Echemus, son of Aeropus of the Aleid line, was the Arcadian king of Tegea who in single combat slew Hyllus, son of Heracles, and so turned back the first attempt of the Heraclidae to return to the Peloponnese.1
When Lycurgus, who had outlived both his sons and reached extreme old age, died, the kingship of the Arcadians passed to Echemus, son of Aeropus, son of Cepheus, son of Aleus. He was thus of the Aleid house of Tegea, his nearest line-founder being Aleus, with Cepheus and his father Aeropus the links between.2
In Echemus' reign the Dorians made their first attempt to return to the Peloponnese under the leadership of Hyllus, son of Heracles. They were defeated, and the decisive act was a single combat: Echemus the Tegean met Hyllus in a duel and overcame him in the fight. Pausanias saw the duel commemorated at Tegea itself, where he viewed the house of Aleus, the tomb of Echemus, and the fight of Echemus and Hyllus carved in relief upon a slab.3
The memory of the duel reached beyond Arcadia. At Megara, near an altar of Achelous, stood the tomb of Hyllus, son of Heracles, who had fought the Arcadian Echemus, son of Aeropus; Pausanias places the encounter at the boundary between Megara and Corinth. By slaying Hyllus, Echemus stayed the Heraclid return for a generation, until their descendants at last came down into the Peloponnese.4
Echemus married into the Spartan royal line, taking Timandra, a daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, whose sisters were Clytaemnestra, wife of Agamemnon, and Phylonoe, whom Artemis made immortal.5
The line of Echemus did not end with him: a suburb of Megalopolis on the road to Tegea was called Ladoceia after Ladocus, the son of Echemus, and after his reign the Tegean kingship passed to Agapenor, son of Ancaeus, son of Lycurgus, who led the Arcadians to Troy.6
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