuri See also:driving off cattle.

End of Article: IDAS

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